https://www.inquirer.com/soccer/car...5-yard-field-goal-eagles-ravens-20190827.html I think it "might" be a good move for her and for women's sports in general. Nobody thinks, at least no one rational, she could effectively directly compete against men in the power or speed positions but I believe that she, and some others, might just make good place kickers. She has learned to handle pressure well beyond what any NFL players face regularly and she knows what it feels like to have her team's fate depending on her performance. Also in place kicking she does not even have to learn to control her most common miss, over the top. In fact that is exactly what is required for field goals. My main concern with her performance would be can she learn to handle the extra weight and the vision impairment that the required equipment brings into play.
She makes a great kicker, she always hit it over the bar ... haha j/k. That being said, I'd watch gridiron football if she were a kicker for an NFL team.
It's not going to happen. It's a publicity thing. Her extra steps wouldn't fly nor would her lack of familiarity with the position. If there were real offers she should have joined a training camp simply for the per diem.
Additional pressure brought to bear on USSoccer for compensation equality or risk losing stars to NFL.
The "steps" would not be an issue. It is very easy to shorten an approach as two steps, or even one, is plenty for anyone with any skill to generate power. It just takes a few hours practice with a good coach and a good attitude. Familiarity with the "position" is also meaningless. There is almost no "position" in sports that has less to be familiar with. But you are probably correct that it is mainly publicity. However I cannot really see how she gets any important publicity from this. It is, however, probably fun for her. One more thing: I believe that the "Victory" tour is only about publicity also and the desire by US soccer to cash in. Personally I also think that she should just retire from soccer right now. She is unproductive with her NWSL team, in the games I have watched, and she gets no meaningful playing time with the National team and she will have no real part to play going forward. She might as well take the chance. It might work and a productive season in the NFL would set her retirement up pretty well. But there are a LOT of potentially bad things that could go wrong. All it would take to wreck her physically would be one bobbled snap and a 350 pound armored Sumo wrestler flying through the air to block the kick and landing on her as she tries to hit the ball late. She is strong and in VERY good shape but some things are just too much for anybody and sometimes size really does matter. BTW: There is actually one difference between men and women that is an advantage for women in kicking a stationary ball, that is the relatively wider hips. A women can approach the ball with fewer steps and gain a lot of power because of the greater moment from the wider hips. Like I used to tell my older girl keepers when I coached and was trying to improve distance on their goal kicks: "You don't need a big run up. Just be sure you get a good hip twist into the kick. After all you grew 'em, you might as well use 'em well." Edit: I expect that the first real chance for a woman kicking in the NFL to go to a goalkeeper. They are crazy anyway.
Probably not a good week to make the claim she is not productive for her NWSL team. She did score the team’s only goals (2). There are only 3 USWNT players in the league with more goals. ( Williams , Press , Dunn) As far as the National team, she may not have had meaningful minutes, but she still scored as many goals in 198 Minutes as wunderkind Rose Lavelle In 467 minutes and more goals than every other player except Rapino and Morgan , some of whom played twice as many minutes. That would seem to me to be indicative of a coaching error, not a decline in her skills. She scored the most goals per minute played of any player on the squad in the 2019 WWC. She should have played more minutes, according to that stat.
That is why I said, "In the games I have seen." Her goals at the WWC were mostly (maybe all of them) against teams were REALLY bad. I do not think she got any against a good team. Of course it could be argued that she did not really get any real time against good teams to show what she could do if facing teams that at least are competitive with the US. As far as a "coaching error" goes: She won the WWC and was only tested in maybe one full match. That bespeaks of pretty good coaching.
Two of lloyd’s goals were against Chile in her only start in a match they rested other players. Again, maybe she should have played more. Morgan’ goals were all against a single team (Thailand) that was really bad but one. She got silver boot. Lavelle also scored two of her three goals against Thailand, and she got Bronze ball for it. And Morgan May be the least productive USWNT player in the NWSL in her stints at Portland and Orlando. I think you are barking up the wrong tree if you want to dis her WWC productivity. In terms of goals and meaningful goals, you compare her to Akers. She has been WAY more productive than, say Mia Hamm. Players like that play until they decide not to.
Chile is a really bad team. So you helped make my point there. As to the others mentioned; I never said they were more deserving but rather I just said her performance was not meaningful as far as her "quality" goes. She has been and maybe will continue to be a great player BUT her performance in the World Cup really says nothing about her quality except that she can score against bad teams. The same can be said for many players. One goal against say France or England or Germany says a LOT more about a player's quality than two or three against the likes of Thailand or Chile. BTW: I think awards like "The Golden Ball" and "Fair Play" and others that do not come from reasonable direct comparisons are just so much fluff and do not belong in any discussions about "quality." I also put things like "MVP" and others in that category. To me if winning is based on "opinion" like in diving or gymnastics or awards like the "MVP" then the award has no meaning except to make someone feel good.
I have not been a big Carli Lloyd fan over the years. But I will admit that my respect for her has increased markedly since the 2015 WWC. Her track record of big goals in big games is virtually unmatched - perhaps even by Michelle Akers, unquestionably the greatest women's soccer player of all time. Lloyd has handled herself in a more mature way since becoming captain in 2015. And this is reflected in how she has handled herself in dealing with the buzz about her potential tryout for an NFL team. She recognizes she has to prove herself, to show she can kick with the short runup in an NFL uniform with a mad rush breathing down her neck. She has to show she won't flinch in the face of a foreboding rush. She has not asked for modification of any rule or practice to accommodate her. Kicker is the only position in the NFL (well, maybe punter, but that in effect is a kicker) where it is possible to anticipate a woman could play. at 5'8, Lloyd is probably as tall as some other successful kickers in the NFL. That does not mean she will prove to be as good. But, if she wants to try, on a totally even ground, and can handle the reality that she might not make it, let her try. Put it this way. I prefer the way Lloyd has handled publicity about her NFL tryout to the way Rapinoe handled dealing with the public during the '19 WWC.
I don't see it getting plural, but even if it does, the team can anoint new stars with the next WWC title. If the NFL really wants to pursue this, it would do best IMO to look at women who've played the game for a longer time and have done so in college (they exist). It's an insult to those women to have spent that much time with gridiron just to be leapfrogged by someone whose fame was earned in a different sport. Pressure is in the mind of the athlete, not the event or the fan. NFL contracts are not guaranteed- now, there's some pressure...