What happens with the WNT after the Olympics are over?

Discussion in 'USA Women: News and Analysis' started by dianamo-superstriker, Aug 8, 2012.

  1. skybolt

    skybolt Member

    Dec 16, 2011
    Club:
    Barcelona Guayaquil
    Ok, now that the Olympics are over and the USWNT does not have to worry about another major tournament until late 2014 (WC qualifying), we need to give other players a shot. I realize that the national team will be playing around 10 friendlies to showcase the Olympic champions, but let's face it, the crowd is primarily coming to see Solo, Wambach, Morgan, Lloyd, Rapinoe and Heath. I'm sure a case can be made for some others like Leroux and O'Reilly, but my point is that the crowd will not be disppointed if an Engen, Press, Henderson, Klingenberg, Hagen, etc. get to play some decent minutes. I hope that Buehler and Lepeilbet will not be starting most of these games as well.
     
  2. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Here are the confirmed matches for the tour:

    The U.S. WNT will face Costa Rica in its first match after winning the Olympic Championship on Saturday, Sept. 1, at Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, N.Y., the hometown of U.S. forward Abby Wambach.

    Two weeks later, the second leg of the Victory Tour will take place Sept. 16 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., when the United States will take on Australia at 12:30 p.m. PT. Both matches will be broadcast live on NBC.
     
  3. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Won't a couple of those be in season in Europe?
     
  4. JanBalk

    JanBalk Member+

    Jun 9, 2004
    Shouldn't be a problem if USSoccer schedules after the schedule for breaks for International games. I know it will be kind of a short time for USWNT to manage to play one game since the time (that is used by the Euro WNT's to play two Euro qualification matches/break) is less than a week/break.
     
  5. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's a big assumption. Since only Press on the Olympic team is foreign based, there's not much incentive to worry about what is happening anywhere else. They will schedule the games to maximize exposure/revenue.
     
  6. taosjohn

    taosjohn Member+

    Dec 23, 2004
    taos,nm
    In the past there have been contractual obligations requiring that the Olympians make up the roster for the celebration games. I believe the requirements stem both from the players contract with the fed and from the desires of the promoters.
     
  7. skybolt

    skybolt Member

    Dec 16, 2011
    Club:
    Barcelona Guayaquil
    Let's assume this is the case, would the 4 alternates be considered as Olympians as well? Also, is Heather Mitts officially retired now or will she be on the roster for these games as well. Perhaps, the full roster will comprise of 22 or 23 people and the last 4 or 5 positions will be given to various players depending on their club schedules.
     
  8. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Unless she's hurt, you can expect to see Mitts. With the alternates, that's 22 players and I'm sure they'll all be there if they want. Press will probably return to Sweden for the remainder of the season. They could name a couple of extra players to cover for injuries, but I would expect you won't see many. Good chance to get Klingenberg some caps, but that may be the extent of new blood.
     
  9. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I did a quick look and they did 8 games after the 2008 Olympics win. The roster looks like it was 18 players. Doesn't look like Solo was on the roster for all the games, but Scurry was the backup GK to Barnie, even though she didn't go to Beijing.

    BTW, attendance wasn't that great for the tour. 13k for the 1st game against Ireland in Philly; 12k for the final game against China in Detroit and then 3-6k for the other 6 matches.
     
  10. eNdemoc

    eNdemoc Member

    Aug 8, 2012
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    I basically agree. Surely there is a good college coach somewhere that is ready for the big step up.
     
  11. skybolt

    skybolt Member

    Dec 16, 2011
    Club:
    Barcelona Guayaquil
    I also checked and the US played 8 games against Irelan, Korea and China. Solo was in some of the games as well as Scurry and Barnhart. As you stated the team consisted of only 18 players and only 4 non Olympic players (Marian Dalmy, Tina Ellertson, Kacey White and Kristine Lilly) got a chance to play. I believe Cheney and Heath were injured.
     
  12. BrooklynSoccer

    BrooklynSoccer Member+

    Jan 22, 2008
    Between Rapinoe, Heath, Cheney, Morgan, Becky and Ohara in the back, we have players who are just as technical as anyone in the world. Pia's player selection, especially in the back line, doesn't support possession style technical soccer though. It's hard to build up play when distribution from the back and center mids is poor. They often play Greg Ryan soccer.. kicking it to Morgan and hoping she can make magic, which she often did (5 assists and 3 goals and how many corner kicks earned?). Boxx can be a great destroyer, but she's not the savviest footballers, Lloyd can be a great goal scorer with her power, but an average distributor.

    They play very direct and flat from the back. but I expect this to change, with Boxx retiring and Becky moving into the lineup and hopefully Engen and a strong comfortable right back.

    I'm personally very excited to see how a new back line changes the dynamics of this team.
     
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  13. StarCityFan

    StarCityFan BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 2, 2001
    Greenbelt, MD
    Club:
    Washington Freedom
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Don't forget Krieger, who plays in Germany and is only not on the Olympic team due to injury. Not sure how that figures into the victory tour, though, come to think of it.
     
    necron99 repped this.
  14. RUfan

    RUfan Member

    Dec 11, 2004
    NJ
    Club:
    Sky Blue FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Victory tour is for only the Olympic players and maybe the alternatives (they did play in '08 but I do not remember them taking part in '04); its part of their contract for up to 10 games for a Gold, just an excuse to earn an extra paycheck. Heath and Cheney were in college in '08; since they could not get paid, they did not play. The tour was only 8 games in '08, either the attendance was the issue or US Soccer could not get another pasty for the last 2 games.

    What is interesting is that Sunil Gulati was quoted as "at least 10 games"; he must be thinking US soccer can line up 10 games with countries willing to come to the US. Remember, its usually multiple games against the Irelands, Denmarks, and I guess now the Costa Rica and Australia ies of the world.


    PS- the players usually show up the day or two before the games for practice, ie no camps.
     
  15. skybolt

    skybolt Member

    Dec 16, 2011
    Club:
    Barcelona Guayaquil
    I think now I know why Wambach scored 31 goals in 2004. ;)
     
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  16. sisterluke

    sisterluke Member

    Sep 27, 2008
    Los Angeles,CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Sol
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm really happy that the girls will finally be at The Home Depot Center so I don't have to travel far for those games. Maybe I can finally get a Christie Rampone autograph before she finally calls it quits
     
    BrooklynSoccer repped this.
  17. BrooklynSoccer

    BrooklynSoccer Member+

    Jan 22, 2008
    I have it.
    no. big. deal.
     
  18. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    Rumblings out there in terms of nine of the teams they will be facing in their victory tour.
    I thought it was ten matches, so maybe one of these nations they are playing twice?

    The nine nations are rumored to be: Mexico, China, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Ukraine, Australia, and Costa Rica. Maybe it's more than ten matches though. It's supposed to be "at least ten", according to all the articles I've read. So it's possible that more than one of these nations they could play twice. They may end up playing 12 matches out of this, who knows at this point.

    If this is indeed the list that is lined up, then it is interesting that Canada is not on that list. They usually are on the list somewhere during these homecoming victory tours. Keep in mind, that only two or three of these nations have been confirmed so far, while the others are just unconfirmed at this point. All matches will be in the United States.

    Most (if not all) of these matches are expected to be picked up by television networks. NBC has some rights to these, and they have three networks they can put these matches on (NBC, NBC Sports Network, and Universal Sports). There is also ESPN-2 and Fox Soccer, that could possibly pick up any matches that NBC chooses not to broadcast.
     
  19. WPS_Movement

    WPS_Movement Member+

    Apr 9, 2008
    Krieger still deserves to get her share of the $1.5 million for the team winning Gold.
    I don't think she'll get the other $25,000, since I believe that only goes to the "current" athletes that were there and won gold medals. But Krieger should get something out of that $1.5 million, even if it's only 1% of it.
     
  20. raiderD15

    raiderD15 Member

    Sep 9, 2011
  21. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I believe I read that it will be allocated into shares some way for players and coaches, much like World Series shares. Assuming it's a voting system, it's possible that Ali might get voted some shares. Certainly she was injured in the direct effort to qualify for the Olympics. Others involved in the camps may get something as well.
     
  22. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The last time, they played 3 teams a total of 8 times.

    Let's check the rankings on this slate:

    Mexico - 24th
    China - 18th
    Sweden - 4th
    Norway - 13th
    New Zealand - 23rd
    Finland - 19th
    Ukraine - 22nd
    Australia - 10th
    Costa Rica - 40th

    A pretty decent slate. Not really any major patsies in there (CR played them closest in CONCACAF qualifying at 3-0). I was hoping for a Bulgaria or an Israel in there. And I'm not surprised Canada isn't there ... we've seen enough of them this year and it's best to let tempers cool (especially since we could see a lot of Canadians in whatever the new league looks like).
     
  23. Roger Allaway

    Roger Allaway Member+

    Apr 22, 2009
    Warminster, Pa.
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Won't they be missing some players in October or November because of commitments to clubs in Australia or Japan? I'm thinking maybe Rapinoe, Heath and Wambach. Maybe others.
     
  24. RUfan

    RUfan Member

    Dec 11, 2004
    NJ
    Club:
    Sky Blue FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Having single games with countries has not been the usual MO for these post tours. Mexico did the 3 games for the post '07 tour. Canada did two last year, I don't remember them in prior years. Maybe Sweden owes us another game in return for our trip there this year?

    Maybe my definition of a pasty is looser than yours. ;)
     
  25. BostonRed

    BostonRed Member+

    Oct 9, 2011
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Understandably the quality in women's soccer drops quickly, but this group wouldn't be that out of the ordinary for a WWC field (with some additions). Meaning, I don't expect any 10-0 results.
     

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