How is Alex Morgan still this good while 7 months pregnant?

I fully support your right to say all of the above. But I think I'll look for someone else to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. Or perhaps do without five paragraphs of instruction.

 

Thank you.

Not telling, suggesting, but good luck finding someone else!

Four paragraphs, by my count, but who's counting?

 

Its not the speculation; not for me anyway.

Its the presumption of dishonesty in the selection process that keeps cropping up in the speculation.

That seems to me an effort to normalize ill-feeling about the team-- and there's a lot of effort to normalize ill-feeling going around these days.

People are doing it for hire, even. In other countries than they claim to reside in, even.

I'm hardly the poster boy for unthinking loyalty to authority; but I do like to encourage others to at least entertain the possibility that not all authority is corrupt, callous, arbitrary, mendacious and incompetent.

And to recognize that not everyone who posts is transparent about their motivations.

 

You seriously compared celebrities "looking good" after giving birth to someone trying to make an olympic roster? Markgraf herself said it took her a year to feel anything close to normal again. Hope she makes the right decision when the time comes.

 

There is a surprising amount here of what I view as ugly speculation. I guess I'll have to keep saying that I support everyone's right to post whatever they wish. But, for me, your statement is right on the mark.

 

Sydney Leroux comes to mind. She went back to training a few weeks later after giving birth. It’s not a year. Alex Morgan won’t let her pregnancy get in her way to the Olympics. Before, during or post birth.

 

With that pregnancy, Markgraf was on bedrest with twins, so I don't think a year is "the usual." But with that second pregnancy, she never really came fully back. For those who don't remember, she played in maybe 2-3 games and then retired. She had clearly lost a step, but basically wanted to prove that she could get back. Its from the experience when she was first told that she wouldn't be invited back into camp that the Kate Markgraf rule was added to the CBA. Now pregnant players are guaranteed a chance in camp to earn back their spot.

 

Back in training is not back to game fitness. Those are not the same thing. And personally, I hope that Alex Morgan is putting her health and the health of her child first, not the Olympics. That would just be icing on the cake if she does get back to game fitness.

 

And again; the very best contribution she can make to this team is to try. There's a real value in making somebody/everybody beat her out to make it.

I assume she cannot do it and won't go.

But I'm acutely aware that betting against any of these women on anything is a poor prospect for profit.

"One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you're going to wind up with an ear full of cider. "
Guys and Dolls

 

Completely agree, and I never said otherwise. But I'm also thinking she won't make it.

 

How wonderful to see this quote from Guys and Dolls. Thank you.

 

I also agree, except I think she will make it.

 

Let's say it is an unsure thing whether she is ready at the time ... she is close but they are not sure at the time the roster is set to be picked. What harm is there in him naming her to the roster, then see how she improves each day ... and if it turns out she is not ready at Olympic time, then he takes the top alternate and drops her. It is not like he will need all of his alternates.

 

The alternates can't just be switched out willy nilly once the final list is turned into FIFA. A rostered player has to have sustained a tournament-ending injury, illness, or "force majeure" (and I don't think "she's not quite ready" would count as force majeure) after the roster is named to be switched out for an alternate. And the injury or illness has to be confirmed by the FIFA medical committee. The FIFA committee has to give approval.

For reference, alternates have made the roster for injuries to rostered players like a broken leg (Wambach in 2008) or a torn ACL (Tarpley in 2011).

 

My understanding is that you have to show a real and new injury to call in an alternate? In which case that might not work.

Oops--redundant and repetitious.

 

Um. She went back to training for the nwsl but still wasn't even playing close to a competitive level, even for club, months after giving birth. No women's player, ever, in the history of ussoccer has come back from pregnancy to a major tournament in two months.

 

I can' even imagine the kind of discord and resentment that would breed among the team. A player rostered with the "hope" she is ready. I would say this about any player not just AM.

 

Agree in theory, but in practice? If VA put Morgan on the alternates list, then had to ask another player to 'invent' a reason to drop off (to insert Morgan), that would be difficult (and wrong), team morale might be adversely affected, other teams might protest, the FIFA committee might not approve, etc.

But if VA rostered Morgan on the 18, then had to take her off in favor of one of the alternates, it would be much easier (and not wrong), imo. Hard to imagine the FIFA committee telling the world that she/we should have known she wouldn't be 100%.

If this were the World Cup, it would be easy to construct a Morgan + 22 roster, without raising a ruckus - one poster here excepted. Much more difficult to draw up a successful Morgan + 17 Olympic roster, but still doable, imo.

 

The OP "lil one" just explained to you why they can't do that under the current olympic rules, unless they just make something up about Morgan having a sudden injury beyond simply being unfit by the time the games roll around. Unless that is what you are advocating for... and to be honest I wouldn't put it past US Soccer to bend the rules.

 

But what I'm saying is not being 100% is not reason to be dropped for an alternate. She would have to sustain an additional injury. In the post above, I'm referring to the actual regulations of the tournament. It is actual policy, and yeah, FIFA would not allow it.

But I think she could be named to the roster at less than 100% (the USWNT has done it in the past; see Rapinoe and MacMillan). I wouldn't agree with it, but it could happen. But she would be stuck on the roster; she could not be dropped for an alternate, unless she sustained an injury. (and it has to be tournament-ending; a twisted ankle or something minor would not be enough to be approved by the medical committee)

 

Well don’t be surprised that Alex Morgan will be the first. At least Sydney Leroux was able to play.

 

Oh, I'm sure federations have tried it, and we all know there is corruption in FIFA. But these types of things are closely looked at by the media and other teams. Its not really an area where you'd be able to make stuff up and get by with it.

Also note above in the regulations that its 2 committees you have to get by: confirmation of the injury by the FIFA medical committee and then approval of the switch by the FIFA Olympic committee.

 

We'll probably have to agree first on terms. You've now said "tournament-ending injury," "additional injury," and simply "injury." You also originally made allowance for "illness."

Morgan's situation falls into a special category, I feel - not injury or illness, but real (not invented).

How should FIFA handle a situation like this? With a strict, hard line (as you seem to be suggesting) or with some latitude given?