The Hall of Fame game with Boston, that is (Pia's coaching debut). The FFF want her home to prepare throroughly for the 10/17 game with England; got that from Tim Murphy who I ran into this afternoon prior to the Kixx-Harrisburg home opener. The French have a tuneup game next Friday with a "CNFE" (??) team, then it's trainingcamp until the qualifier. The rematch will be 11/16 in St. Etienne, France's Stade Geoffrey Guichard. Paul
CNFE is the French national training center http://www.fff.fr/formation/joueurs/7076.shtml It's soccer and school work related to fields associated with soccer, like physiology... I see no reason for Pichon to be here. And Paul, if you were really thinking on your toes, why did you NOT ask about the Chinese???
Tim Murphy is solely with the Charge in a GM capacity. The Kixx switched to Omid Namazi, who is already their player-coach and he is now their GM, which frees up Tim pretty much for the Charge . It's on the Kixxonline.com website which recently was renovated. Crowd for the Harrisburg home opener was approximately, per MISL, 3,400-ish. Maybe in tickets sold, but it sure didn't seem like it...a lot less than that. But the championship pre-game ceremony was most well-done. Paul
Since Paul has deemed it worthy to make his info known, what's the speculation about Murphy's TOTAL role. Clearly, he is NOW freed up to do CHARGE related matters ONLY. But what's the extent of his job description now. Is he doing college scouting? Will he be venturing over to catch some potential foreign allocations is their league play?? Since Pia is gone, essentially the question is, is Murphy assuming any functions previously held by Pia?? We still need assistant coaches?? Will there be 1 or 2 assistant coaches??
gotta have 2 assistant coaches and i think crow taught us why a GM shouldnt also try to coach...i think murphy now becomes the charge CEO and now can run the charge as a single WUSA unit that can be of its own enterainment expirence and staff than that of the kixx...it was pretty rediclious and overstaffed to make a GM manage 2 clubs in 2 leagues. remember in terms of marketing, sales and staff, the charge were basically dead while the entire staff worked the kixx season. it also made the charge season run pretty much like the kixx summer season :cough: duck :cough: it was unpractical for 2 clubs to be run by 1 gm. good job by murphy getting his priorities straight. as for players i think kirk did most of the personell stuff...he just told murphy who he needed signed and murphy did the contract negoiations. with murphy moving full time id suspect more off season marketing, probley him doing more scouting and taking that away from kirk (remember scouting is done by gregg and the WUSA, but teams can and do scout independently and request players they see as talents for their own club :cough: pichon :cough: ) This also frees murphy up to do more league representation and be the main go between for comcast and the charge. Because of this id also suspect that the enterainment expirience at villanova will be more futbol and less indoor soccer something that was grossly lacking the first 2 seasons.
The angle I'm more interested in is whether Murphy is involved with scouting and what extent, if so. The PR stuff is almost irrelevant to me, I'm already a customer. Plus, marketing in the off season is odd, unless you're focusing in of getting more season ticket holders. Murphy and potential links to WUSA league offices might be interesting, since the Charge have proven to be a good model, and some of the success at Villanova might be spread elsewhere. Although the Charge strength is EVALUATING based on performance, NOT reputation, whichever runs contrary to some of the leagues practice.
yes...but i think kirk is more the personell angle...which would be the charge performance model...murphy said from day 1 "take care of the soccer ill take care of the business" so to answer your question, i dont think murphy will impact much in the way of personell decsions or scouting.
Yeah, but with Sundhage and Natale to Boston, Krikorian is a bit extended scouting for the draft. Is Murphy helping or Demko or any of the other players?
id bet on it for this season...helping demko? do you have any word if shes really offically an assistant now?
I have NO inside news, but if we knew who was doing college scouting, then we might have insight. Perhaps it gets announced Thursday night???
I think we're going to get assistants, and it didn't seem to me, without prying any further, that he'll take over any of Pia's stuff. Paul
i am NOT a fan of post season friendlies, i wouldnt play any players of consaquence in those games...why risk injury. at least philly's docket isnt that full of these kinds of matches like the power. where is wilton btw
I really wonder who plays for the Charge anyway. Although having Karvelsson play would be ideal to track her rehab. Monroe is out, as are all the foreign contingent. Has Tullock recovered from her September injury which forced her out of nats training camp? I see the match being more PR than anything.
id play ppl like hall and alfiler, ppl who are on the bubble for december cuts...let them prove themselves..karvelsson id play if shes been cleared to track progress but no more than 45mins i dont risk tullock. these matches are more than just pr, they are worthless and a great hazzard to players, there cant be more than 1000 ppl who even fit into oneonta's small staidum.
I don't even know if Tullock is in Philadelphia. I'd keep Alfiler. Hall, I think needs a good off season training program to improve her quickness a bit. I'm NOT opposed to these out of season matches at all. I wouldn't be surprised if some players engage in some fall soccer themselves informally in rec leagues.
id keep alfilier till march too but with so much talent who do you cut in decemeber to get to the off season roster size i do think alfilier is a talent in waiting and kirk doesnt give up on players unless he has seen it all...just ask why he put demko on reserves.
Charge depth defensively begins and end at Alfiler, that's why a 3rd central defender is needed. Cachundo's idea moving McDowell to central defense has some merit. I've posted my 18 elsewhere, and it includes Alfiler and the 3 #1's.. Players like Martin and Koleski are the marginal roster people, and the whole issue is whether some one picks them up at the end of cuts at the end of the season. Last year, RECOLLECTION had NO cut player being claimed? Sounded like some agreement not to touch cut players.
reifier was claimed by SD then re cut...cromwell was cut before the draft and then signed as a reserve. i still have NFI why kirk cut pells and went with zabala since he already traded webber, it is about the only roster move i really would question...not a bad track record. koleski i had no idea why we picked her up in the first place id keep martin...get rid of zabala instead if you wanna get serious about getting solo. your forgetting karvelsson when you talk about reserve defenders and that in a pinch tullock can play cd and fair can play right back. but i do agree that you should keep alifier.
Koleski was acquired because they were short at forward, and the current roster wasn't getting enough support for Pichon to merit a 2nd forward. Koleski was OK. I never want to put Tullock in any defensive role. I think she has far more to give than putting her back there. As to Fair, having her out on the wing, opposite of Zhao isn't all that bad... And Withers would be the pure d-mid which Fair is not, and we free up Tullock as holding mid type, and with Smith floating between and attacking mid and being a forward, there are NOT any more starting slots... This would make the Liu replacement be a spark off the bench type, like Liu.. and with the other draft choices in the 1st round, I think we see another offensive player in the mix... The surgery to Monroe hopefully gets her healthy, and being healthy she'll be a bit more of a pest than she already is ...