I see a mod has been here - Christine Sinclair and Cristiane have both signed with their teams and it's noted on the poll. That's 12 out of 16. Only 1 is a definite no (Schelin) De Vanna is at least coming to Washington's camp. That leaves Daniela and Melissa Tancredi. For all the initial worries and hand-wringing, the league has been very successful in signing international players.
Well, as you pointed out in the beginning, you did only choose a selection of the international draftees/discovery players for your poll. No Emma Byrne for instance, or Ingvild Stensland or a bunch of others that haven't signed. Oh, and the Canadian national team's web site listed the squad on Feb. 20 for the Cyprus Cup and has Tancredi down as belonging to St. Louis Athletica.
But those 16 included most of the biggest names in the draft. Overall, 17 out of the original 28 international players in the international draft have signed; 6 are a definite or almost definite "no" and 5 are still question marks. Neither Byrne nor Stensland were part of the original draft although of course they are very valuable players that teams in the WPS would love to have. But there's no getting around the conclusion - the WPS International Draft was very successful and, on the whole, draft picks didn't go to waste. A lot of good players, however, remainl in Europe so as not to deprive the Rivalry Forum of fodder for its gossip and rumour mills. In fact, there seems to be a strong inverse correlation (is that the right term?) between how much a player is talked about in Rivalry and whether they wound up on an American team this year. Coincidence? Conspiracy? Reluctance on the part of Europeans to leave the Rivalry spotlight?
No, just the fact that none of the Germans, none of the Norwegians and virtually none of the (interesting) Swedes signed up. Considering the active population of the Rivalry forum... But you might want to keep up, kolabear. If you were entirely on top of things, you'd know that the Eurotrash sphere of interest has been expanded and now features regular appearances by Australians and even Americans!
Incredible. After checking the 24-player preseason rosters, I see Daniela and Melissa Tancredi with St Louis and Lisa De Vanna with Washington. Now I don't know if, technically, they're signed. But they're here. They're in camp and they're on the rosters. If we can add those three, that makes 15 out of 16. Incredible.
Both Tancredi and Daniela played in the exhibition game against Notre Dame. I wasn't there, but it was mentioned in the match report.
Daniela is with Saint Louis Athletica. They finally announced her signing last week. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/newsitem_ektid10496.aspx?team=stlouis
Here's the tally of the original drafted players, along with post-doscovery players that didn't sign with their WPS teams. Apologies if any are wrong, or I've missed any. Original Draft Players: Sky Blue: Ester St. Louis: Lotta Schellin Washington: Louisa Necib LA: Margret Lara Vidarsdottir Boston: Maycon, Shinobu Ohno Post-Discovery Players: St. Louis: Ingvild Stensland (Norway) St. Louis: Francielle Manuel Alberto (Brazil) Chicago Red Stars: Laura Del Rio (Spain) Boston Breakers: Emma Byrne (Ireland) Washington Freedom: Lene Mykjåland (Norway) FC Gold Pride: Anja Mittag (Germany)
Actually, Francielle did sign and played Saturday night. Renata Costa was an original drafted player by Athletica that didn't sign.
Ah. Thanks for the clarification. I was going on press releases/transactions and the rosters released by the teams. I knew I'd inevitably miss some here and there.
There was a lot to keep track of there. I know the Saint Louis players, because they're my team. And to be fair, up until a week before the season started, it was pretty hard to tell what was going on with them.