And another press conference, this time with Jaelin Howell and Alyssa Naeher: I like that each press conference has featured a newbie and a veteran.
Also this is cool: Rising through the ranks ✨ The NINE U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year winners in our January Camp 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/dM5LICHKZA— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) January 25, 2022 Of course, most US Soccer Young Female Players of the Year do eventually become mainstays on the full team, but we've not usually had so much overlap between older players and younger players in camp. For those who need it, in the picture are (from left to right): Kristie Mewis, 2008 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Lindsey Horan, 2013 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Mallory Pugh, 2015 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Tierna Davidson, 2018 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Morgan Brian, 2014 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Sophia Smith, 2017 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Ashley Sanchez, 2016 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Naomi Girma, 2020 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year Trinity Rodman, 2021 US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year And if Ertz and Heath were in this camp, we'd have 2 more.
Although completely ignored by the Scientific and Meteorological Communities, due to the presence of the USWNT, I can confirm that the Sun has indeed shined just a little brighter in the State of Texas for the last 10 days.
She plays now under her married name; Morgan Gautrat for the Chicago Red Stars Sermanni got fired due to the poor performance at Algarve(0-2-1). He didn’t have a good career after that; got eventually fired after 3 years from the Orlando Pride. Took over New Zealand’s NT, they usually make it into the big tournaments due to easy qualifiers, but then flop. Seems like NZ has an new coach now(so either fired or retired) Probably Jill Ellis was more of the right coach for the job. Did get criticized for playing ‘cheap’ by using an high press even on tomato cans, taking advantage that clearing from the back is usually the weakest part of the women’s game, hence, that 13-0 destruction of Thailand . But Ellis knew how to pace the team(as compared to Vlatko) & looked really fresh vs weary/exhausted Dutch squad we met in the finals. seems like our future looks bright; beating Australia 3-0 in their backyard with 6 new starters that weren’t on our Olympic squad….and yet we still got our best to go; the top attacking stars from the NWSL playoffs Rodman & Pugh didn’t make the trip down under. We could add now ten full time professional teams in the NWSL And still don’t get why we’re not using our giant infrastructure of 36K college players? That age group of 18-22 year olds is the bread & butter for most other nations; U of Florida’s Deanne Rose got the PK call for Canada(that doomed the US at the Olympics) U of Texas Julia Grossi PK shot won the Gold. FB’s Florida St’s Carle & U of Michigan’s Rivière got fave reviews as well. So it does feel silly that we don’t take advantage since we obviously got 20 more times American than Canadians in our vast college system…especially now that the golden oldies couldn’t own up anymore(though most other countries would of been happy with an bronze)
To give an example of US women's depth, the Philippines fielded a starting team yesterday of 11 US-born & raised players to beat Indonesia 6-0 (all goals scored by Yanks) in the Asian Cup. They are one win away from qualifying for the WWC.
I was taken aback when I first saw their squad being mostly born outside the Philippines. I mean their keeper straight looks Caucasian and several of them looks more African American. Quite a diverse squad.
The new coach elected to hold a long camp in the US in the lead-up to this tournament, so many of the home-based players were at a disadvantage, especially because the local league wasn't playing. Many non-American players weren't able to get into the US for the camp. Even Mexico was never willing to start an all-Yank lineup in an important match (there have been jokes about Mexico never allowing the roster to be more than 50% Yanks).
The Filippine teams (men & women) have struggled when they weren't bringing in eligible players from elsewhere (Europe & US for the men; US & Canada for the women). Before this window, they were mostly running about about 50% North American rosters.
You know the old joke. Poor Mexico! So far from God and so close to the United States. The Mexicans have loosened up over time. Back when I lived in Mexico more than 50 years ago, it was against the law for a Mexican President to speak in any language but Spanish and businesses were prohibited from advertising or putting up signs in any language but Spanish. (Although there was an English language newspaper in Mexico City.)
Oh, yeah. Title 9 changed the world. It’s not just the players you mentioned but the impact they’re having on their home countries. I wonder how many teams in the WC did not have a player that played college ball in the US. Hell, UCLA alone had at least 2 other countries repped at the WC
Press conference with Sofia Huerta and Kristie Mewis: These are really short videos. Did they only have 10 minutes for this online press conference? Or did they cut some if it out?
Update; the Philippines did qualify for the World Cup by winning their Asian Cup quarter-finals match. Got to remember though Philippino-Americans make up 4.5 million of US population. Poor Australia lost theirs, though they still get to play due to being the WC host nation. a couple of ironies; Philippines coach by Staj, who was fired as the Matildas, even though he led them to unparalleled success(up to FIFA ranked #5 plus a win or two over the US). The Matildas then hired as coach, Jill Ellis right hand man, Tony Gustavosson, who sounds like a good choice, but been on an downhill slide ever since(currently ranked #11, but probably fall after this). the other irony is; most Matildas ditched the NWSL & their own home W-league for supposedly the greener pastures of Europe(mainly heading for England’s WSL) soccer is the #1 women participation team sport in US colleges/#2 overall sport next to track & field Other than TITLE 9 pays for the programs, never understood the popularity of college soccer myself, and then especially foreigners; my own daughter played D2, the coach told me his school allowed him to switch the 9 full scholarship funding allotted him to half & quarter scholarships. So he got the entire squad on something, yet half the team was made from overseas foreigners, who probably don’t get the SAT & In state discounts. Even full ride D1 schools, I’ve never met an college student who would want to live 4 straight years in an dorm!(so in other words, they’ll easily give up room & board(possibly free if on scholarship) to live off campus.
just saying while I agree that TITLE 9 dominates the world of women’s soccer, but surprised in an way because most of the college players aren’t on full scholarships.
We don't know the final score, but the released video of highlights makes it look like the senior team beat the U23 team by several goals in the end-of-camp, closed-door scrimmage:
The true impact of Title IX is that women's college soccer programs even exist. It's not so much scholarships. It's the fact that female players are allotted facilities, funded coaching positions, travel budget, equipment, etc. Without the law, these things would not exist.
Wonder what would have happened if title 9 didn’t exist? Would England and rest of UK not have a womens league still?
That is easy enough to find out. Just hop in your Delorian. Set the destination to about a year or so before Title 9 was passed. Fire up the flux capacitor. Get the car up to 88.0 MPH. After you arrive in the past take whatever action(s) needed to prevent passage (be sure the same idea is prevented world wide) and then just sit back and see what happens. If you like the outcome then just return. If you don't like the outcome then just go back again and change everything back. BTW: Just ignore any side effects or bad outcomes. Everyone knows that scientists are always wrong and there cannot possibly be any paradoxes. If you don't believe me about scientists just ask Trump. After all he is still smarter and better than anyone else.
No appreciable difference in the USWNT as I have traced the Complete and Total Awesomeness of the United States Women's National Soccer Team back to the original Big Bang.