Horan has been loaned to Lyon for 18mo while extending her contract with the Thorns for four(?) years - now, 2023, 2024, through 2025. The KC Current have transferred Corsie and Silva to Aston Villa and Benfica, respectively, letting both return to their home countries. Reign retain three of their players, with Balcer signing for a 3+1 deal, Lavelle for 2 years, and Rapinoe for 1.
ARod has announced her retirement, and will move to an assistant coaching position at USC LA have now officially signed McCaskill, Roccaro, Lussi, and Wilson Isenhour. ORL have signed draftee Kerry Abello
Preseason rosters are out! With 12 teams this year, I'm not going to try listing them all, and just leave it up to various posters to point out particularly interesting notes they find among the rosters. I'll start with an interesting one... Mana Shim is currently a non-roster invitee at San Diego!
Angela Salem has announced her retirement. That is a loss for the Thorns and for those who like to see in-the-trenches, hard working defensive mids.
I notice that Angela Salem of the Portland Thorns has announced her retirement. Why? She had a great season in 2021 and finally got some recognition for her years of toil.
Spirit send Kumi Yokoyama to Gotham FC in exchange for... just a fourth-round pick in next year's college draft. Ooof, that seems criminally cheap for them.
I saw that Carli Lloyd wants to play at Gotham again. Yael Averbuch West would be out of her mind to sign Lloyd for football reasons and for chemistry reasons. On the pitch, she has no positional flexibility at this time of her career and can't add much to the attacking corps currently on Gotham. She is 39, more like 36 for other people, but that is still old - a player age you sign to help right now, not for next year or the future. Gotham does not need her right now. Chemistry on the pitch would be disrupted; even though she has worn the armband, Lloyd has never been a team leader, either by personality or by leaderhip skill. Bottom line, she has never been a true team player. Her off-the-pitch profile is not good right now, but I will not address that. Even if the idiot money people think Lloyd sells tickets and want her for that reason, first they are wrong, but second Averbuch West should be strong enough at this point in her career to repell that pressure.
Lloyd was an April fools joke by Gotham. But, I share your thoughts 100%, Coach Jon. https://www.instagram.com/p/CbztYfFOv14/
there’s some reports that German national goalkeeper Almuth Schult is going to play for Portland Thorns. But it’s too close to April’s Fools day to really confirm this; she just had twins last year, so suspect a hard decision/move to want to make
OK, Snowflake, I do not live on twitter and I am not on instagram, so a lot of stuff passes right over my bald head. I suppose it was a good joke because it seemed so plausible and in-character for Lloyd.
Tobin Heath has been released early from her contract by mutual agreement. Wishing you all the best for the future, @TobinHeath ❤️— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 28, 2022 I guess she is coming back to NWSL.
Can not verify if this official but makes sense. She might want to heal before committing to the next team. For some reason US players don't seem to stay in England for extended period of time.
For some reason US players don't seem to stay in England for extended period of time.[/QUOTE] The FA is well known for their very physical playing style. There’s also way too many matches to play in just one year; besides an regular 22 game season, they got two domestic cups(FA & Conti cups, plus last year’s final was postponed to this year) & plus the Champions League which was expanded to an possible 13 games/plus commitments to NT duties(which would mean the extra flight across the Atlantic) Besides a lot of the foreign woso players being stuck living in dorms at their respective clubs grounds, the dreary weather where you might not see the sun shine in weeks, Possibly culture shock; one dude i follow on YouTube reviews all kinds of restaurants/eating establishments around the UK. Apparently he brings his own table & chair everywhere he goes. I can’t even figure what’s the heck he’s eating, it all looks so alien to me(fish n chips it ain’t!) & their English can be hard to understand compared to our English
In addition to that IMHO NWSL is comparable to WSL (at the moment). So I guess there isn't much up-side benefit for a established US star to grinding it out in WSL.
NWSL has more parity. Anyone can win on any given day. WSL has a few powerhouses at the top and the rest are average to weak.
All true but I don't think this a feature that is valued by players. NWSL fans appreciate parity but established players won't go to bottom teams. They join top teams with Euro competition. I think hotjam2 got it right.
Oh I agree with hotjam2 on their take. I was just adding that bit about parity, because I think it pushes players more to elevate their game when they have to bring it every game. Chelsea has some real softies in their schedule, so they can rest stars, or play on cruise control at times. There are no easy games in the NWSL.