While I realize that Amy Lepeilbet and Rachel Buehler would miss almost half of the season due to the Olympics, I feel like their combined loss is not easily replaced. Adding Whitehill helps, but only to a certain degree. Defense is going to be an on-going issue for the Breakers in 2012.
And now Cox is gone too - Neaher better be real good now. Not saying she isn't, but playing behing that defense certainly helped her quite a bit.
I hope the owners understand that having Kelly Smith and Leslie Osborne- Breakers legends but past their prime- does not make this a championship roster. Right now it's not even close, even if Cheney is re-signed. The younger players (Winters, Schoepfer, Reed, Hemmings etc) also are nothing special compared to Philly, Atlanta, WNY talent. Jordan Angeli coming back will help but that's not a given. Even the defenders we have left- Scott and maybe Dieke- will be missing time for the Olympics. Whitehill is a backup at this point in her career...at least she should be.
Let's be real, the UWNT players weren't around that much last season for her to play behind. And they'll likely be here even less this season. And there are still some defenders out there.
outside of wny, a championship has meant jack in the wps but closed doors at season's end. anyway, i like how boston keeps its' fan favorites, smith, osborne and maybe scott. yeah, they lost some backline but i would only loose sleep over cox. and i guess 2 of those salaries probably equal getting a rampone which is a mega upgrade for them paired with a scott, so lets see what they do. like i said brand matters more in the wps than a championship at the stage of development.
Wow.. Amy's gone... She was a family favorite... My daughter is a defender and she idolized her... Major bummer... One thing I really don't like about the league is the huge movement of talent from one team to another.. With the expansion drafts, I understood but with the contraction, you would have thought the rosters would have been more stable.. Was it just the money? Or is it more of indication of the team environment now that we have a new head coach and Andy is no longer with the team? Never and Buehler fan, so no loss there.. But loosing Amy in back is huge...