I have no inside info, but I would expect another transfer or two, maybe after spring. We have the possibility of Iwai and Brown coming back, but either or both could also leave. If they indeed leave, we would have 9 departed and 9 coming in, which would leave us at a roster of 21. IMO that is too low, especially not knowing if Claire will be back in playing shape by then. Throw in one or two more injuries and the U20 Youth World Cup and we would be hurting for at least half the season. Give me 2 more transfers, and I feel better!
Maybe someone here could be interested to know that Joe Echegini debuted in the Italian League on Saturday, by being subbed-in at 88' of the league home-game won by Juventus vs Milan.
Quick roster update: Wrianna Hudson has enrolled in school and will participate with the team in the spring. Jody Brown and Ran Iwai have not made their final decisions on whether to return however it would be a surprise if Jody decided to return while Ran seems to be about 50/50.
Is Jody looking at Europe? I assume if one of them or both leave, Pensky will look at the portal again.
She likely is considering Europe even if only to keep her options open. Also the USL is starting in August so that is an option as well. I'm actually not sure what she is leaning toward. I have just been told that the staff doesn't expect her to return (although of course they would welcome her back with open arms if she wanted to come back). Regarding the portal, I don't think that Pensky is done there either way. However, his activity in the portal will not be influenced much (or at all) by what Jody and Ran decide. Pensky is looking for talent and if he finds what he is looking for he will offer that player to upgrade the roster. If he doesn't find that player he will just ride with what he has because the roster is pretty good already.
Lets level set where we are with the roster. This year's final roster had 21 players. That is light. Even Krikorian who liked to have fewer players than most coaches preferred to have around 24 players. I believe that Pensky would like to be in the 26-28 range. Depending on what Jody and Ran decide to do FSU will likely lose 8 or 9 players from this year's final roster. By my count the Noles currently have 8 players coming in between transfers and HS recruits. Therefore they are either even or -1 compared to what they had this year. I don't think that Pensky is comfortable with this because: 1. As I said before he would prefer to have more players on his ideal roster regardless of the circumstances and 2. The U20 WC is this year so there is a good chance that FSU will be missing Dudley, Gilchrist and Suarez for several games maybe the entire non-con schedule. And that is before you factor in any unfortunate injuries. So I believe that he would like to add at least a couple more players but what I said in the previous post still holds. I don't believe that he will take someone just for the sake of numbers. If he can't get any more players that he thinks are FSU caliber he is just going to go with what he has and hope to avoid injury. After all, they only had 21 this year and things turned out pretty well.
There will be a new portal window after the spring I believe. I agree that BP will want a few more additions. Just not sure as to his perfect roster size.
I would like to see Brian hire a woman to replace Aaron. I don't want to be sexist and obviously men can coach women - FSU just won a title with an all male staff - but I think that ideally there should be at least one woman on the actual on field paid coaching staff if possible. Especially since the staff size has been increased from three to four. There have been a couple female volunteer assistants and graduate assistants but there hasn't been an actual salaried female assistant coach on the staff since Pauliina Miettinen in 2006. It's high time that changed.
Joe Echegini was again a late sub in Juventus today (she entered the pitch at 78'), but the difference was that she scored the late goal that gave the win to her team . (see the end of this highlights video)
In my post season lull, I have re-watched parts or all of many games. Jordynn Dudley really impresses me more and more. When a ball is lost in the final third and their team starts advancing it up the pitch, I am amazed at how quickly her long strides eat up the difference and she is right on top of the girl. That lead to many dispossessions and or poor passes. She does that offensively too. May be best demonstrated in the first goal against UNC, when she made up about 6 yards in 30 yards of pitch. What may be more rare is her short area quickness. I don't recall seeing someone as tall as her, have that much short area quickness. She did that against ND to set up our first goal. She did it against Stanford easily facing and going around a defender to send a ball across the 6 yard box only to have the GKer stop a strike by Van Zanten. Those are just a couple of examples. Can't wait to see how Suarez, Hudson and Washington mesh with the returning talent. When does the spring schedule come out?
Not sure when the schedule will be released. In other news: Class of 2025 commit JuJu Harris is a non-roster invite of the Seattle Reign.
How does the NRI stuff work with NCAA eligibility? Are they paid? Am I showing my age by being concerned that the goons in Indy will prevent her from playing here if she chooses?
As an NRI she hasn't been offered a contract yet but the Reign could decide to offer her one if she impresses them. At that point she would have the option to go straight to the pros and skip going to college. She would be choosing between what FSU can offer (education plus NIL) versus what the Reign could offer (pro contract). We aren't at that point yet so we'll just have to see what happens. However, this is good evidence showing how talented she is that she is receiving an NRI at 16 years old from an NWSL side.
not quite all the reign can offer her. According to The FIFA document on the status and transfer of players ( section 19) a club must provide minors opportunity academic or vocational training. In the case of the NWSL, that opportunity has in the past been funded by outside sponsors ( see Nike and the Moultrie case). That’s why the league originally set up the draft only for players who have graduated or declared they no longer had eligibility. Also, minors under age 18 must be rostered with the first team and can’t be traded or cut until they reach 18, according to NWSL policy. And there is the issue of providing her with a chaperone for away matches, which the league has required in the past. . I don’t think granting her NRI status costs the club anything. Offering her a contract would cost the club more than it would for an older player. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/620d0...-Transfer-of-Players-October-2022-edition.pdf
Congrats to Deyna! Great to have her back in America. https://clutchpoints.com/nwsl-news-...ghest-paid-foreign-player-new-bay-fc-contract
I read the article and looked up her stats on FBREF "Her tenure in England saw her evolve into a starting player, contributing five goals and two assists. https://fbref.com/en/players/1b470ecd/matchlogs/2023-2024/Deyna-Castellanos-Match-Logs Who is wrong? How hard is it to check? Looks like the journalist has mistaken total shots, 5, for goals and Shots on target, 2, for assists. The positions she played at City were not close to those she occupied at FSU.