How is Alex Morgan still this good while 7 months pregnant?

Wow she looks great. Hope she can make it back that quickly.

 

wwwwwwell and being super-human (like the "The Great" Joy Fawcett) is a major contributing factor.

 

Incredible video. Thanks for posting it.

 

If you're a professional athlete like these ladies, it's definitely doable. If it were me, I would be chilling on the couch eating some dorritos and having the dude paint the nursery room.

 

My wife was playing tennis until about 10 days before our first child was born. The only difficulty was that I had to tie her tennis shoes.

 

What is she doing here that is so impressive exactly? She's not even kicking the ball hard. I also find it very offputting that she's at the USWNT training session. I don't ever remember sydney leroux or amy rodriguez having that opportunity. It's just her making sure she stays in the spotlight. Just because she can do shooting drills doesn't mean she will be fully fit within a month or two in time to make the roster. And I'm sure she won't set one foot in Orlando next season either. If she were vastly more skilled than the other options I'd say take her anyway, but she simply isn't. She's always seemed very self centered to me, every bit as much as Carli Lloyd. Not a Williams or McDonald fan, but I can't imagine what it's like to know that no matter how hard you work, a player who just gave birth is probably going to make the roster over you because of politics.

Really tired of the concessions and special treatment this player gets because USSF makes money off her.

 

Yeah, I don't get it either.

She's 7 months pregnant and staying in shape, working hard... which is great.

I've seen countless posts on the internet with people impressed by her moves and shots in that video... which just makes me scratch my head. Keep in mind that this is a highlight video, which probably included her best moves/shots.

Hopefully, she comes back and is 100%, but I'm highly doubtful anyone can do it in such a short time frame.

80-90% just isn't good enough. We were knocked out of the 2016 OG thanks in large part to bringing in Rapinoe who clearly wasn't 100%. It was plain as day and Ellis had to have seen that in training. I hope, Vlatko doesn't make the same mistake just because it's Alex Morgan. If she's 100%, great. If she's not, leave her at home, because a 100% McDonald or Williams is far better than an 80% Morgan.

 

I think this remains to be seen. Most players are never 100%. Rapinoe probably won't be and will go anyway, same with Heath and OHara. My concern is that she's going to be more like 50% or worse. Hasn't played a game since the WC final. But I haven't had a baby so who knows. I also don't like the idea of players not having to play in league games before making rosters. Again, I will be shocked if Alex sets foot in orlando before the olympics, and will probably have some mystery injury as soon as they get back. Rapinoe pulled this in 2016 and 2019 and it annoyed me then too.

 

She can play while still being fat.

 

No, she didn't. I've said this earlier in another thread, but Fawcett did not do what Morgan is attempting. At the fastest, Fawcett came back to a practice about 3 weeks after giving birth, but it was still about 10 weeks before she played in a friendly. It was over a year before she played in a major tournament. Most other USWNTer's have also had at least a year between giving birth and playing in a major tournament. Most usually took 4-5 months from giving birth before even coming back into camp.

I would say that every USWNT player who has giving birth during her career and come back afterwards worked out and practiced throughout her pregnancy. Morgan is not an exception here. I think it was Carla Overbeck who reportedly was lifting weights up through the week before giving birth. I would also say that not a single one of them could predict how long it would take to recover and get back to full training. No one knows how smoothly the labor and delivery will go (without going into details there), and there's no way to know exactly how your body will respond afterwards. Being fit before and during pregnancy does help the process, but there are way too many other contributing factors to really know for sure how long recovery will take.

As far as Morgan as a guest player in this camp, it could very well be that the medical staff is checking on her condition and training, and she is from the LA area so she could have already been nearby. But if I was a healthy player in the player pool who didn't make the roster, I don't know how I'd feel about it.

 

Pugh is also a guest in camp, so why wouldn't Morgan be there too, as a consistent starter in the last campaign? She is healthy and, unlike a previous poster, I think she was a selfless teammate during the WC - honestly sacrificing her chances for a golden boot by dropping and pressing.

 

That video wasn't USWNT training. It was made in LA on Monday while the team was still in Houston. She's doing her own training to stay fit.

 

I know the original video is her own training, but she appears in a USWNT video in LA yesterday. I thought that was what the poster in post #8 was referring to. Here's the video:

Oh what’s up, California!

Thrilled to be here surrounded by ALL our favorite people. 😏 pic.twitter.com/0qMymWeFOE

— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) February 5, 2020

 

"Sacrificing her chances for a golden boot by dropping and pressing?"

HUH!

That was her role... that was everyone's role.

I'm missing the selfless sacrificing part here. It's not like Ellis told her that she didn't have to drop and/or press... that's always been part of the job.

It was Ellis that changed their formation to a 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 late in the games to hold the lead... not some great sacrifice by Morgan.

 

OK, she was on the bus with her teammates. That's not taking a spot from anyone.

 

Well, it depends on how many seats the bus has!

 

Not sure if you're meaning to respond to me? I didn't say it took a spot from someone. In fact, I said there were probably valid reasons for her to be there related to training and medical staff checking on her.

 

How does her being at the facility impact a "healthy player who didn't make the roster?"

I mean, we have no reason to think she even got expensed for her presence, do we? Unless someone knows more detail about the pregnancy provisions in the CBA than I do-- and if they say pregnant players get expensed, then there isn't any favoritism, is there?

 

This is just pathetic and silly.

1. She's at the facility, but is there any reason to think it is a team session? The whole point to having a real facility is to be able to simultaneously address a variety of needs for a variety of different situations.

2. I clearly remember articles about Sydney training while 5 or 6 months pregnant. There's nothing "special treatment" about that.

3. Of course it doesn't mean she'll be fully fit in time-- but it probably does give her a somewhat better chance... and you know, trying to get back is probably the best thing she can do for the team and its coaches-- this team is built on an ethic about competing for jobs without hating your competition for them. It can hurt absolutely nothing for her to give the others warning that they still have to work just as hard to beat her out, she's not just going away. That dynamic is essential to tuning up for a major effort.

4. What could she possibly do or not do to convince you that it isn't "just her making sure she stays in the spotlight." If she stayed away you or someone else would question her commitment and call her absence "self-centered"

5."She's always seemed very self centered to me, every bit as much as Carli Lloyd." If heroes and villains is an important part of being a sports fan to you, fine-- but it seems very peculiar to me to adopt a team sport to experience it in, and then designate people on your team to take on the roles. You could hate on Tancredi/White/Marta and celebrate Press and just pay minimal attention to Alex and still get plenty of excitement and satisfaction, couldn't you?

Or why not follow tennis-- or better yet wrestling-- they've got some doozies for you there?

 

But in contrast, Lloyd did not do that in the WC. which was my point. Lloyd carried an obvious chip on her shoulder throughout the WC. Taking more than giving, without much to show for it. Unlike Morgan. In Friday night’s Mexico game, did you notice how Lloyd changed her play, once Press and Williams entered and after she had whiffed so many fantastic chances? All of a sudden she stopped taking shots and dishing balls, even when she ought to have taken a chance. She knows. She has to do better because she has already been eclipsed.

 

Lloyd did not do that in the WC because that was not her role. She was asked to relieve Morgan and stir things up to the max, and she did it great.

Suddenly when other teams were trying to figure out where and how they were going to come up with an equalizer, they were presented with a serious threat on their own front porch, a feral Carli Lloyd. Worked great.

 

Well said, taosjohn. Hard not to see a pattern. First hocbz trashed Carli Lloyd, who perhaps will play ahead of Cristen Press. Now hocbz has trashed Alex Morgan, who perhaps will play ahead of Press. Who's the next target? Rapinoe? Heath? Williams? McDonald? All of the above?

I say this as a fan of Cristen Press. I'd like to see her in the starting lineup. But I'm not going to trash any player on the U.S. roster. Reasonable criticism of Lloyd, Morgan, Press, any player? Of course. Ugly attacks? I hate seeing that.