Update: she won RotM for August https://washingtonspirit.com/blog/2...s-nwsl-rookie-of-the-month-presented-by-ally/
This is sad. I suspect she will still win RoY, as some of her competition is away at the U-20 women's WC in Colombia right now. I hope treatment and recovery go well for her, as the USWNT needs her kind of creativity and vision in the midfield. And of course it is a huge loss for the Spirit as well. I like Lacy Santos, and I think she will do well, but Bethune seemed to have a real connection with Saar and Rodman.
New GM survey is out! Some fascinating breakdowns from ESPN about expansion, the salary cap, desired players, etc.: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...y-league-execs-draft-uswnt-rule-breaking-more Also, not mentioned by ESPN but the sole focus of a World Soccer Talk article is an apparently unanimous opinion that "players have too much power": https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/nwsl-gms-unanimously-claim-that-players-have-too-much-power/ Gotta say, reading through some of these anonymous responses sounds incredibly like "nice guys" hitting back at the #MeToo movement. News flash: if you have to worry about it in the first place, then you are in fact the reason the rules are in place. Someone who has consistently good interactions with players will have seen enough positive reactions in person that they wouldn't question whether they're acting inappropriately in the first place.
I have to disagree. At the end of that ESPN article, there is a link to another article about the same subject of players having too much power. First, it was not unanimous, but a majority said something along the lines of it being more difficult for coaches now. And it isn't just a "nice guys" think like you mention. The commissioner even states that there are problems. The big difference is how the people want to fix it. Some say its just something that will get easier with time. The league wants to provide more resources to help the coaches understand. A small amount want things more back towards the previous way.
New competitive bling has dropped: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/nws...ollaboration-with-refreshed-trophies-for-2024
I mean, I think they're all awesome. But it kinda makes sense if the playoff title trophy is the best one if the set.
Bit of a shocker here: Angel City were found to have been in breach of the salary cap by ~$50k for about a month earlier this year. They have been docked 3pts in the standings, (massive when they were 6pts out of a playoff spot with 4g to go before today,) fined $200k, and prevented from doing any player transactions for the rest of the calendar year.
So that means they will miss the waiver process next week, and presumably they won't be able to option free agents next week or negotiate free agent contracts for this year. They'll also be locked out of the trade window in late November/early December, and will miss the end of season waiver wire in December, and the mid-December trade window. The post-Christmas trade window I assume will be open until mid-April as usual, and they won't miss any international transfer windows. Waiver wire is usually a nothingburger but missing the start of free agency is not good. It's a pretty stiff punishment, for what seems like a fairly minor offense. An interesting thing is that they were this close to the cap at all, even after the big increases for 2024.
I do not think this is accurate. It doesn't say AC cannot operate in those windows. It says the two individuals (Julie and Angela) cannot. They have an assistant GM they very recently hired, probably for this very reason. I disagree that it is a minor offense. It is a competitive advantage that if not addressed harshly will only get worse. It is called cheating.
Less than two percent over the cap for a month or less is a minor offense in my mind. I guess it depends whether the intention was to actually gain some sort of significant advantage, or whether it was effectively an error. If they're punishing two specific people they must have some idea that it was intentional. Compared to the financial engineering that allegedly/actually goes on in men's leagues in Europe, it's small potatoes.
From this description and the amount involved it looks like they probably gave the five players access to company cars or maybe a housing allowance. Could even be payment for some sort of visa processing/legal stuff.
While on the subject of Angel City, there was a Wall Street Journal article in July by Rachel Bachman * which included some nuggets on their initial search for a head coach Fans... (Hey, wait, we're fans here at BigSoccer) I guess I have to give more credit to Eniola Aluko than I previously had. Link to an archived copy of the article (no paywall apparently) : It Set Out to Revolutionize Women's Sports / It Turned Out to be an Epic Fight * I was momentarily confused by the name of the author and I had to make sure it wasn't the longtime star of Switzerland (Ramona Bachmann)
All players get housing and access to a car. So that was not the violation. They had side agreements that were concealed from the league. That is intentional cheating. No matter the amount, they were purposely circumventing completive playing rules that they agreed to.
It turns out that Angel City FC's salary cap violation came to light because a player that signed with another team mentioned the side agreement they had with Angel City and their new team told the league. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/58...-revealed-by-former-player-nwsl-commissioner/
Hey, remember earlier this year when fired Wave employees spoke up about an abusive environment, then Ellis sued for defamation? Well, the former employees are now officially suing both the Wave and NWSL: https://defector.com/san-diego-wave-nwsl-sued-for-teams-abusive-and-hostile-work-environment