I will reserve my Lindsey comments for the Independence boards. As for Mitts, Riley keeps on taking not so subtle jabs at her. In an interview on the Independence website after the draft, he said "Right back was an issue for us last season and I think we have solved that with some key additions. Trading Mitts was important to get a few additional players and also get some consistency at right back." That's not the first dig he's taken at her. It can be construed as consistency from the standpoint of Mitts being injured for much of last year but even when she was healthy, he played a mediocre rookie, Estelle Johnson, over her in the playoffs. He just didn't seem to like her, even though I thought when she played she was just fine last year. If she can stay off the trainers table, Atlanta will have a solid right back. As for Edwards and Barnie, I would love to have both of them in Philly being that they are local girls but I thought Edwards had signed with WNY?
Official announcement of Becky Edwards being signed by the Flash: http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/news/general/110118-wny-edwards.aspx
i feel like through all of the trades and whatnot that Skyblue and WNY are going to be this years powerhouses. atlanta will be abysmal
Bringing Barnhart to Philly would makes NO sense. Forget the whole PR nonsense. They traded KK away because they didn't want to have a GK carousel going on. Why bring in someone else that will put you in the exact same situation again?? Clearly Val showed in the games that she played that she should be #1. If Barnie comes, there will be so much pressure put on Riley for her to play (I mean let's be honest given the injury disaster US women is having with keepers). She won't be coming to backup and we all know this is true. Val already got screwed out of her job last year when KK showed up unexpectedly. Riley should give her a chance to lose her job 1st before going to get another top keeper. IMHO Barnie should go to ATL (don't think they want to resign Solo she's a PR disaster waiting to happen).
Any thing this whole Philly situation with Val is like the eagles and their QB situation? Every year Andy Reid assures fans that Kolb is his guy and then come regular season he is playing backup again
Totally agree. I feel bad for her 'cause they originally got her from LA to be #1, then just bumped her at the drop of a hat. If it happens again, I don't see how she can have much faith in the organization. I get the temptation to bring in a big name, but why do it if you don't need to (look at Boston for example).
haha from what Galanis said it sounded like Solo didn't want to sign with the Beat. He said that they were in talks with her but she sort of shrugged them off saying that she needed to work on being WWC ready. Honestly the way the Beat are handling their affairs I don't blame her. Shame Chups couldn't use the same excuse.
See, now I absolutely disagree with that: Hope not coming because the Beat aren't handling things right. #1/#2 Hope IS a walking PR disaster AND she's going to be gone most of the season training for the WC. Who wants that kind of babysitting for a supposed world-class athlete, and who wants that payroll when she's not even going to be there? IMO, it's a smart move on the Beat's part to appear to be courting her, but from a safe distance. The #1 GK in the world not being talked to is a huge PR mistake so instead its like, "we gave it a shot and it was her decision to not come", so it appears they had her down just in case she came through. I really don't get the negativity surrounding our team. I had zero clue who almost 100% of our original team was this time last year. Never heard of McCall Zerboni, Allison Whitworth, Angie Kerr etc. Monica Ocampo was the only familiar name to me. Did it change my level of support??? Of course not. I am utterly dumbfounded by "fans" right now.
Kerr nee Woznuk was a former WNT player. McNeil was a bruiser. the rest of the team was engineered to be the young guns. untapped skill and the like. The issue with the beat is that they kept giving away good players in return for nothing. They didn't even get a first round draft pick they traded that away too. Rasmussen was an ace player. Who'd they get in return? ... ... ... right to an as of yet unknown player or some such tomfoolery and a 2012 pick i think. the players they made a point of retaining were Ellertson who plays well but is injured at least 5 minutes of every match. and Chalupny who's apparently playing with fire in regards to her concussions. I adore both players, and Chalupny is a fantastic player although last season didn't seam as good as her first season in St. Louis. She seemed quieter. Zerboni, who played for the Sol the first year so you should have heard of her, wasn't even used much the second half of the season. Even though she apaprently had her own grassroots support section. Last year the beat seemed to have the talent to pull a good result from the season. especially after the collapse of Athletica. It really seems like poor coaching/managing kept them from utilizing players correctly and dominating. This year they've dumped most of their former team in favor of players who have not played well in the WPS. THey are former and one current WNT starters. But Whitehills last season was crap. Mitt's defensive abilities seem to be on the slide on the national level and her last season was plagued by injuries, and Lloyd occassionally scores but mainly doesn't do anything. They picked up trotter which was nice but they could have made better pick ups. Which the team has seemed reluctant to do. They are obviously trying to cut serious costs so I can only hope they are trying to bring in Marta. Marta would be a great grab for them. I think this is the longest and least coherent post i've ever made. Apologies.
If a fear of PR issues is why ATL isn't seriously pursuing Solo, that's utterly ridiculous and another poor management move. I think everyone on here knows I'm not a paid up member of the Solo fan club. But to not try and make sure there's a verbal agreement for her to play w/ them once she's healthy and/or back from the WWC severely damages the franchise on and off the field. To be publicly lukewarm about her returning? Foolish. And if you followed women's soccer (even just the NCAAs) at all and didn't know who the players were that ATL signed -- especially Woznuk or Zerboni or Bachmann then well, that's your own gap of knowledge. Those were "known" players. I get that you're trying to say that fans of a local team should be fans of the team and not just track certain players. But the Beat don't have that sort of history yet. And even long-lived franchises in the Big 3 alienate deep fan bases with poor performance and this type of mis-management. I think you've made a great point that I hadn't thought about it in the terms you put out there. It seems that the strategy ATL had for 2010 player acquisition was young, technical offensive skills, let's see if we can just outscore folks. That can be fun for fans even if the results are a sub .500 -- as long as goals get scored, of course. But the coaching didn't work & the management held on to the coach too long. This year, the strategy seems the direct opposite in terms of young, offensive talent getting the axe. But again, management does not at all seem to have leveraged their player assets in such a way as to make the team better even while cutting salary. They got peanuts and no players in return for top, young talents. Franchise type player Heath became a #3 2011 pick in a thin draft. That #3 2011 pick became whatever 2012 pick Team Borislow "earns" by their finish in 2011. AND ATL threw Rasmussen in that last trade to sweeten the deal. Ridiculous mis-management.
it's the last bit of your post i'm most interested in.... i'm not trying to be obtuse, but perhaps you can elaborate a bit more about noncommitment severely damaging the franchise on and off the field. if no one is scrambling to pick up the #1 GK, why is that damaging to the franchise? wouldn't that be more reflective of the player?
well there were only a couple of clubs that needed a GK. Philly was good with Henderson. Sky Blue made out like bandits with Bardsley forget Branham. DiCicco loves Naeher. Washington was good with Harris and McLeod but once they lost Harris they should have GK shopped. Before massive trades were made Red Stars scooped up KK which seemed sort of lateral from Loyden as they both had crap seasons. WNY needed a GK and went with Harris which i can't blame. Harris is going to be a great GK (barring injury) and will probably be USWNT's new #1 when/if Solo is done, assuming the timing works out. So that leaves the Beat needing a GK and Washington. Washington apparently is satisfied with McLeod especially since they let Harris go (bad move). Which leads us to just Atlanta needing a GK. Now if said GK doesn't want to be on that team there isn't a lot of areas for her to go to. Especially since someone mentioned in one of these threads that WNT contract players had to play in the WPS.
It could be that among the secret signings Team Borislow have made or are in the process of making include another quality GK. :shrugs: They've got to have someone other than McLeod b/c she'll likely be gone for the WWC (even if it is as a 3rd stringer). With respect to her club career, in some ways Solo's injury makes things a touch easier for her as clubs won't want to sign and/or pay her until they know how many games she'll be able to play. And so she can take longer to be choosy if she doesn't like the offers being made money wise or team wise. Also, I'd laugh very, very much if the Whitworth ends up back with the Beat after they traded her AND picks for what turned out to be nothing. She wasn't WNT material but she wasn't horridly horrid.
altho all the teams except atlanta are stocked (a natural result of two more teams folding) i'm not sure about skyblue. magictalk, philly, and wny seem to have the best paper teams - so far. now if atlanta pick up marta, as i fully expect them to....
i remember reading that solo backed off not wanting to play for atlanta. i think if you add marta then solo's disposition probably changes over night. atlanta defensive back line isn't all that bad. signing marta and adding a couple of young runners around her like fabiana puts atlanta right in the beat at a smaller price than the Sol or Gold Pride paid to have marta and put a team around her. Fitz has 2 designated players (marta and solo) and 24 players under 28k. still at 400-500k marta takes the payroll over or at 1M. kelly smith is worth 100k to boston and some say kelly is just as good with her big left foot. so...what is marta's real value...200 + the perks??? isnt that what she got in sweden? no AEG so her price has to come down.
Yeah, there are no rednecks in Missouri or Richland, Washington so Solo has likely never encountered them before. I mean, metro ATL is all about the rednecks.
Yeah I went to Atlanta for three days and I was the redneckiest thing there. I remember my disappointment when I discovered there were no gun racks under the seats at the Fox Theatre. As far as the Solo thing goes for one she's still re-habing/recovering from her shoulder surgery and is taking a much needed rest from the sport. Unlike others who did the same she can do this because there is no one anyone could even name that would be as good as her currently at what she does. Two I think she's weighing her options. Considering the way she came to ATL (via life raft), I can see why she may be thinking a bit about re-signing (though I'm not sure any other team could afford to take her on besides WMJFC). If the wigs at ATL make her feel special and stop with the roster shenanigans, then I think she may very end up staying.
Our Game Magazine is reporting that Marta has signed with Western New York. A front line with Marta + Sinclair + Morgan = Madness. Who knows what they're going to do when everyone's gone at the World Cup, but when their stars are there, they'll be gangbusters.
My first thought is, wow, WNYF is going to be good. They pretty much have the core of last season's dominant FCGP with only a few changes (Morgan for O'Hara, Engen for Buehler, Harris for Barnhart, Seger for Abily). My second thought is that, with Marta no longer an option, Atlanta is essentially guaranteed to be the worst team in the (admittedly short) history of WPS. Who can they possibly bring in to help them avoid complete disaster?
Your first thought was better & more nuanced than mine. My first thought was "Dayum." My second thought was "The two team killers are on separate teams, does that stop the trend or spread it wider?" Thoughts 3 & 4 were it seems Sahlen means business (and let's hope this move is good for the hotdog business since that's where the money is coming from) and I wonder if Sahlen & Borislow are going to have some sort of alpha male thing. And no, I don't like where thought 4 takes us... In more serious thoughts, I wondered if Buffalo/Rochester was a large enough market for Marta. Any lingering upstate winter cold in April won't trouble her given her love of Sweden. Or was that just Swedes?