Now that she has not only won Founders Cup II with the Courage, but was also named as the Most Valuable Player of the championship match, I would think that Birgit Prinz would have to be one of the leading candidate for FIFA Women's Player of the Year. Not only did Birgit help Carolina to their first place finish in the WUSA by finishing second in the league in scoring even though she missed 6 matches, but Prinz also won three trophies with her German club team Frankfurt right before joining the Courage. There is another Courage player who should also receive strong consideration for FIFA Women's Player of the Year and that is of course Hege Riise. It is difficult to measure Riise's value to the Courage by only looking at her statistics alone, but if you ask Coach McDermott and most of the Courage players they would tell you that Hege Riise has been the most valuable player on the Courage this season. I'm sure that the Norwegian National Team coach and most of Riise's Norwegian teammates would also say that Hege has been their most valuable player as well.
I'm speaking as a Freedom fan, and I'm hoping Mia doesn't win it again - that was ridiculous last year and would be again (if slightly less so) this year. Hege and Birgit are prime candidates, as is Marinette Pichon. The tiebreaker might be how well they do with their national teams.
Hege vs. Birgit If I'm not mistaken I believe that the next time Hege and Birgit play for their national teams it will be in a friendly match against each other in Norway. As I recall, Norway is scheduled to play against Germany on September 14th in Grimstad. I would also expect Norway to have their "A" team available for this match since the Norwegian league will be taking a break during most of the month of September.
Dont they announce the awards sometime next year maybe 2nd or 3rd month into the year? Or maybe its just me, thinking the year went by REALLY fast or something..