This is correct. Seems like Orlando panicked and give away the shop for the #3 pick. They could have still gotten a really good player in the first round and kept Hill, the 19th pick, and most importantly the first round pick next year. It would have been moderately better if they had kept the 2021 first rounder and traded another first/second from this year. They had a bunch of picks that they pretty much wasted on a bunch of center backs that they are not going to sign.
Speaking about that, isn't one of the DFs they picked, Konya Plummer, the same one who was seen in Jamaican NT at the last World Cup in France? I ask because, although her NT couldn't be of much help to her since they were mostly outclassed by other teams at that stage and although I seem to remember some piece of more than decent defending by her part in the three matches they played at the WWC vs Brazil, Italy and Australia, I also remember some questionable defending by Plummer in those matches. She's sure still young and a very promising talent, but hardly a player that I would feel comfortable already having as a starter in NWSL. Of course, I didn't follow the college championship enough to assess her overall quality: I basically only saw her play at the World Cup, so I will be glad to stand corrected if people will tell me that the matches she played with her NT weren't actually a meaningful sample of her skills.
Yes she is the same player. Like you I don't follow the college game so don't know much about what she brings to the table. But just based on raw numbers, Orlando already had a bunch of defenders, granted not very good, and they also just traded for Sonnett. So the chances of any rookie starting in that defense on day one is pretty slim. It seems their strategy was to just draft as many CB and evaluate and pick the best one. That to me is a waste because most of these players are not going to make rosters so you will still have access to them during trials.
Y'all never seen Ashley Sanchez play so can we just stop the judgements and let her prove herself on the professional level? There are a lot of exceptional soccer players that aren't tall. What she doesn't possess in height advantages she will in technical quality and soccer IQ. I can't wait to see her play and prove everyone wrong.
if the current defenders aren’t any good, she stands an excellent chance of starting. And Sonnet started right away as a rookie with 15 starts. I were an Orlando defender I’d start brushing up on my midfield skills. That’s where the hole is.
you don’t have to use Messi. mia Hamm was 5’5”. Tifeny Milbrett was 5’2”. Marta is 5’4, and she has had an ok career.
success in pro woso in the u.s. usually requires skill AND physicality - see the courage. portland has seen the courage.
i’ve seen her score on tv and thought that she wasn’t crazy joyful as some other players might be. It’s just who she is.
He did not criticize her size, he said: “I wonder…..” So what are the Rookie Benchmarks Sanchez must hit to “prove everyone wrong” ? I looked at the first-round draft picks 2013-2019 forwards and midfielders. There were 40 all told. Four, or 10% were named Rookie of the Year (Caliprico, Dorsey, Hatch, Rodriguez). I don’t think ROY is a benchmark for Sanchez. From Jen Cooper’s NWSL Almanac thru 2018 and the NWSL web site for 2019, I looked at Games Played, Games Started, Goals, Assists and Goals+Assists. I did the last one because trying to beat Hatch’s 7 goals and Nairn’s 5 assists would be too much for any player. [BTW Nairn’s Rookie stats were 22 GP, 22 GS, 3G & 5A, but Tymrak, who was a second-rounder won ROY] So here are Sanchez’s targets: STATGPGSGAG+A AVERAGE1512213 90th %ile2320437 MOST2423758 Good luck to her, I hope she plays well.
A follow-up on allocation money transparency issues: https://equalizersoccer.com/2020/01/20/nwsl-allocation-money-bait-switch-or-good-business/ It's true the fact that there were previously unreleased ways of using allocation money does itself feel a little like a bait-and-switch, but I don't think the process is too insidious. Sure, there's the potential for things to go sour in terms of fairness, but I don't think that potential is very big. I think the article provides a fairly good analysis of what is and isn't known without suggesting it's too problematic yet.
Couple concerns on her were brought up because she was a JUCO transfer to UCF so we only have a real 2 year small window on her...The Jump to DI and now to the Pro level will be a challenge...Given the central defense issues in Orlando last season...the level of service she can provide with Sonnett added to the squad will be interesting!! Sonnett mentors a young CB with Taylor K playing the box to box mid they need with physicality added to the mix...a plus in IMO... I really like what Orlando did this draft ...
Thank you for your answer. And welcome on board here on BigSoccer, @Shankly Rush! We're always eager for new contributors.
Even though Jamaica slipped a bit in OGQ this month, I'm glad their WWC showing last year helped a couple of them get drafted last month. I really hope they don't get cut, as I really want to see NWSL become a "mother league" for nurturing the best talent in C'CAF. Also, have two young players in NWSL would probably help the Reggae Girlz a lot as well. NWSL would probably need to expand more to do so, though... It's what's happened in MLS recently, as the league has grown a lot with influxes of central- and south-American talent - even with the USA failing to qualify for the 2018 MWC, MLS was still rather well-represented as a league. NWSL was already the best-represented league at the 2019 WWC, but I want to see that continue, which will be hard to keep up as UEFA leagues grow and less UEFA talent comes stateside (like we saw in WUSA and WPS).
I just wanted to note that the Spirit have signed all 5 of their draft picks to contracts including Sanchez. This is without a pre-season look-see or shakedown.
i'm not sure that's good. draft picks sometimes fail to make nwsl teams, while undrafted players prove that they are good enough. what do the spirit think is bad about letting the preseason play out?
I don't know if this presently is the case, but when the NWSL started out, it had two categories of contracted players: Guaranteed and Semi-Guaranteed. A team could terminate a Semi-Guaranteed player at any time if the team concluded that she was not a good enough player. I mention this because it's possible not all 5 of the players are Guaranteed. You'd need to see their actual contracts, which are confidential, to know.
Wonder if it’s fear of players being signed by other teams before preseason or undrafted players being signed in as well before other teams pounced on them. I mean even if you are drafted it’s not the same as having a contract.
I just listened to the Catch the Spirit podcast interviewing Richie Burke after the NWSL draft and I think getting the contracts done quickly is his style. I think he is self-confident in his selection of the players he drafted, and sees no need to test them out before signing them. I think the Spirit were the first team to sign all their draft picks last year, too. He mentioned he needed to get tryouts done before going to pre-season camp in St Lucie, FL March 12-25. He did not want to take trialists on that trip. Maybe also ownership sees contract negotiating value in finalizing the contracts before the players all get together, talking, and in having players anxious to sign so as to not have everything riding on tryouts.