According to Soccer America: Competition for jobs will be fierce. The league plans to limit rosters to 16 players with two ''reserves'' this season. Last year the rosters were 18 with three ''reserves.'' Well, this means Alfiler and McVeigh would be reserves who were on my original 18 person roster.
Benson FAir Mitts Monroe Moore Pichon Smith Tietjen Tullock thats 9 10 is Zhao or an other foreign player 11 Scasna Kraus Makinen Solo Arrington Misaki that's 16 and the reserves are Alfiler and McVeigh
"16 + 2" will test a lot of teams. More so with the projected friendlies throughout the season. Adam I don't think Zhao's in the plans anymore. The three 1st-rounders will be given a chance to make the roster. Misaki has to impress big to make the roster. With Connors & McDowell gone, I think Alfiler & Monroe are those on the bubble.
Kirkorians interview on WUSA.com mentioned adding FOREIGN player(s). Since Makinen doesn't count, the assumption is, either Zhao is gone, or a 2nd international, in addition to Scasna would be forthcoming. Interestingly, Joe Cummings, the Boston GM, had mentioned attending the France-England match in November and in his interview, mentioned OTHER French players other than Pichon and the Boston acqusition are present on the French national side. The assumption Zhao is gone, opens up a hole. Is it filled by a foreigner or a drafted player. Arrington, I'd view as offense off the bench, but I wonder if she'd get tested on the wing, or would Scasna be viewed as a winger. Monroe is an overlooked piece to the Charge midfield defensively. I don't see Demko or Martin making the team. If injuries strike, you can always give them a call to see if they want to play. The big key to me, is the added offense in Arrington and Scasna. With the return of Kelly Smith, WUSA defenses will be tested. And the best defense is a good offense. A lot of the Charge defensive stats is built around possession. I see Misaki as fitting the Charge style. On thing about new players is the bring enthusiam and a desire to prove themselves. The 16 person roster is strong and each is capable of starting and NOT weakening the team
With Solo in the squad, 16+2 won't be too worrisome. Don't be surprised if Solo takes the field late in a game to crash the opposing net. She was a HS scoring star, & with her quickness & athleticism in an aerial attack, will diversify PHL's offense.
Shades of Campos huh!! Flexibility in number of roles a player can fill makes you even more valuable. Solo as keeper and mystery striker. Arrington as instant offense at forward, or on the wing. McVeigh in defense and midfield. Fair can play several slots. Scasna and Pichon can double back into midfield. The whole key is Kelly Smith. If she's the same player she was last April and May, and stays healthy this year, the Charge will do just fine. While Orlandos and Withers would have been nice additions, it's not like the Charge need them to compete. Imagine the Charge going 4-3-3 with Scasna, Pichon and Arrington as forwards, what set of defenders can play them. Teams would have to drop too many players too deeply to defend. Dennism would really like that line-up.
Cost-cutting measure. Positively draconian. The men have 23-player rosters for the world cup, and 20 (?) or so for regular games. The league has to save money somewhere, I guess. I hoped this rumor wasn't true, since I saw it on a message, without any accrediting to a media source or nothing else, in the Beat forum (was scanning all the other teams' boards to see how much they talked about their draft picks). I mean, just how much expenses is the league saving by doing this? Pennies on the dollar, maybe. Paul
If the average salary of player 17 and 18 is 25k?? Then the entire league saves $400,000. The object is to enjoy the soccer, for as long as it's being played. Life does tend to be rudely interuppted by reality, as Saturday reminds us. And Paul if you going lurking in other neighborhood, just remember, some peoples folly in life is to jerk your chain. adolescent though it is, just ignore it. kids will be kids your world and their world, never the twain shall meet. I see where McVeigh is a philosophy major, between she and Tullock, the Charge are the most intellectual team in the league?? I think we can officially say good-bye to Erica Iverson now. A trade now would surprise me. I think Krikorian is satisfiied with the projected roster. I guess now the next object of our attention is training camp, and any Charge scrimmages open to the public. I assume Charge! will alert us as soon as they get announced.
I wasn't gonna say anything about the 16-woman limit... Unless/until it was confirmed by a source of stature. Soccer America is a pretty valid source. We really talked the legs off an iron pot in our war room yesterday; by far we had the most number of draft-related posts of any of the 8 teams, and I wanted to thank every one of you who dropped by, lurkers and posters alike. It was nice to have some company while I let youse know who went where. It's appreciated. What's done is done, now. Erica's done with us and as much as her fiance' doesn't think this is so, I wish her well with Paul in their life together. The possibility of any trades in light of this new information is pretty much squashed. Now the thing is to move on. We have a waiver draft February 7, and that's always a sensitive thing, so maybe we can take the high road here and not speculate on who will get cut until *afterward*, since the Charge pretty much do look in on this board. Witness the number of hits on our major topics of late (check your 'user cp' part of My BigSoccer for that info). Not, not, not saying that waiver discussion is verboten, before anybody gets the wrong idea. No censorship here, you have my word. Since today is my first vacation day of the year, there are issues about the draft which I'll briefly touch on in their respective topics for the last time. Beginning tomorrow, any further doubt or concerns I have re: the dangerous message that was sent, consciously or not, to the best goalie we've got, about my misgivings on the failure to draft Withers and Orlandos will be kept to myself. It's now time to close ranks behind our team, and I should practice what I preach. Only time will tell if these moves will bring us a championship. I'll try to put out the 411 on that as soon as I get it, and hopefully they'll be free as they were last year. I've got a gut feeling our pre-season ticket holder get-together will be at a Flyers Skate Zone in the Northeast late next month. It mentioned that in passing with the special Christmas offer the Charge were putting out (4 ticket vouchers, throw blanket, mouse pad signed by Heather, etc.). Paul
Hey Paul, enjoy the soccer. It's just entertainment. And we just speculate, a lot of the time without any knowledge except or opinion from the info we possess. and charge-up was dead right about Arrington. Just because orlandos or withers are NOT here, doesn't mean we're doomed to mediocrity. Orlandos will do well in New York and Withers will do well in Atlanta. Half the fun will be watching them battle Pichon and Scasna and Arrington and Smith. We shall see if they can deal with our weapons. Every body has weapons, and every team in the league has enough talent to beat any other team. So just watch them play, root for who you want, and enjoy what happens. So what if you lose, but enjoyed the match. Any other attitude is just silly. At least, that's how I see it.
Could this be a leverage point for the league to get the collective bargaining agreement to work in their favor. From what I have heard, the league is trying to reduce Founders salary and remove the 5 year guarentee. I think the 5 year part is the big one. Three teams will pay 85K to a founder who might not see any minutes. The league does have full discretion to set roster size. Just a thought Dwight
Well it all depends on the Chinese sugar daddy and if he ante ups enough money. Still, if it's the existence of the league versus and handful of Founders making less money, or no maey at all in WUSA, existence would seem to be a far more desireable option than death.
this new CBA is the leagues only option to survive with the best players in the world...you have bench warmers making more money than pichon and the WUSA is beginning to realize that "ripoff" is quickly becoming one of the first english words foreigners learn there are only 4 founders who currently have an FMV of the 80k they earn. Mia (only for her publicity since she really is a bench player at this point, the best bench player ever but a bench player) Lilly Brandi Millbrett There are 4 more who are worth 60-70k Scurry Foudy Parlow MacMillian There is a large group of 8 who desirve between 40-50k of which you would find fawcett, fair and the like. then there are 4 who do not belong in the WUSA, and this is when things get ugly Overbeck Webber Whalen (probs wont play soccer again with her injuries, its more than just the ACL folks) Ducar Some extra allocations who make 60 k also could be bumped up to the 80k level ( Beene Siri) however 60k for the most part is FMV for these players. It is rediclious for webber to tie up 80k in salary to be an ineffective backup, it ties up money better players desirve and turns off foreign stars from entering the WUSA (lundenberg, anyone?) I see morgan correcting the mistakes of allen and moving the league to a sustainable business model...the question really isnt the league going in the right direction to be substainable but will the cable companies who are bleeding money out the ass (namely AOLTW) be able to fund the league at all...the answer so far appears to be no BUT! enter the chinese...if the WUSA can attract new investors they will survive for a good 3 more years...the whole thing is more the parent companies IMHO than the business model, where under allen burke and the other jokers who somehow blew all 80mm on one season you had the wusa becoming a major libality with very few sponsors and horrible promotion (anyone remember the buildup for one game then hardly any buildup for any other game, not even the founders cup!) Morgan has done well to control costs, and the new CBA MUST happen for the league to survive, (do you really think xu ming would invest in something so openly biased to a single country not named china?) the next step is to get new investors, namely replace AOLTW which has been a drowing stone from day 1. If truth be known the players side is the owners, the "players union" as i concive it to be is actually the founders (who are part owners) wanting to keep their cushy contracts. the rank and file would benefit and foreigners would really benefit from the founders getting their FMV and not some outragous paycheck that was known to be way too high before the league even began. I am optomistic buit cautious about 2004 i think that xu has to invest for there to be a 2004 but i have a feeling that he will...but then again with 2004 being an olympic year it gives the owners an easy out to fold the league, say it takes an olympic year off...and then never come back As for 16+2 rosters, well 18+2 had to be expanded mid season by USsoccer so i doubt that would happen.
I don't think we can project past 2003 into 2004. I agree the Olympics does disrupt WUSA. It's the middle of August till the end, effectively meaning August ist verboten. PErsonally, I'd play the regular season till August 1, then take the month of August off and return the weekend after LAbor DAy, and have the title the weekend after that The other possibility is play WUSA without Olympic level selections?? That's a bad solution. Moving the calendar to be in line with MLS permits WUSA to end everything by the end of July. And that's what I think will happen.