The continuing story of O'Hara (it's a thread): Washington Spirit has turned down Utah Royals' trade request for Ashley Hatch, 25, or Tegan McGrady, 22, in exchange for Kelley O'Hara, 32, I'm told. O'Hara wants to play in DC, where she lives. Outside forces working hard to make trade happen. #nwsl #uswnt— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) August 21, 2020 Also in the tweet thread from Goff, there's the even bigger story of Dunn possibly headed to Portland (where her husband works). However, Paul Riley denies the rumor.
Deal to get Dunn to Portland (home with husband Pierre Soubrier) in progress. .@SoccerInsider is reporting that World Cup champion Crystal Dunn is likely making a move to Portland 👀 pic.twitter.com/xRZUKtuWyP— Women's International Champions Cup (@iccwomen) August 21, 2020 I looked at Portland's roster, and I did not see anyone who might be available that had anywhere near equal value. I think NC's smartest move would be to offer Soubrier a job and move the family (and chickens) to North Carolina. With NWSL expansion in 2021 and 2022 and with USWNT international tournaments in 2021 (maybe) and 2023, the value of USWNT players to a club is not well defined. Teams will also be tracking the Euros in 2022. In 2015 and 2016, Naimo and Riley drafted and built the squad to be "World-Cup proof" I think that is going to be a strategy that will apply to the next 3 years. NC and Washington will go after young players. RE: A Trade. Cross out Sinc, Heath, Horan, Sauerbrunn, and Smith (POR would never let her go). Even though Kling loves UNC, at 32 she would not be part of a three-year plan at the Courage. Emily Menges (28, Garden City, NY and Georgetown) is high quality and not a national teamer, which means she would be around during call-ups. I don't know how strong her ties to Portland are. NC could rotate Emily and the two Abbys in the center, and if Riley went to a 3-back, they all would start. I think Tyler Lussi (25, Lutherville, MD, Princeton) is very good and a Paul Riley kind of player. I wouldn't put it past Riley to get Morgan Weaver (22, University Place, WA, Wash St. U) - he never met a scorer he didn't like. Without Dunn, NC would have one less USWNT player to protect in expansion drafts.
Would have to be draft picks or large amount of allocation money. With Dunn and especially her defensive performance, you bet shes costly.
Having seen pretty much every Crystal Dunn game for the Courage (being on the field for more than half of them), I can tell you that Dunn's defensive responsibilities for the team are are pretty non-existent. That's not to say, she doesn't forecheck and do her part of the team game, but her job is to break apart the opposing team's defense with her movement. Yes, she plays left back for the U.S. Women's National Team, but that's just not her job at the club level with the Courage. Losing her wouldn't affect the Courage back line. With Daniels and a healthy Mathias, the Courage have one of the top outside back pairings in the league, and I've seen no indication that either of them are going anywhere. And as Mathias continues to rehab, the team has done pretty much everything but slot Dunn into the backline - even converting the end of career Heather O'Reilly to the job at the end of last season. And the early returns on Addisyn Merrick - who surprisingly won the starting job at the Utah tourney over a couple of second year players (and not Dunn) - have been very promising.
It's entirely unsurprising for the Red Stars to loan players out over the offseason; what *is* surprising this time is where: Nagasato is going to a *men's* amateur team on loan! Good for her. Cute story too, as it's her hometown team and her brother, also a current player there, helped put the deal together =-) https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/09/10/yuki-nagasato-loan-japan-mens-team-chicago-red-stars-nwsl
Yes, it's been the stoty of the day on our Nadeshiko Japan thread. Women's World Cup winner Nagasato Yuki signs landmark deal with men's club
Stephanie Labbe was stopped from playing in PDL, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I can't find a specific rule in the FIFA statutes against it, but there are lots of FIFA rules and lots of places to look. I do know that the English FA specifically prohibits mixed gender teams after U18. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/stephanie-labbe-soccer
Labbe's issue was an internal PDL ruling, IIRC, not anything FIFA-related. Similar I guess to England's rule prohibiting mixed-gender adult teams. Hopefully Japan's rules don't have that prohibition in place. Considering how rules-oriented Japanese society is, I would bet they figured out whether it was allowed or not before making the move, unlike with Labbe's PDL situation.
In other news: Chicago have traded BYU alum Michelle Vasconcelos "back" to Utah in exchange for $55k of allocation money. Michelle grew up close enough to have played a HS final in RioT. Per Chicago's press release, it sounds like Michelle asked to be traded for family reasons. Also interesting to see Utah continue to shell out allocation money freely. I think they've dished out the most of any NWSL club thus far?
FIFA stepped in a decade ago and kept Maribel Dominguez from playing for a Liga MX Ascension team (Celaya, I think). Back around 98/99, Wendy Gebauer (Palladino) did make a sub appearance for the Raleigh Flyers, but I'm not sure FIFA was paying attention to minor league soccer in the U.S.
It was in 2004. The funny thing is that the FMF wanted FIFA to make the decision and FIFA told FMF it was their call. Eventually, FIFA said "no." (At least, that's how it reads looking at old articles).
FIFA also stopped Hope Solo signing for the men's Sounders in 2012 after both parties claimed it was a done deal.
I'm late talking about this, but there was a roster deadline last week, when many teams have "officially" announced all the short-term contracts they've signed for the Fall Series now. I don't know NCAA and the Div2 leagues well enough to do a full analysis of everyone newly included, but it's a fun excursion if that's your thing. I was alerted to this when I saw a little bit of Twitter chatter around Kate Howarth, now with Orlando, longtime New England Mutiny player and consistently one of the best of UWS.
Last week? Houston announced two new players on Wednesday. I still haven't gotten a roster for Orlando, and I'm the official photographer who has to deliver captioned (can't tell the players without a scorecard) photos within an hour after the game. And the Pride website roster page lists two different players as #23 and two others as #26. Of course it also still lists Alex Morgan, so there's that.
File under "potential": Apparently multiple NWSL clubs are looking into luring Bunny Shaw (JAM) away from Bordeaux (FRA), especially as she's expressed interest in coming back stateside. Would be the first real flexing of allocation money (as the potential deals for Maro, Bouhaddi, and Diani were disrupted by COVID).
she's got lots of tools and is probably well fitted to the NWSL. But I saw OL-FCGB last night and she was absolutely invisible.
Speaking of Jamaican players. The Courage have signed Havan Solaun to a short-term contract through the end of the year.
It did happen: Yuki Nagasato debuted with her new (men's) team Hayabusa FC vs Sano FC, as a 2nd Half sub, and made history: 【SUPER SOCCER NEWS】先月🏟神奈川男子社会人チーム#はやぶさイレブン に移籍を発表した元なでしこジャパン#永里優季 が男子チームの公式戦に初出場🔥女子プロ選手として男子チームの公式戦に出場するのは初出場‼️ゴールの起点となったプレーも⁉️ @hayabusaeleven @Yuki_Ogimi pic.twitter.com/548KW59pfR— TBS KICK OFF! J【公式】 (@TBS_SuperSoccer) October 19, 2020 In these highlights of the game you can see her warming up in first half (about 3':50"), being subbed in in 2nd half (about 7':50") and chatting after the game (about 11':15"): If FIFA had something to object, they had to change their minds, since she's been interviewed about that on the FIFA front page.
Apparently that Dunn to Portland rumor wasn't just a rumor: It’s a Dunn deal. Welcome to the Rose City, @crysdunn_19!🌹DETAILS: https://t.co/29VHFNlP2W | #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/qNOJvqYTPu— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) October 22, 2020
Too late to edit the above, but I wanted to add the NWSL's press release on the three-way trade details what all went where: --North Carolina Courage have traded Crystal Dunn to OL Reign in exchange for Casey Murphy and $140,000 in allocation money. --OL Reign traded Crystal Dunn to Portland Thorns FC for one international slot for the 2021 season, Portland’s 2022 natural first round NWSL Draft pick and $250,000 in allocation money, $50,000 of which is conditioned upon Dunn’s future NWSL playing status.