Was he really ready after DiCicco? I honestly don't know what his pre-Charge career was. I really wanted to see Krikorian or Stone get the job after Heinrichs and the dissolution of the WUSA in 2003.
Arnim retweeted something of Billie Jean King on Twitter. Thank you for the kind words. But the reason the 11 highest paid women athletes are all tennis players is because in 1971, Gladys Heldman, Joseph Cullman of Philip Morris, tournament owners, & the Original 9 all believed in the future of women’s tennis! https://t.co/CA1gzxwN5o— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) August 15, 2019 There's a lesson in there which 90% of women's soccer fans who post on the internet still, astoundingly, need to hear.
I'm keeping an eye on the NWSL rookies. Here are the five that seem likely to be the candidates for rookie of the year in approximate order of their possibilities -- although with one-third of the season remaining somebody else could still come to the fore. 1. Sam Staab-- Was. 1,530 minutes played. You can't discount a center back who has played every minute of every game for Washington. If none of the other candidates shine in the remainder of the season, she may be the pick. 2. Jordan DeBiasi -- Was. 1,251 minutes played. Four goals is remarkable for a rookie central midfielder. Probably the favorite for rookie of the year, but I get the feeling she's in a slump at present. 3. Paige Monaghan -- SB. 1,241 minutes played. After her 2 quality goals and likely player of the week performance on Wednesday, she's now in the conversation for rookie of the year, but she has to score 2 or 3 more goals in the remainder of the season to be a contender. 4. Bethany Balcer -- Sea. 1,146 minutes played. 3 goals and 1 assist. She started strong but hasn't scored in a while. She needs to step up her offensive game to be a contender. 5. Gabby Seiler -- Por. 1,123 minutes played. Being a starter for Portland in her rookie season is no small accomplishment, but she has to attract more notice by doing good things in the remainder of the season. Comments? Criticism? Objections?
I'd say that the RotY award is wide open at the moment... All five are good candidates, but none of them are great candidates right now. DeBiasi and Balcer haven't done much in a while; Monaghan hasn't done much until now; Staab and Seiler have the disbenefit of playing in a position that rarely gets noticed for awards (and neither are in the convo to DotY, which would get them more noticed as really good rookies).
The NC Courage reserves are playing the Lyon reserves today and holding their own so far: UNC and Lyon reserves 2-2 at halftime of scrimmage. Lyon better of play but still impressive against the likes of Shanice van de Sanden, Izzy Christiansen, Saki Kumagai and Delphine Cascarino. UNC’s Brianna Pinto with the goal of the day so far.— Graham Hays (@grahamhays) August 16, 2019
Great news, NWSL expanding its relationship with ESPN. http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/arti...l-womens-soccer-league-regular-season-matches Hopefully it leads to an an extended multi-year TV deal with ESPN.
I have seen Balcer every game and the others just a few times, so this won't be completely balanced. Seiler and DeBiasi both played like veteran starters and i was impressed, especially with the way DeBiasi seemed to be involved in everything. I didn't notice Staab, but that's kind of what you want from a center back. Monaghan blew me away when SkyBlue were here, i thought she was spectacular, and this was before the brace this weekend. She was the standout player (for both teams) in that game. Hard worker, fast, wins duals. In my book she's on the short list. Balcer has been amazing, and not just the scoring, which we needed and she does well. She's great on the ball, she's brave... fearless... going into heavy traffic, she sees the field like a player much older, she's fast and she works her butt off. But above all that, above the goals, her passing is astonishing. She constantly attempts brazen passes through multiple bodies and she MAKES HER PASSES. Even without the goals i think she at the top of the list with Monaghan.
Looking now at MVP candidates for the NWSL, I'd say that Nagasoto and Kerr, both of Chicago, are leading the pack.
Only two players have been Player of the Week more than once, Kerr with 5 and Hamilton with 3. Both have also been Player of the Month. Unless Kerr is out for the season with her injury, I don't think anyone else is in the conversation. If Kerr is out, then Hamilton has to be at/near the top of everyone's list.
I do love a good statistical discussion. Your argument about the importance of being named player of the week for MVP consideration is persuasive, although Lindsey Horan was the MVP in 2018 but was only player of the week once. I agree that Sam Kerr is the runaway leader for MVP -- assuming she does reasonably well during the rest of the season -- because the golden boot winner usually is the MVP. My argument that Nagasoto should be in the running for MVP is based on another factor: Key passes, defined as "the final pass leading to a shot at goal from a teammate." Nagasoto has a commanding lead in the NWSL in the number of key passes this year: 45. She also has 5 goals. Thus, Nagasoto has contributed directly to 50 goal scoring opportunities this year for Chicago. Kerr, by contrast, has scored 13 goals and made 25 key passes, thus directly contributing to 38 goal scoring opportunities. Thus, an argument can be made for Nagasoto as the provider being more valuable than Kerr the scorer. You mentioned Hamilton as an MVP candidate. She has 8 goals and 11 key passes, thus contributing to 19 goal scoring opportunities for NC. I recognize that key passes are not the only crucial factor in rating players. Players on teams that take a lot of shots, i.e. North Carolina, will accumulate more key passes than players on teams that don't, for whatever reason, take a lot of shots. However, I'd like to see more credit given given to providers rather than just focusing on goals scored as the principal guide for excellence. Also, my informal count of key passes, as listed per game on the NWSL website, might contain a few, hopefully minor, errors.
I am not sure who actually is the more deserving player in this season so far, because the names that are being discussed here are all outstanding players and it is sometimes very difficult to rank them against each other, especially if they have slightly different roles or styles of play (by the way, it's unfrequent that a DF enters the discussion, although there are very good ones around). It's a fact that Yuki Nagasato is having one of the best seasons of her career (and it's saying something, because we're talking a player that won Frauen-Bundesliga and was top-scorer in it, won the UEFA Women's Champions' League, won a World Cup and a silver Olympic medal and scored in a different World Cup's final, although losing that one). Sorry to sound like a grammar-nazi, @Smallchief, but the exact spelling is Nagasato.
Thanks. I nearly flunked spelling in school, and things haven't gotten any better over the years. You mentioned defenders. I wish there was a way to rate defenders as well as attackers but I haven't found a simple way to do it in any sport.
And I'd like a pony.... (or a defender to have a chance) Right, but it's not rational. The MVP almost always goes to one of the top goal scorers or occasionally a dominant goalkeeper - and the goalkeeper has to have ridiculous stats. Discussing who I think should be MVP and who I think will be MVP are usually two different things.
This year, for MVP, maybe there should be a look at players who were not at the World Cup but were critical in their team doing well while the World Cup players were gone. Maybe one of those players will have been the most valuable this year. (I know, good luck with that one!) It's at least worth hearing who might qualify as that player. I think Midge Purse, for Portland, would be one of them. Hamilton for North Carolina would be another. Balcer for SeaTac? Who else?
Just found an interesting side-story (posted yesterday) to the Spirit's record-breaking Audi Field match: their sponsorships have gone way up this year, particularly after the WWC This is in addition to the deal the Spirit got this year with Monumental Sports for streaming. https://www.bizjournals.com/washing...les-during.html?iana=hpmvp_wash_news_headline
Side note because I'm a stats guy and love looking at numbers... I wanted to take a look at parity in the league, since I've seen chatter online lamenting how, say, the playoffs always seem to be the same four teams each year, or the bottom-feeders aren't changing, etc. And those are valid concerns. At the same time, we've seen this year how NC have been brought back down to earth, plus those bottom-feeders have noticeably turned up the pace since the WWC ended. In fact, here's what I really wanted to show: The table (sorted by PPG) after games played on June 15th: Code: DC --- 2.125 17/8 (5-2-1) -- +8 (13- 5) UTA -- 2.000 16/8 (5-1-2) -- +3 ( 8- 5) POR -- 1.875 15/8 (4-3-1) -- +6 (17-11) HOU -- 1.500 12/8 (3 3 2) -- -1 (10-11) NCC -- 1.444 13/9 (3-4-2) -- +8 (19- 9) CHI -- 1.375 11/8 (3 2 3) -- =0 (13-13) SEA -- 1.375 11/8 (2 5 1) -- -1 ( 8- 9) NJ --- 0.250 2 /8 (0 2 6) -- -7 ( 5-12) ORL -- 0.222 2 /9 (0 2 7) - -16 ( 4-20) Two teams at 2.0PPG or higher, and two teams far and away below 1.0PPG, with a PPG range of 1.903 from top to bottom - almost 2PPG difference itself! So not high parity by that measure - but you'll notice the teams are the top are way different than 2018's playoff teams were. I'd call that "low in-season parity" but "high season-to-season parity". Now, if you subtract that table from the current table, i.e. only look at games played since June 15th, you get: Code: NCC -- 2.250 18/ 8 (6 0 2) -- +8 (13- 8) POR -- 1.909 21/11 (6 3 2) - +11 (22-11) CHI -- 1.636 18/11 (6 0 5) -- +3 (16-13) SEA -- 1.600 16/10 (5 1 4) -- -3 ( 8-11) ORL -- 1.333 12/ 9 (4 0 5) -- -2 (15-17) NJ --- 1.273 14/11 (4 2 5) -- -3 (10-13) UTA -- 1.200 12/10 (3 3 4) -- +1 (11-10) HOU -- 1.000 10/10 (3 1 6) -- -9 ( 8-17) DC --- 0.800 8 /10 (2 2 6) -- -5 ( 9-14) This second table looks a *bit* more like last year's table did, but it's tighter in terms of PPG, especially with the low end closer to 1.0 than to 0.2, plus the non-playoff teams are all shuffled around. I also like ORL has earned as many points as UTA (in one fewer game), while NJ is almost at SEA's level (though one more game). If they hadn't hurt so badly before the WWC, they'd be in the playoff discussion now. And that brings us to the current table, which I like a fair amount since there are only two gaps in the table that are more than 3pts, amounting to the seven gaps between 2nd and 9th being a total of just 17pts - roughly 2.4pts per gap. I'm excited to see how the last month of the season finishes - I would love for the table to remain fairly tight, but we'll see where it goes! Also, I have to give a shout-out to CHI - they got surprised by both NJ and ORL recently as part of an ongoing three-game skid, and yet their PPG since the WWC is still an impressive 1.6+ thanks to beating NCC and SEA earlier. SEA managing to get a 1.6PPG with a -3GD is also impressive.
Now here's something that surprised me: Hellooooo, October. 😍 pic.twitter.com/SnNGFPwOmA— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) October 1, 2019 Fox Soccer has included the NWSL Championship on their October calendar. The NWSL Championship is being shown on ESPN2.
That is mildly interesting considering they usually only advertise their own programming. They must really want to advertise the NWSL to get more exposure to woso fans, even if it's on ESPN. I suppose it doesn't hurt future USWNT broadcasts on their channel either.
Maybe Fox is looking to televise some games and is trying to get their foot in the door? I mean, they do televise WWC games, so why not a few NWSL games?
Everything I've heard, Fox is scaling back on soccer for now and has shown no interest in carrying NWSL.