I can't find the article online, but there was a short article in Sunday's paper. The Rays won 3-0. "Chastain scored straight-away from 18 yards at 21:20 on a shot to the right of goalie Suzy Strazzulla of the New York Magic. The other goals were in the second half: a 10-yarder by Pretinha off a pass from Tisha Venturini-Hoch at 52:30, and a header by Christina Bell at 63:10." Attendance was 1715. Disappointing; they were expecting (or maybe hoping for) 3000. Most of the article was about Brandi--playing so soon after her mother's death. Quotes about her and from her. On an unrelated note, there was a long article in Sunday's paper about Olga Korbut landing here in Phoenix teaching at a gymnastics gym. I thought about posting a link to it, but then I realized there's probably only one other person on BS who remembers Olga Korbut. Well, maybe 3 or 4 people.
Thanks for posting the result! Did you happen to go catch the game yourself? That is dissappointing. Was it not very well promoted locally? Well, then I'm either the one, or one of the 3 or 4! Thanks for that little tidbit as well.
That's a shame attendance was so low. I was at the Freedom/Breakers game yesteday and that drew 10,279 (not including the whole bunch that watched through the fence and from dorm windows - but then again, it was a tribute to Akers, who did quite well, I might add. I bet it was a fun game to watch. Wish I coulda been there. Brandi's a rock and I'm sure that playing these games is helping her deal with her mom's death. I'm sure she's really playing them for her now, to honor her. Gotta love her. And hey, I too remember Olga Korbut. Post the link. I'd like to read what she's up to these days. Norma
More about the account of the game: The headline was: Chastain plays through pain, and the sub-headline was: Exhibition helps soccer star cope. Hee's a Brandi quote: "I think in a way it is therapeutic. Death is a tragic thing, expecially for someone so young and beautiful and vibrant and loving and caring. But life is a continual cycle, and you have to continue to live. By my playing or not playing doesn't change the fact she's not here. I'm just going to go on and do the things I do and hopefully every day do my best to live in her memory." And here's the link to the Olga Korbut article -- for the rest of you oldsters: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/0915olga0915.html
Too scary to even think about I am SO happy I missed that. I'm now officially glad I don't watch much TV these days...
I used to be really into gymnastics, so I remember stuff about Olga Korbut too (I wasnt born in the '70's though...so I cant say I know first hand). Also, on A&E they've had her Biography on like 1000000 times
Olga Korbut--the old Ukrainian pixie who's close to 50 years old. The WUSA friendly between San Diego and Philly at the Rose Bowl had more people in attendance. I would have had the Rays and Spirit play at the same time as their counterparts. 1,000 people for a friendly not connected to anything is fairly decent. Not good, but then again not bad.
Re: Re: C'Rays-Arizona Heatwave match [R] i read somewhere that along with the heatwave team itself, there were a bunch of w-league "all-stars" that played, thus why strazzulla played eventhough she plays for another w-league team (NY magic) elaine
Players from other W league teams were: Suzy Strazulla, NY Magic Brenda Mueller, Seattle Sounders Janelle Munnis, Seattle Sounders Joanie Gerpheide, Seattle Sounders Annie Gage, Memphis Mercury Mary Everett, Mile High Mustangs C-Rays starters: Looked like a 3-5-2. Beene Bryan, D rt. Lindsey, D mid. Alagich, D lft. [Their midfield is so fluid I don't know for sure where they were supposed to be playing.] Borgman, rt. Chastain French, definitely left side all night. Sissi Venturini Pretinha, F Katia, F Using the W league sub rules there was a lot of subbing and players who left and came back later. Additionally, they did not set the time clock up normally, [starting with a full 45' at the top of each half, not cumulative as we're used to] so I'm not sure of the second half times. 30' Nanez in for Lindsey 35' Bell in for Katia 35' Wagner in for Sissi at the half: Dorn in, Eagleston in, Quinones in. During the second half Chastain, Pretinha and Sissi [for Eagleston?] all came back on. There were no yellows, but Alagich got spoken to for slamming someone into the ground. One lady behind me yelled at her, "It's just an exhibition game! Chill out." Hard to lose that killer head I guess. As far as personal observations go, the Heatwave [w/ ringers] did a very admirable job on defense.
Good to see my girl Michelle French play. I thought she would have been on the sidelines at a UCLA match instead of playing in this. Hope you had a good time PW.
Very interesting midfield. From the description it sounds like they went 3-5-2 with French and Borgman as wingbacks and -- reading between the lines a little -- Chastain at d-mid. (If your central midfielders are Chastain, Venturini, and Sissi, the d-mid is probably going to be Chastain.) I'm not sold on French on the flank in a 3-5-2 -- I think she's not quite fast enough to do the job there -- but I do like the idea of Brandi at d-mid. With the obvious exception of a strike partner for Katia, the lack of a solid d-mid was the Rays biggest weakness this season.
maybe Ian was takin a page out of Ape's book puttin Brandi at d-mid...since she has gotten a bit slower but her work rate is still so high, she is probably better utilized in the middle of the pitch.
Chastain could quite possibly have been the defensive mid, but she had a few very powerful attacks, such that I wondered if she was an attacking mid. She had a beautiful give and go with Sissi that ended with a SOG, and at one point early on in the game I was very impressed with her speed as she turned on the juice in the attacking third. I'm not used to seeing pro soccer in person so when I do get that opportunity I am impressed by how fast they run and how hard they hit. I understand that Chastain is not considered to be especially fast, so my impression of her speed could just have been the novelty of a substantive, bone-crunching, concrete game right in front of my eyes. At any rate, your point Druid, makes sense, that if you have Venturini and Sissi in there Chastain will be the d.
Glad you made it to the match, PW - now you'll have to find your way back to Spartan Here's the Arizona Republic article: Chastain plays through pain Exhibition helps soccer star cope
I wasn't sayin that she's slow now, I'm just sayin she's not as speedy as she used to be. I'd say her speed is still above average.
Sombody's $0.02 (plus about +$5.00) Clavs, thanks for the link to the article! Sounds like we came out in the patented CyberRays “ameoba” formation. Is it a 5-3-2? A 3-5-2? A 3-2-3-2? A 4-3-2 with 1 pseudopod (Brandi) running around everywhere? I don’t really care what it is as long as the players all know where they are supposed to be and communicate with each other! Yeah, Di! Way to slam someone into the…woops! Um, I mean, uh, bad dog no biscuit! Seriously, though, it may just be an exhibition from a team standpoint, but for Di Alagich it’s one of her last chances to prove that she deserves to hang onto one of the CyberRays precious international roster spots for another season. If we’re all talking on here about the possibility of her being traded or cut, you know she is thinking about it, too. I wouldn’t expect her to play anything less than all-out. Hard to explain that to the woman who was a fan of the local team, however! I notice Teresa Wagner was at the game as well, and she is now an assistant coach at Stanford. While I can’t be sure, I’d guess that they both have contracts with their respective schools that allow their WUSA commitments (and in French’s case, I’d certainly hope her contract would include NT commitments as well) to trump over their coaching. Now, when UCLA makes it to the College Cup, if Frenchie was called for some WUSA-related exhibition that weekend…I wonder if that would be a completely different story. I’d hope, in that case, if she wanted to stay with UCLA that the ‘Rays coaches/management would be understanding of her relative importance to the Bruins. Aren’t the ‘Rays going to have a training camp in November? I’d guess both French and Wagner will be released from their teams for that as well (though Wagner, in theory, could be available for both since Stanford’s so close, depending on scheduling). Hrmm…Keeping in mind that everyone’s going to have a different opinion as to what makes a good flank defender, do you really think her relative lack of speed is that big of an issue? (I’m not trying to pick a fight, I’ve just been having a problem--even trying to be as objective as I can--being able to see where Ian thought we were better served not having French on the field for those few games, and I’d like to hear someone else’s $0.02.) I say “relative” because I don’t think Frenchie is by any means slow--when I’ve mentioned her speed before it’s been to say I think she’s probably just not as fast as several other CyberRays defenders. I’d bet that overall we have by far the swiftest set of defenders in the whole league (though I can’t know for sure since I’ll never be privy to everyone’s “40” times). Everyone is going to look slow compared to Thori, and the vast majority of players (not just defenders) will look slow compared to a healthy Di or Borgs. I think our view of Frenchie’s speed gets skewed a bit by who else we can immediately compare her to on the field. At any rate, I know that while I personally like a super-speedy flank D (read: Borgman), I’ll still take Frenchie over anyone else in the league (yes, even Slaton) at left back because of everything else she brings to the field. She simply plays smart, both on and off the ball (watch her off the ball someday if you get a chance to see the ‘Rays in person. She works very hard denying the pass by positioning--it’s subtle, but I think it’s really cool, and it drives forwards nuts), and few players have her service accuracy. If she can serve the ball from further back with the same accuracy, who cares if she’s not fast enough to get a few more steps forward before sending it? In terms of speed getting back to cover defensively, we have a solid set of defensive players behind her, and so long as communication is there and everyone is on the same page, we don’t need Frenchie to have to haul back to cover. Thori, Boof, and Di are as solid a back 3 as you can hope for, and if we’re playing with our “5 back” formation, we’ve got Borgs or Brandi back as well, giving us a healthy enough compliment of defenders that Frenchie’s presence defensively for that one sequence won’t be missed. Shift and cover--it’s really easy, and so long as we do it, French getting back on D within seconds of having been part of the attack is completely unnecessary. The only place I can really think of that we’d ever suffer from a lack of speed is on a ball that’s sent in over her head and then run down by a very speedy forward. In those cases, while Frenchie may not win the footrace to get to the ball, she is usually able to recover and position herself effectively defensively. I think she plays solid, heady D, keeping the player to the outside of the goal and denying the turn in most instances. There are very few defenders in the league that can keep up with someone like Hamm or Milbrett in a footrace, so if that ball goes in over Frenchie’s head I don’t think we’re any worse off with her on the flank than we would be with almost anyone else. OK, that was a more long-winded $0.02 than I really meant to throw out there today, but I guess only people who have never read any of my posts would have expected me to: a) remain out of any kind of discussion of French. b) be able to have a short post. I like Brandi as a “D-mid” (at least a Brandi-style one, which may not resemble a classic D-mid at all), too. It allows her some freedom to run around without really impacting the defensive shape and causing confusion, which I feel was somewhat problematic for us this season.
Just to clarify, I think French's speed is fine for an outside back in a 4-4-2. But when you're playing a 3-5-2 the wings (or wingbacks; whatever you want to call them) have to run up and down the flanks all day. They have to contribute to the attack, and then race back to defend all the way to the corner flag. And I don't think French is the greatest fit for a role like that. Don't get me wrong -- I like French, and though I thought she wasn't at her best after returning from her benching, she would be in my starting lineup every time. I'd just make sure to play a 4-4-2 if it was at all possible. To digress a little bit, I think Sawyers' biggest decisions this off season revolve around the defense. Once the defense is settled, everything else will start to slide into place. He needs to decide once and for all if French is his left back, or not. He needs to decide what to do with Brandi. He needs to decide if Borgman is the answer at right back. He needs to decide if Alagich will be back. There are worse defenses in the league than Borgman-Bryan-Lindsey-French, but -- unlike the 2001 juggernaut of Bryan-Lindsey-Alagich-Chastain -- there are also better. Still if going Borgman-Bryan-Lindsey-French allows you to play Chastain at d-mid and to bring in a quality strike partner for Katia (by trading Alagich or just using her international slot for a striker), I think the lineup as a whole suddenly starts to look pretty good.