I think I can fill in some of the blanks. Just a few notes on some of the players. Engen-Center Back Enyeart-I've got to believe her injury was so late that she may not be ready until at least June or July, if then. Given the depletion on LA's roster, I don't know if they're in a position to wait. Ali Riley-Outside Left Back Becky Edwards-Played defensive mid her senior season, mostly defender earlier. Kiki Bosio-Primarily a forward I think. Kiersten Dallstream-Played a lot of forward for Washington State, but played outside defender for the U-20 team in 2008. Jordan Angeli-Center back. Nikki Marshall-Plays forward now at Colorado I believe, but started all 6 U-20 World Cup games at Center Back. Kristi Eveland-Plays the right back in UNC's three back defense. Nogueira may be there. It depends on if one of the first 4 picks is for Engen, which I could see either Boston or Chicago doing. Probably not as likely with Boston since they will probably have their choice of Cheney or O'Hara.
i can help with Nikki Marshall. She is a senior at CU and played forward and center back for them (on occasion) but really she plays anything. On the CU roster it says f/m/d. She played center back for the U20's. I know Nik personally (she played for the same highschool as me and her sister and i played together) and everyone should expect a first round draft pick for her. Our high school coach told us today that one of the WPS coaches is flying her to philly for the draft so it should be interesting to see what the outcome is.
Thanks for filling us in. Interesting how many prominent converted forward/defender, defender/forwards there are this year, isn't it? Besides Nikki Marshall, there's Kaley Fountain, Kiersten Dallstream, Becky Edwards, Whitney Engen (started her career at UNC as a forward). Brittany Taylor also switched to the backline in her soph or junior year though I don't recall if she played forward or mid before that. Jordan Angeli's stats looked like she was converted, too - she led Santa Clara in scoring as a defenseman. But I read on their website that she simply got a lot of goals and assists off set-pieces. Lot of defenders, then, in the draft - makes you wonder who the Sol should take with the 5th pick. Should they take Whitney Engen? Provided she's available? Or let someone else pick her in the 6th or 7th slot and get a couple of the other defenders. And if she's NOT available - if Boston or Chicago, for example, take her and leave Casey Nogueira, do we take Nogueira? Or do we fill our "need" - which is central defense? Can you pass on Nogueira if you get the chance? Is the "consistency" issue enough to forego the special talent, the special knack she has for scoring in the big game? Does this keep Charlie up thinking at nights?
Both Sky Blue and Freedom are well set on offense and are unlikely to pick Noguiera at #6 or #7, so if the Sol is interested, they could pick the best defender available with #5 and still get Casey at #8.
I am sure it will be a day with a few surprises for us. I think he's got something up his sleeve. I am just hoping for a strong defender or two. It would be nice to have someone paired up front as a striker w/Marta, not just someone to feed balls to her. We had that enough last year. We need someone who can finish and convert. How many passes were fed right to Han Duan's feet in an empty box last season, that she failed to convert into goals? We need somebody who can do that. Boxx and Miyama have enough talent to get balls up front but we need the whole last third of the pitch to be more than Marta, Marta, Marta. As we saw last season, she can't do it all. Just my two cents. Really looking forward to the draft. Am going to start a new Sol draft thread.
I heard a rumor that Boston will take Nikki Marshall 1 ___ ATL ___ Tobin Heath [North Carolina] 2 ___ BOS ___ Nikki Marshall [Colorado] 3 ___ FCGP __ Kelley O'Hara [Stanford] 4 ___ CHI ___ Lauren Cheney [UCLA] 5 ___ LA ____ Whitney Engen [North Carolina] 6 ___ SB ____ Brittany Taylor [UConn] 7 ___ WAS __ Becky Edwards [Florida St.] 8 ___ LA ____ Casey Nogueira [North Carolina] 9 ___ LA ____ Ali Riley [Stanford] If this is true we can get all the players we dream about Nogueira, Engen and Ali Riley
New 2010 Los Angeles Sol home jersey. Looking great! Breaking news.....though not confirmed: Abner gone, Charlie new coach...team will have a new owner. ?? WTH is going on?
AEG is weak. only in it for 1 year? Come on...long term, gotta wait for the league to hit before you can expect better returns...took all the bad and ran, psh.
All this offseason activity with LA is starting to make sense. Offloading Abily and Abner means LA may be experiencing serious financial difficulty, or close to it. Expect another season of having only 17 active players, of which only 16 play. LA only have 9 players on the active roster, only 2 internationals, actually only 1 because the Swede is window dressing. The short- or perhaps even long-term solution is to keep churning out talented kids who can still make the team competitive. A great draft will go a long way to keep this team competitive.
Well, AEG certainly was serious when it said that it will not be involved with Sol for too long... I think that I should thank AEG for at least getting involved in the season number one...Would Sol have even been born if AEG was not involved at all? AEG has a lots of money...It didn't get there by making a bunch of bad business decisions...I guess AEG thought that sticking with Sol any longer was a bad business decision... AEG obviously thinks that Galaxy is more worthy than Sol...I don't know if AEG should be criticized for thinking that way... Why did Coach Rogers leave? Nobody is talking at this moment...Would the fans ever find out the whole story?
Marta' LA Sol wouldn't have been born if AEG hadn't been involved, they gave the team the $$$ to buy her (and her baggage). I'm sure the team would have existed, just in another form. Maybe not at the HDC, though the way AEG works is to compartmentalize all their different assets. So while AEG owns the HDC and owned LA Sol, the Sol still paid for their use of the HDC. Maybe at a rate, who knows I doubt it. AEG did shape the team, but I think the team will go a lot further without it (after the awk transitional period). Here's an interesting comment (that I agree with, in the most part) made at the bottom of the linked article on the topic of AEG leaving Sol and Abner being gone: "While unsettling for now, it will be good for the league to completely shed its relationship with AEG. They ravage their sports cities and play games with their teams all the time. Too bad WPS let them in originally, especially since they demanded they have Marta on their team, even though they didn't have the first choice in the International draft. AEG is not good for the womens game. Good riddance" (http://www.insidesocal.com/soccer/2010/01/rogers-out-as-sol-coach-team-i.html)
From WPS: The Sol got two bits of good news regarding their back line. Christie Shaner’s broken leg is nearly healed and she has re-signed with the club. Additionally, Martina Franko plans to return to the club after delivering her baby. She should be ready at or around opening day.
bold mine - I was reading through the thread and came across this from luvdagame back in October!!! (I knew the Sol really rated Washington highly even with the injury but I didn't know how much so. Once we got the #14 pick as part of the Abily trade, I knew she wasn't going lower than that in the draft and I suspected the Sol would take her at #8 or 9. But I didn't want to jinx it or anything so I kept quiet. She's really an incredible talent on a par with the players taken above her)
=Any Fullerton rumors ? A good facility- although school scheduling and parking would have to be addressed =Much more reasonable rent, I would think, expecially with the State being broke and all.. any rent is good for the State =It is still a very professional stadium compared to what I have seen of some of the other league stadiums =Crowd would look better in a 10,000 seat stadium, rather than 27,000 =Stadium has a soccer history- Open Cup games with Galaxy and Fullerton of course has 2 teams and the Salsa in the past. =Still in Orange County, which is where I think a good part of the market is and very reasonable shot to the San Gabriel valley and Inland Empire.. I think soccer groups and clubs seem to be what the club markets too, so closer to these areas would be better =Getting out of the Galaxy/AEG shadow would be good =Get the team, stadium and budget back in line with the league average, rather than the bloated AEG approach.
Update: Naimo is officially head coach (and a bit about international signings) http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/la/news/press_releases/100119-la-sol-coach-and-player-signing
Does make sense, but egos are always involved in soccer ;-) Personally, I worked at Fullerton while in college, and I loved that stadium. I lived in the IE, very easy to get to. If the same people are there, I would see them as supportive of this endeavor. And personally when I went to a USWNT game there, I enjoyed the exeperience. But again, I dont know any of the back room stuff, so I have no idea what kind of deals are being discussed with AEG or Fullerton, etc. So in reality things could be very different from what we see on the surface.
Some interesting comments about our new international signings, Julie Rydahl Bukh and Catherine Paaske-Sörensen in Rivalry (the Bold and Drafty thread). I"m just not sure exactly which comments to steer you all towards... A caution before venturing down there - it's a little dangerous in there, not for the faint of heart or faint of humor.
Really, kolabear, you should work in marketing or politics . All I wondered was whether Rydahl Bukh was the "international defender" implicated in the Abily trade, since her signing's now been announced.