News & Media II: Articles, photos, videos, etc.

It has to be a GKs' thing, these days, because Germany's GK Almuth Schult just had twins too on 22th of April:

👶 BABY-NEWS 😍
Am 22. April ist unsere Almuth Mutter von gesunden Zwillingen - einem Mädchen und einem Jungen - geworden 🤗
WIR #IMTEAM 🇩🇪 gratulieren und wünschen euch von Herzen alles Gute! 🖤❤️💛 pic.twitter.com/VxthzYe9HT

— DFB-Frauen (@DFB_Frauen) April 27, 2020

 

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Someone's been busy since July!!!! There are some and I won't say who that wish Caitlin would update this book even after a friendly against the good Korea.

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It is not just a goalkeeper thing. It is possibly an athletic thing or a high level soccer thing. There have be a disproportional number of twins produced by the USWNT and I believe I have heard that it is also that way on other national teams.

I know Hamm had twins and I believe at least three others from the '99 team also had twins.

I do not know how many there actually are over the years but I do remember several others. My searching skills are not up to the task of finding exact details over the years.

I have been rather surprised that none of these great ladies managed the hat trick as far as I know.

Maybe someone with better searching skills can find the exact details over the years.

 

Off topic, but funny video to pass the time.

 

Rapinoe got a shout-out on the special episode of Parks & Recreation last night:

[Character] Chris’ blood has potential healing research properties only shared by, according to Ann, “Megan Rapinoe and a panther at the Miami Zoo.”

 

some of the members of the Utah Royals appeared in an Bar Rescue episode, doing recon for John Taffer. Like to think they could drink with the best of em, but one player complained that her drink was too strong!

 

US Soccer is starting a podcast and Charlie Davies and Jordan Angeli will host it:

🎙 Tap tap tap! 🎙

Introducing "The U.S. Soccer Podcast", a weekly show hosted by @jordangeli & @CharlieDavies9, available now via https://t.co/7oYv6OIWjf, @Spotify & @Stitcher.

First up our duo interviews @FIFAWWC champion, 2x @Olympics 🏅🏅 & current @USWNT GM @KateMarkgraf!

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) May 8, 2020

According to the US soccer website, it'll soon also be available on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic and TuneIn.

 

The Great One.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2020/05/happy-mothers-day-to-us-soccers-original-soccer-mom

 

https://www.gocomics.com/cleats/2020/05/12

 

Next year?

 

That comic was from some time ago. They are in syndicated reruns.

The exact date is unclear but I "think" it was from 2002 because France had won in 1998 Men's WC and therefore could repeat and China was still considered a power in Women's soccer.

Also Abby's ponytail still has a LOT of growing to do before she can use it as a weapon in a much later comic.

 

Soooooooooo if you find yourself in trouble with the Authorities and you can't get ahold of me, now you have another option!!!

Congrats to Whitney - now on to crush/annihilate the Bar Exam.

 

https://the18.com/soccer-news/la-galaxy-shuts-down-its-girls-academy-program

LA Galaxy and Earthquakes shutdown the girls academies but spared the boys.

LA Galaxy Shuts Down Its Girls Academy Program

Two MLS clubs, the LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes, have decided to shut down their Girls Academy programs shortly after the closure of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

The LA Galaxy Girls Academy was the first fully-funded elite girls program run by an MLS organization — they even ranked in the Top 100 Girls Club Rankings.

The current situation of the world definitely took a toll on funding, and there are sacrifices clubs have to make in order to stay afloat, but why eliminate the Girls Academy with no warning while keeping the boy's up and running?

The girls were having Zoom workouts and training sessions with their respective teams, patiently waiting to get back on the field, only to be surprised by the termination of their club. Not only are girls that were on DA teams searching for new clubs to play on, now even more girls from clubs that were supposed to be in support of the growth of women's football have once again proven that it's not as important as the men’s side.

After the DA closed, MLS offered solutions to help fill gaps in youth programs to give the Galaxy’s boys’ academy teams to play on. The girls thought they would be offered the same. However, on April 29, the Galaxy Girls Academy learned from an email that they would not have a team to come back to after COVID-19.

I empathize with these girls who are now left without a team to play on and having to scramble to find a new club with new teammates and new coaches. An organization like MLS — one that has made an attempt to enhance opportunities for these girls seeking to play at the collegiate level and aspiring to be on the USWNT — is now taking bright futures away from these girls and leaving them in difficult positions.

 

Dang! Feel sorry for that one gal, Bella Ballard, who’s family moved from Hawaii just to play for them
Those select soccer fees weren’t enough to keep them open? Asking this cuz post Covid it could be big problem for all travel clubs around the country

 

Distressing news to be sure.

 

Guess so. Sucks for her. But I’m sure she can find another way. Guess it was not enough to make up for loss revenue. In other news...
https://www.soccerwire.com/news/nwsl-affiliated-portland-thorns-academy-to-join-ecnl-girls/

NWSL-affiliated Portland Thorns Academy to join ECNL Girls

RICHMOND, VA – Portland Thorns Academy will be joining the ECNL Girls in the 2020-2021 season. The addition of the Portland Thorns FC brings one of the world’s most iconic women’s professional soccer brands into the ECNL.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Thorns Academy to the ECNL Girls,” said ECNL Girls Commissioner Jen Winnagle. “Having one of the most successful NWSL clubs in history join the ECNL as their platform for youth development will strengthen competition within the Northwest Conference and enable more of the nation’s top clubs to face each other in league competitions.”

Portland Thorns Academy was founded in 2014 with the mission to be a pioneer in girls soccer and to give elite youth players a professional structure to work within daily, the best environment to develop, and elite showcase opportunities.The Portland Thorns Academy were one of the first 25 clubs in the country accepted to the Development Academy in 2016, and in the past 18 months have had 5 players participate with Youth National Teams.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/how-wed-fi...uld-be-good-for-nwsl-and-uswnt-180254345.html


"Multiple sources have told Yahoo Sports that a homegrown player rule has been in development for the NWSL and it’s expected to be modeled after the rule in MLS, which essentially allows teams to call dibs on the young talent it develops in-house.

The new NWSL rule would’ve been finalized if the pandemic had not derailed the 2020 season, sources say. But the NWSL owners on the competition committee disagreed over specifics, including the age minimum and how long a prospect needs to have been part of an academy to be eligible to be signed as a homegrown player. (In MLS, any player who has been in a club’s youth academy for at least a year can skip the draft and sign with the team directly, and there is no age limit.)

The rule is an important first step in building that pathway for young players, but it will hardly change the NWSL overnight.

The only homegrown prospect at the moment who might have a shot at a first-team contract is 14-year-old Olivia Moultrie, who has forgone her NCAA eligibility to sign an endorsement deal with Nike and train with the Portland Thorns. She’s perhaps the most well-known 14-year-old female soccer player in America, but she’s in a sort of soccer purgatory though.

There’s no written rule with an age minimum but, before Lisa Baird’s appointment as NWSL commissioner, sources had told Yahoo Sports that the league wasn’t going to allow anyone under the age of 18 to sign a contract. Moultrie is also too young to transfer overseas, per FIFA rules.

Unsurprisingly, sources say the Thorns front office has been pushing for a homegrown rule. But whether it’s Moultrie or some other young prospect, someone will need to be first. It’s something that the league must address sooner or later regardless.

It would be poor optics to keep an age limit to 18 years old. After all, if a teenage boy can go pro in MLS, why shouldn’t a girl have the same opportunity?

But it’s bigger than giving one talented girl her chance. The fact is, the powerhouse clubs around Europe have finally taken an interest in women’s soccer, and no one knows how develop players better. If the U.S. is caught in a scenario where American youth development can’t match the level of investment from academies in Europe, the built-in advantage of Title IX might all but disappear, putting the USWNT’s dominance at risk."

 

we've been hearing this for the last ten years; the world is catching up blah blah blah, but all I've seen is the US becoming stronger & stronger during the last decade to a point that we've won the last two WC's & have the world's top, if not most balanced league. Interest from the rest of the world in woso remains lower than in the US, we could easily see that in the WC where only the hosts France & the US had sellouts as most of the other Euro teams played to half full stadiums even though they were a day trip/drive away.

Sure a Euro pro club academy can develope players better, but whats the point of spending your whole life going through them when there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?. Less than 2% of supposedly 'pro' woso players only make it up to low end 6 figure salaries

 

New Megan Smirnoff commercial....just in time for Memorial Day - - - -

 

https://www.dallasnews.com/high-sch...choice-two-dallas-area-soccer-prodigies-face/

The same path as Hamm, Wambach or going pro straight out of HS: an emerging trend, and choice, two Dallas-area soccer prodigies face
Nation’s top two recruits, who are best friends to boot, have professional opportunities overseas, but could choose to chase a national title at Texas.



Eddie Pope is more than qualified to judge world-class soccer talent.

Pope competed in three World Cups, played professionally for 12 seasons in Major League Soccer and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

He didn’t hesitate when asked if Alexis “Lexi” Missimo is ready to turn pro.

“From an ability level, she is 100% ready,” Pope said.

Missimo is 17. She still attends Southlake Carroll.

Pope is the director of North American soccer for Octagon, a sports and entertainment agency that lists NBA superstars Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo among its famed clientele. Talks have been held in a purely advisory role to this point, to not jeopardize Missimo’s collegiate eligibility, but Octagon has begun discussing the market that could be available to a player who made her college commitment the summer before eighth grade.

That’s because Missimo has the opportunity to go pro straight out of high school. So does her best friend, Trinity Byars, a 17-year-old who attends the Shelton School in Dallas.

“That in itself is incredibly unique. I don’t know of any circumstance where two friends, or certainly two players from the same community, have both been able to do that,” said Tracey Kevins, who coaches Missimo and Byars on the U.S. Under-17 National Team.

A developing story in women’s soccer is that not everyone is following the same path as American icons Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan — World Cup and Olympic champions who played four years in college. A handful of truly elite U.S. teenagers are being given the option of going pro and skipping NCAA soccer entirely, and Missimo and Byars are still deciding whether they want to fulfill their commitment to Texas or follow in the footsteps of prodigies-turned-pros Lindsey Horan, Mallory Pugh and Olivia Moultrie.

Byars, a high-scoring forward with Spanish ancestry, was offered an official pro contract by Atletico Madrid and also had sports agents reach out about opportunities overseas, her mother, Agatha, said in an email. Byars said the family never engaged in discussions with the agents.


“I knew the offer was there, but I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to do it. I don’t want to go any time soon,” said Byars, who scored 41 goals in 24 games for the Solar Soccer Club’s U-16/17 national championship team in 2019. “Playing overseas is a great opportunity, but I would also like to just experience college life, so I’m still debating between both of those.”

Neither Byars nor Missimo played high school soccer — Byars did run track for Shelton — but they won two national championships in the last four years and played for Solar in the U.S. Soccer Girls Development Academy from 2017 until the nation’s DA program shut down in April. Missimo, an attacking midfielder who had 62 goals and 49 assists in 32 games in 2019, is a dual citizen of the U.S. and England and has been told by Manchester City and England’s Arsenal WFC that they have pro opportunities waiting for her if she decides to go that route.

“There was always a thought [of skipping college], and there still is,” Missimo said. “It’s a hard decision. I’m still conflicted on which one I want to do.

"The New York Times reported that Horan was the first elite American girl to eschew college for the European pro leagues when she signed a reported six-figure deal with Paris Saint-Germain in 2012, at 18. Pugh turned pro at 18, then at 19 signed a long-term sponsorship deal with Nike in 2017 and chose to play professionally in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Moultrie was 13 when she became the youngest American female to turn pro, turning down a soccer scholarship at North Carolina that she had accepted when she was 11. The wunderkind signed a reported six-figure, multiyear deal with Nike in 2019, but she can’t sign a pro contract with the NWSL until she turns 18, so she has been relegated to training with the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and taking part in the club’s youth academy.


Missimo and Byars have gotten an up-close look at Moultrie, playing alongside her on the U-17 National Team. Missimo said she has not asked Moultrie for advice"

Imagine the future where you have these girls so good, they are getting pro contracts from the Euro clubs before college. And playing for the USWNT! That is the future right there in good hands.

 

...last few posts of this thread sound conflicting - girls' teams being shut down at the same time that girls are being offered opportunities to make real $$ right out of high school.

no conflict.

a complete analysis would simply say that there’s still a very limited amount of money in woso, and when times are hard, the bottom line is the rule - sorry girls, you're not bringing in the cash, you're out!

byars, missimo, even moultrie, and others of their ilk must think/choose carefully.

 

It depends on the situation. Even on men's leagues, many players are having to take pay cuts from owners, lower divisions canceled, so in other words not getting paid and no promotions or relegations, etc. Obviously women's league, not making as much money compared to men, would be easily cut because of the virus. Right now these girls are young, and hopefully the virus would be overcome by that time. If these girls are good enough to get paid well especially in Europe with no salary cap, and play on the national team which means more money, along with sponsorship, which for example Olivia Moultrie is getting paid for, especially a 14 year old girl with 6 digit figures multiyear with NIKE, then go for it. But, from Missimo, what she is saying she wants to go to college. Enjoy the college life.

As for Missimo's father he said this,
“Basically what it comes down to is economics. It has to make sense financially to go pro and sign a contract,” Derek Missimo said. “Everything is about branding. Mallory Pugh got the Nike endorsement, which helped her make her decision. Lexi hasn’t been offered anything like that. If she did, that would be a game changer.”

https://www.france24.com/en/20190516-lyon-boss-womens-football-has-been-good-investment

"There is a big difference between the men and the women but the evolution has been considerable. In Lyon, salaries (for women players) are between 5,000 and 10,000 euros per month."

- 'Less aggression' -

However, among current OL players the FIFA women's player of the year Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry and Wendie Renard reportedly earn much more, as did former OL player, US international Alex Morgan.

"The best female players in the world can have salaries of up to 500,000 euros per year plus individual or collective image rights, as for Alex Morgan who had image contracts in the USA that could exceed one million dollars," Aulas said.

Just in case you are curious, its 550,000 dollars converted.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-not-be-competitive-what-the-heck-is-going-on

Interview
Anson Dorrance: 'We raise young women to not be competitive. What the heck is going on?

When I was hired the United States had never won a game in international competition. Five years later, we were world champions. The way we established the United States is the same way I established my collegiate programme,” says Anson Dorrance, head coach of the University of North Carolina women’s football team.

If you are reading this in the US, you will most likely have heard of Dorrance. Beyond the US, though, he is virtually anonymous. Yet he is one of the most successful American coaches of any sport, in any time. At 69 Dorrance is still going, 43 years after he took charge of the UNC men’s team and 41 after he helped to launch the women’s. He coached both for 13 years before switching solely to the women’s side, with whom he has won 22 division one titles. For context, the nearest to that record are Notre Dame and Stanford universities with three titles apiece. From 1986 he managed the US women’s national team for eight years, including to their first World Cup win in 1991.

Dorrance is the brainchild of the winning mentality that sets apart the US women’s national team. He has fed players through his UNC programme into every US world-beating side since. April Heinrichs, Shannon Higgins, Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm, each national college player of the year twice during their time at UNC, are four of 19 UNC players to have been given that honour. The former Arsenal midfielder Heather O’Reilly, an assistant coach to Dorrance, and the former Chelsea full-back Crystal Dunn are two more recently similarly recognised while at UNC.

Staggeringly, one-third of the players who have won the World Cup with the US have been coached by Dorrance. Five of the 2019 squad were in that category. Lucy Bronze attended Dorrance’s summer camps in her early teens, prompting the coach to encourage England scouts to watch her, and she also spent a semester at Chapel Hill, winning a championship. The Netherlands’ World Cup final manager Sarina Weigman? Another alumna of UNC.

 

https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/05/29/olivia-moultrie-pro-us-soccer-nwsl-portland-thorns-nike

So, how good is she? That’s the first question most people ask. And few are better judges of soccer talent than North Carolina women’s coach Anson Dorrance, who’s won 21 NCAA titles and coached 59 future national teamers, including Heath and Mia Hamm.

Dorrance first heard of Olivia in 2017, when she was 11. A coach in California called, said Anson had to see this crazy-good girl. In time he would learn her backstory: how Jessica had been a defender for South Carolina and K.C. had played basketball for NAIA Montana State Northern. How they raised three daughters in Canyon Country, Calif., chronicling vacations and first days of school on a family blog. How in their firstborn they saw glimpses of greatness. (“All of a sudden she is dominating,” Jessica blogged when Olivia was 5. “She has figured out how to be competitive and sweet!”) How Olivia started playing against boys. How K.C. left his job in pharmaceuticals to focus on Olivia’s development.

At first, though, all Dorrance knew was that she was “ridiculously young.” Then he watched her at a camp and saw a girl with a preternatural ability to control the ball, read space and create scoring opportunities. Someone who could probably already make his college team. “A little technical and tactical wizard!” says Dorrance, who believed Olivia had the potential to be “Tobin Heath–esque.” So he offered her a scholarship, even knowing, as he says, “we’d be excoriated at every turn.” She accepted. (And he was right.)

The potential payoff was worth it, even if it would be years before Dorrance knew for sure. That’s the thing about banking on a preteen. “You never know what her final athletic platform is going to look like,” says Dorrance. “She still has to traverse puberty.”