2020 Challenge Cup

Discussion in 'NWSL' started by SiberianThunderT, May 27, 2020.

  1. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    While we're discussing NTers in the News thread, it's worth pointing out that this tournament is now official:
    https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/article/nwsl-announces-2020-challenge-cup-presented-by-pg-and-secret

    4g/team in the pool stage (unspecific on exactly what the pool stage will look like - will it be a partial round-robin, or pods of 3 teams each playing each other twice?) then an eight-team KO stage, i.e. 7 games, for a total of 25 games - each teams gets anywhere from 4 to 7 games total.

    Will run June 27th to July 26th. No fans in person, of course.

    All games on CBS All Access and Twitch, but Twitch viewing will be limited to fans outside the US+CAN (I'm kinda pissed about that part). Opener and Championship games will be on CBS proper.

    P+G is a new sponsor, with Secret and Budweiser still staying on. There's also a new partnership with Verizon, but no details of that mentioned.
     
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  2. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    wow.

    the new commissioner seems to have all her ducks in a row.

    ... hope she hasn't rushed just to be (one of) the first to make an official announcement.
     
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  3. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Technically I think the NHL announced their plan for a condensed season yesterday, so definitely not the first. As was mentioned elsewhere, NWSL has the advantage of being a small league, so less pieces to move, which I think means they didn't need to rush to be open early. I saw on Twitter that USSF and the NWSLPA are supportive now, so I think they definitely dotted their Is and crossed their Ts in getting this plan ready.
     
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  4. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    The first thing I've thought when I've read the news was: "This was made possible because NWSL finally managed to have a commissioner!"

    I don't think things would be so smooth, had we been in the same no-official-commissioner situation as the previous seasons.
     
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  5. FawcettFan14

    FawcettFan14 Member+

    Mar 19, 2004
    Colorado
    This is a great idea. To be honest, I don't think a traditional season is feasible for 2020, even a shortened one. Having a series of tournaments like this, where travel is limited and environments contained, would be a good alternative. Say-- July in Utah, August-Sept in Portland, Sept-Oct in Cary NC (or whichever cities are safest and have the facilities). With a 2 week break in-between for rest and recovery. The top teams from each tournament could meet in late October to decide a final winner, if the league feels compelled to crown a single champion for 2020. Maybe they add cumulative points from all 3 tournaments and the top 4 clubs compete in a traditional playoff format.

    Concerned about the artificial turf aspect in Utah. Maybe temporary grass could be installed (I know this comes with additional issues). Does anyone know the quality of turf at Zions Bank Stadium? If its high quality similar to Providence Park, that's more workable than say Memorial Stadium's hard bouncy turf back in the day.

    P&G, Verizon, CBS are huge national brands-- nice to have their backing on board. Gotta think having a dedicated full-time commissioner, especially one with a business background, helped make this tournament happen and also secure new sponsors.
     
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  6. toad455

    toad455 Member+

    Nov 28, 2005
    The NWSL will be the first North American league to start play this summer. I hope they get the attention they deserve.

    Is there a schedule yet?
     
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  7. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    I think the NWSL will show other leagues what’s possible and for that I’m glad that they can be pioneers in that respect. I’ll hold my breathe on them getting credit though because to this day the WPS does not get credit for introducing “pick-em” style format for all star games that is now common on most major sports.
     
  8. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Its weird times, and I think the vast majority will opt to play, but I can see some non-USWNT players opting to sit out as well as the unnamed USWNT players (10% of players in the survey mentioned in the Athletic article said it'd be unlikely that they'd play, and I think that percentage indicates some non-USWNT players, too).

    Players may have specific reasons for opting out, and I don't think anyone should be forced right now (And I'd say the same about any pro athlete right now, no matter how much they're making. Also non-USWNT players can opt out in this tournament, too, although I think there might be more pressure on them to play.) Would I love to see everyone play? Yes. Do I have to put my health on the line simply to provide others with sports entertainment? No.

    Also sorry, about the thread jump; just trying to put the topic of the tournament together in the same place.
     
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  9. MLSinCleveland

    MLSinCleveland Member+

    Oct 12, 2006
    Cleveland, Ohio
    Club:
    Cleveland C. S.
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Is there a chance of continuing the season with teams at their home stadiums after this tournament or is this definitely the entire season?
     
  10. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    ussoccer & their doctors will likely want to control minutes for nt players coming out of this kind of lull.

    club coaches will undoubtedly want to use them as much as possible to ensure victory.

    for vlatko, the shoe is now on the other foot.

    I

    ... & since it's wnt-player-choice whether or not to participate, I sense trouble ahead.
     
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  11. Blaze20

    Blaze20 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Seattle Reign FC
    Sep 22, 2009
    Club:
    Philadelphia Independence
    Why will the NT want to control minutes? There’s not a major tournament until potentially next year. On the opposite I’ll think they will want minutes for these players as I don’t see them hosting friendlies or camp anytime soon.
     
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  12. luvdagame

    luvdagame Member+

    Jul 6, 2000
    controlling minutes played in a competetive game after a layoff is one way to hopefully forestall injury.

    ussoccer doctors and uswnt players may also not have the same view of & and confidence in the health and testing regimen/setup of the nwsl as do the club doctors.
     
  13. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There's a possibility of something else in the fall (Baird has said she's hopeful), but no certainty. This may be it, or it may not be.

     
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  14. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The preliminary schedule showed: game-3 day rest- game- 3 day rest, game-, etc. with some rest intervals longer, except for Team #9, with only 3-day rests between the first four games. I think everyone is assuming the IFAB 5-substitute rule will be used. I was thinking that a compettion rule could have been '"no more than 150 minutes in consecutive games". I do think in this super-condensed schedule that controlling minutes will be very important. It pisses me off that USSoccer appears to be willing to be super heavy-handed in its dictating to the NWSL coaches which players get how many minutes and when.

    As of yesterday, EVERY player has a known time frame (four weeks) to do conditioning to prepare for this. That is not dis-similar to a normal pre-season time frame.

    Regarding players opting out - Yael Averbuch mentioned that she herself takes medications that tend to suppress her immune system, as an example of personal circumstances that would lead to a player not going. I'll note that such things are invisible to the fan base who will speculate no end as to why which players decide to go an which do not.

    Also, I am amused by the thought that in the Utah NWSL Village complex, team training will likely be observable by players and staff from other teams. Images of telescopes and drones flit across my mind.

    Lastly - they should make the "Draw" a streamed event. Finding out which team is Team #1, #2, #9 will be great fun, especially because each team plays only four of the others in the "group stage."
     
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  15. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #15 lil_one, May 28, 2020
    Last edited: May 28, 2020
    Another Athletic article; this one on the NWSLPA securing pay and benefits for the non-allocated players for the whole year, regardless of whether or not there's anything other than this tournament and regardless of whether a player chooses to participate in the Utah tournament. It has lots of quotes from Averbuch, including the mention of her medicine and gives a bit of a player's perspective.

    EDIT: There's also a key piece of info from Averbuch in this article: "Players want to play. This is their season, essentially. I think everyone is bought into doing what it takes to make that happen." I might be reading a bit too much into this, and I'll add some caveats. Obviously Averbuch isn't a decision maker for the league schedule, and obviously everything is still very fluid and nothing really known, but it does indicate to me that the leaning right now might be towards this being the only thing in 2020.
     
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  16. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Another step to reduce players' exposure is charter flights:


    But which teams get them, and which don't?

    Also up further in this twitter thread with Predmore, he says the Reign may depart this weekend to train in Utah because no county in Washington is allowing full-team trainings (they're currently moving to small group training, but in Thurston County, and even there its a max of 5 players).
     
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  17. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    I haven't seen a game-by-game schedule yet, but with up to 7 games per team and at least one team off every "gameday" within pool play, it's gonna be a tight schedule to fit it within 30 days.

    There's talk of having an "official" season after July, but that all depends on how different localities open back up - or start shutting down again if a "second wave" of COVID hits.

    I think the idea was "let's schedule something short that we know we can get in before things get too far in advance to predict, and play things by ear after the short tournament".

    I saw someone else already report that yes, the temporary 5-sub rule will be used. Gameday rosters will also be 20 instead of 18, similar to the increased overall roster sizes.
     
  18. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    So, here's the big question: who do we all think it gonna be the unlucky #9 after pool play is done? My first thought would be HOU or ORL, but I think that the fact pool play is only 4 games could produce some surprises - a team that's strong on paper but starts slow and/or faces a hard schedule could drop significantly.
     
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  19. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Predictions time already? :p
     
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  20. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  21. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh, what do people think about doing a specific prediction thread/contest just for this tournament, just in case there's nothing else?

    And my guess for the one that's out, just on first thought, is Orlando, but regardless, it's going to suck for that one team out.
     
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  22. CrankyDefender

    Apr 24, 2014
    I am cranky today as usual.
    I get very annoyed at the whining about playing games on artifical turf. It is not like they are being asked to play on gravel and glass shards.

    Granted some turf is like a thin carpet on asphalt, but construction of Zions Bank Stadium was driven by Real Salt Lake and it opened in 2018, so the surface can't be that bad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zions_Bank_Stadium

    I believe soccer should be played on grass rather than artifical turf whenever possible; but sometimes the turf option is needed.
     
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  23. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I will happily participate in any prediction contest. To determine the last place team in Utah, with only four games, there will need to be lots of tie-breakers to sort the final standings. Based on my perception of team cultures at this time, I think ORL is vulernable and may end up last.
     
  24. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I am all in for starting predictions, but I get the feeling that maybe I would need some additional info about the teams and their rosters (beyond the exact schedule and format of the tournament, that anyway we already have quite a good idea of): in particular, it would be quite important, I guess, to know if any key-players from the various teams will eventually decide to opt-out for health reasons, despite all of the measures that will be taken to ensure the safety of the players themselves.

    Of course, @cpthomas will tell me: when we have all of the historical statistical data from previous seasons, what more do we need? :p:sneaky:
     
  25. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #25 lil_one, May 28, 2020
    Last edited: May 28, 2020
    I don't think we have to start predicting just yet; I need more info, too. :geek: And I agree with CoachJon, maybe the scoring system of the current prediction contest needs to be changed up a bit? Or not?

    Anyway, the roster freeze date is June 21, so by then, we'll know who's opted out. (Tournament kicks off June 27.) For many high-profile players, I expect we'll know before the roster freeze though. And I'm hoping we'll know the schedule in a week or two (maybe? Is that too hopeful?).

    Also not related to that, but here's the direct link for the NWSL protocols regarding training, cleaning, testing, etc: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/2020-nwsl-challenge-cup-protocols
     
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