A LOT of players missing from Red Stars roster for the Fall Series: http://chicagoredstars.com/fallseries-roster:
How are you handling this my friend? Can't go to Fire games, can't go to Red Stars games. For me this summer has been frustrating to say the least.
I started a Chicago soccer podcast back in late December with a couple other minor Fire writer friends and we've had the running joke about how I hadn't been outside in so long. Just recently I ended it by going to the library after 177 days without leaving the house. I feel like the lack of soccer's only heightened the disappointment from a lot of the soccer I've seen. The Fire haven't done well and the Red Stars were incredibly frustrating to watch. Overall not a good time.
Just want to say, not a smart play by Savannah on the second yellow. I know she wants to play hustle but not slide tackle, cleats up with a yellow card. I always thought that in last year's Championship game when Kerr yelled at her, it was not for a bad pass or two, but lack of intelligent play in that game. That's why Yuki and Kerr made such good partners is that Yuki's soccer intelligence was up there with Sam's.
I didn't expect anything out of this game and I wasn't disappointed. It was the most "meh" game I've ever watched. It felt like nothing happened, even though two goals were scored.
Rory making moves: #NWSL trade: Racing Louisville acquires first two players, Savannah McCaskill and Yuki Nagasato, plus int. slot for 2021 and 2022 and 1st round pick (5th overall) in exchange for protection of remainder of Red Stars roster during expansion draft— Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) October 26, 2020
Sad that Yuki moves to Louisville: now both the pieces of the wonderful 2019 duo, Kerr and Nagasato, left Chicago.
In my opinion, I think some of it is protecting the players that have been with the CRS for a long time and some may be from financial side. They want to keep the USWNT players for obvious reason but also because they are free. They unload two players with contracts and housing costs. Losing Yuki is disappointing. As for Arin Wright she is now married with child living in Chicago, moving back to Kentucky may not be viable. Mrs. Watt is part of the plan for next year and beyond, many local players on this team. They aren't going anywhere. I think Naeher is comfortable with Goalkeeper Coach Rade in Chicago and so is the National Team. Morgan Brian is now in Chicago with her husband who is Academy Coach for local Club FC United. Colaprico has said Chicago is her second home, DiBernardo, Short, Gorden, and some of recent draft picks are all from Chicago. I agree on keeping the core of this team for next season. The year after that may be another story. Just a thought. Not sure why they had to give up that 1st round draft pick though.
I mentioned over in the Louisville thread the other day that Arnim had mentioned that almost all of the Chicago players are well-established in the Chicago area, and MRAD went into with a few specific examples, so trading away an international player (or, as it may be, the rights to an international player) may have been the best way to avoid a more-stressful uprooting situation. MRAD's point about protecting allocated players may also explain why this trade "looks" expensive from Chicago's side. A USWNTer is, at least on paper, "more valuable" than an international player is (though we all know how damn good Yuki is,) and the fact that Yuki *could* stay in Japan probably raised the price a bit more still. At the very least, Louisville now has more bargaining pieces to use with other teams, so things have definitely gotten interesting.
Agree with the above, but losing Nagasato still hurt. It was just one of the better options to protect other core players: 1320747262318968832 is not a valid tweet id