For fun and information, I did a run through of all the rosters (as best as I can figure them) to see the average age of each team's players: WNY 24.0 Boston 24.4 Sky Blue 24.7 Seattle 25.8 Chicago 25.9 Portland 26.0 Washington 26.0 Houston 26.1 Kansas City 26.4 Compare to the average age of the USWNT 18-player roster for the recent New Zealand game: 27.85
Houston didn't want to have to wait for their young talent to develop. It's strange when an expansion team, or the newest team in the league is one of the oldest teams in player age. The Dash have made moves and acquired veterans, etc. Morgan Brian (age 22), Kealia Ohai (age 23) and Stephanie Ochs (age 24) are really their only good young players. They should have kept Ari Romero. That was a dumb trade. Masar is now older (29), and even Jessica McDonald is 27 (higher than their avg. age of 26.1). They also have Melissa Henderson at age 25, but she still hasn't shown much progression since college.
Surprisingly I agree with you here. I would think most teams would want 5-6 core young players to build around and sadly the Dash have gotten rid of most of theirs. But the Dash is not the most worrying team on this list. That belongs to Washington. While FCKC is old, at least they have the history of winning on their side so if they take a year or two to rebuild, I'm sure their fans will be OK with that. Washington on the other hand do not have that luxury. How many more years can they go with fielding average to below average teams before the fans say no more and decide not to turn up? What happens when Harris and Krieger retire (because let's be fair they are the ones that draws the fans)? Outside of Dunn who else is there? As for Portland, the news that they may move away from relying on mercenaries was a good one. Let's see how that plays out in the future. Seattle and Chicago are the surprising ones for me but for opposite reasons. I thought Seattle would be much olders than they are but are think most of their players just have more experience for their age. Chicago on the other hand I thought would have been younger than that (Boxx may be skewing the average) because for the last two years I've been hearing they are a young team but this data proves otherwise. SBFC is another team I thought would be older than that average but maybe it's because they are mostly boring and unassuming that's why I think they are older. There's usually a buzz around a young team that just seems to be missing from SBFC. Nadim and Ohara alone can't be the only exciting players on that team can they? Though Freels is becoming a favorite of mine. And finally Boston and their never ending rebuilding. What is there to say about this team?
If I recall correctly, Waldrum concluded after the 2014 season that his roster was too young and he needed some players with more experience. Riley (Thorns) commented recently that a lot of his younger players from last year now are playing significantly better with the added year of experience. There are a whole bunch of teams in the range from 25.8 to 26.4 years, which isn't a big difference. They include all of last year's playoff teams (do I have that right?) and the two that played for the championship. What appear to be the two weakest teams this year -- WNY and Boston -- also are the youngest.
Red Stars 4 oldest players: Boxx - 37 LeBlanc - 35 Tancredi - 33 Chalupny - 31 That's going to have an impact on average age.
Here's another fact to add to the mix: The average age of last year's NWSL "First XI" selected at the end of August 2014, as of the date of selection: 28.3 years old.
Me neither: Naeher 26 Fletcher 29 Krieger 30 Rampone 39 Sauerbruun 29 Boquette 26 Fishlock 27 Little 24 Holiday 26 Kawasumi 28 Rodriguez 27
Ohai (age 23) is already on pace to be on that list this year. Which will get her called up to the USWNT later this year (unfortunately after the WWC). https://vine.co/v/eBlvrpDxr5D
Let's not get too excited yet. One also could make the case for others: e.g., Long (2 goals), Shim (goal and 2 assists). Not to speak of those who weren't goal scorers -- Winters, Zerboni, .... Those are the ones I notice since I'm a Thorns and U of Portland fan, and I'm sure there are players others notice. It's a long -- well, actually, not so long -- season. Let's see where we are when the dust settles in September. I'll say, however, that I'm really impressed with McCall Zerboni. I know it's only from one game, so we'll have to see how future games pan out, but from my POV she was the POTM (well, maybe sharing it with Long) in the Thorns/Breakers game on Saturday.
I like Zerboni too, and would consider her for a call-up. In fact, here are the 25 players I would call up after the WWC, or after the Victory Tour, since the same 23 would be on the roster during a Victory Tour after the WWC. So at the very least, this is by early 2016, or possibly sooner. F - Morgan, Press, Leroux, A-Rod, Horan MF - Rapinoe, Lloyd, Holiday, Heath, Brian, Ohai, Lavelle, Zerboni (can play DM), Dahlkemper (DM) D - Krieger, O'Hara, Dunn, Klingenberg, Johnston, Sauerbrunn, Engen, Roccaro GK - Solo, Harris, Naeher This list excludes: Wambach, O'Reilly, Boxx, Rampone, Chalupny, and Van Buehler.
Would it be in bad form to throw out an "I told you so" about Zerbs? Now you guys better take really good care of her, because she is a gem.
You're basing a lot on two seasons of "history" with only speculation on how the Spirit are going to do this year and beyond. As for fan favorites, Huster and Nairn are in that category - especially Huster, who has a real chance of making the WNT in the next couple of years. Plus Church and Miller (and Nairn) grew up locally and already have a following. (Lohman, too, but she's probably retiring soon.) In any case, averages are misleading - the Spirit are weighted old by their 5 30+ players (Lohman, del Rio, Weimer, Matheson, and Krieger). Drop them and they're now a sprightly 24.8. Of the five, only Matheson and Krieger would be significant losses in terms of appeal to longstanding Spirit fans.