I see a few comments about Aly Wagner on various threads. Thought I would start one focusing on her. Two years ago she was the darling of women's soccer, now she is barely hanging on and looks lost on the pitch. When I watch her now, she looks very idecisive and appears to shy away from physical challenges. When the ball enters her area and she and an opponent are going after it, she seems to back off just enough to avoid any contact and lose the 50/50. The worse thing is her own passing. She was one of the best, if not the best, passer in US soccer a couple of years ago. She could put her passes right at the feet of a teammate. She could place a ball better with her feet than most people could do using their hands. But now there is nothing special about her passing game. Often her passes are off the mark, behind, too much pace, etc. What happened to her?
Though I would like to blame ape for everything this is one instance where I can't. nothing happened to her. it is just that players learned how to play her. She has always been more of a finesse player, and has never been one to mix it up. she plays well when she has time and space to work with. Mid-fielders and the like quickly learned if you preasure her and get physical with her she will caugh up the ball or make an errant pass. until she brings the physical end of her play up to par with everyone else this will continue to happen to her.
I disagree, it's very hard to get back into the swing of things when your confidence is wavering and you don't have the experience under your belt. I think if you just let her run around in these games and let her get back up to par she'll be fine. It's one of those things you can't get back in practice, I don't think you can really understand this unless you've been in a position similar to Aly's before and I have...just recently, too.
there's nothing new here. even in the wusa wagner struggled with the pace and physicality of the game. the women's game is getting faster and more physical all the time, and wagner can't run and shies away from physical contact. the only thing keeping her in the squad is her pinpoint passing, but she is doing that less and less each year as the increasing speed and hard tackling of the game gives her less and less time to do it. again, nothing new. this started happening since wusa.
Yes, but PP15 is also right about the confidence angle. Wagner can work on her fitness and speed to help keep up with the pace of the game. But confidence is needed to improve her physical game. Shying away from a 50-50 ball is a lack of confidence and being afraid of getting hit. She will get this confidence back if she gets her fitness where it needs to be and gets quality playing time to get those bumps and bruises before she starts to give them. However, at what expense to the WNT do you give her this time? That I don't know. Although I must say that if I were coach I'm not so sure she'd be on my roster, as it is not my duty to give a player confidence nor get them in shape. In game shape, yes; but not the basic level of keeping up with the game.
The other adjustment problem that might play into her poor form since Santa Clara is not fitness related. She's no longer the main person through which her teammates look to run the offense. She has to go and get her chances, not wait for the ball to be given to her. I don't mean in the literal sense of the ball is rolling toward her and she doesn't go meet it but waits for it to reach her (although she's been known to do this, too). Sort of a "give me the damn ball" situation - but less annoying than Keyshawn. I haven't really seen her go make her own opportunities and demand the ball from teammates to then be able to make the killer passes.
Remember that the San Diego Spirit traded her at the end of the season to Boston for Angela Hucles. It was a big surprise (even Hucles seemed surprised), but the coaching staff must have decided she was expendable even at the WUSA level.
One of the things that an 87 game WUSA season does is, it helps to de-mystify players. The Germans took advantage of this and got better. By playing week-in and week-out with and against the US national team players, the Meinerts, Grafs, Prinz's all learned that the US women were just players - not infallible. The other thing that a full season does is it exposes glaring weaknesses that college or amateur or even infrequent international friendlies don't. It didn't take long for the book on how to play Wagner got passed around the league. It became clear very early that she didn't deal at all well when players pressured her continually. Until she learns to adapt to the new reality that every team she plays is going to go after her, her effectiveness will be diminished. The flip side to the WUSA is that it also gave players the games needed to work on fixing the problems in their games. I'm guessing that Wagner probably misses the WUSA (for career reasons) more than most. This would be the year for her to try and change her game and get past this one problem.
God, I had forgotten that. I thought they traded Boxx for Hucles. Regardless, they did trade Boxx for someone, maybe it was for the rights to move up and draft Wagner??? I'm probably off there, but you do have to question a board that traded away Boxx. I don't understand why a player of Wagner's size would back away from 50/50 balls. She is a big girl.
And someone please refresh my memory--didn't this trade take place prior to Namazi becoming the Spirit coach? In other words, the man who traded away Wagner was not the same one who traded away Boxx in order to get Wagner? Am I right in thinking this?
Wasn't it Kevin Crow that triggered this deal? Heck...WTF was the name of the first Spirit coach!?!?!? Jeez...2001 seems sooooooooooooooooo distant now. Heck even the 2003 season felt like it occurred it some other dimension.
It was during the time between coaches for the Spirit. Crow did it. I don't remember the first Spirit coach's name. Didn't it start with a J? I do remember him always having a lollipop in his mouth.
It was Carlos Juarez - Mr. Lollipop. As a NY fan I couldn't believe our fortune at gaining Boxx, Margaret Tietjen and Carly Smolak. There was another player involved, but I can't remember who and she never actually came and played for us anyway, so... Having Boxx made a BIG difference in the team and so did Margaret Tietjen. She didn't get the aclaim that Boxx did, but I'll tell you, I was at every home game and she made a difference! She scored goals and set some up - from the back! She was solid on the back line, that's for sure. I definitely felt we came out waaaaaaaaaay ahead on that deal! Tom Sermanni did wonders with the Power, and given another year with them, I'm sure we'd have made it to the final. Semi final at worst.
a bit off topic, but the thing I find amusing about Boxx is that she is often referred to as one of the new "kids." She's going to be 26 next month, hardly a kid. as for wagner, it's a real shame we will not see what pia sundhage could have done for her game.
That would be Sherrill Kester, who stated (to S.D.) before the trade she would not play for New York. (Not that she didn't like N.Y., but she wanted to be near her fiance in North/South Carolina.) S.D. traded her anyway and when N.Y. learned of her decision to not play in N.Y. they got something else in return, which now escapes me.
Aly and I had a little fling while she was out here in San Diego. I had to break it off, and she really hasn't been the same since. My sincere apologies.
Carlos Juarez was the first Spirit coach, he was fired early in the 2nd season by Crow, who took over and made the team worse that it had been. But I believe that he had actually left for the league office and the trade for the number one draft choice (ie, Aly) was made by Dave Presher. A lot of us really liked getting Aly but thought that the team gave up way too much... Spirit Get 1st Draft Choice Omid Namazi became the coach for the third season and he and Dave decided after seeing Aly play for a year that they needed to go another way. A lot of us thought that was crazy, but looking back... Hucles Coming to San Diego, Wagner Traded Looking back, now I assume that Omid got frustrated with Aly not showing enough improvement in her her game - especially strength and fitness.