What happens with the WNT after the Olympics are over?

It depends on their plans, but I don't expect anyone to sign overseas until the January transfer window. They will make decent money on the tour and get additional exposure. Seasons are just about to start, so there isn't much of an opportunity to take advantage of the boost back here if you head abroad. I don't think any of the Olympic players are signed to any clubs for next season (excluding Press).

 

If that's the lineup, I don't think that's a bad slate at all. Two of those teams were at the Olympics and five were at the WWC in 2011. Since 24 teams are going to be in 2015 WWC, there is certainly a chance that all of these teams could qualify, although with Europe loaded with teams, Finland and Ukraine might be a bit of a stretch.

I'm hoping for a couple of matches somewhere in the midwest. I figure St. Louis is not likely to be one of those cities, but Chicago and/or Kansas City might be possibilities. I'm guessing we will be seeing Barnhart in goal for quite a few of those matches.

 

There are noises that 2 players are going to sign in France, so they would have to come back for those games if they are contractually bound ?

 

Also think it depends on the coach? The coach may let them skip a couple but call them in for others (probably the early ones to make sure the publicity gets rolling). I know a couple players have skipped in the past but that's mainly because they weren't getting any money as college players and the coach allowed them to not play.

 

And the friendlies are happening in the middle of the college season anyway.

 

Maybe this debate deserves its own thread, but looking a bit further off into the future, where will this team be in 2015 and who will be on it?

Ages of the current players by June 30, 2015:
GK - Solo 33, Barnhart 33
DF - Mitts 37 (retiring), Rampone 40, Sauerbrunn 30, O'Hara 26, LePeilbet 33, Buehler 29
MF - Boxx 38, O'Reilly 30, Lloyd 32, Cheney 27, Rapinoe 29, Heath 27
FW - Rodriguez 28, Leroux 25, Morgan 25, Wambach 35
Alt - Loyden 30, Klingenberg 26, Lindsey 35, Press 26
Note that Solo, Lloyd, Morgan, and Rapinoe are July birthdays, so you can just about add one to each of them.

Others in 2012 player pool -
GK - Harris 29
DF - Cox 29, Engen 27, Krieger 30
MF - Averbuch 28, Mewis 24, Nairn 24, Winters 26

GK - I doubt if Solo retires. I think she still wants a World Cup, and unless she totally gets po'd about the team or they totally get po'd with her, she'll be on the team. Who after that? Lots of possibilities.

DF - Could be a pretty big turnover here. Mitts is retiring. Rampone and LePeilbet are probably question marks. Engen appears to be heir apparent for one position. Krieger will still be young enough to make an impact, if she can stay healthy. Klingenberg...I don't know.

MF - Boxx is a question mark, as would be Lindsey. I have to believe the other five Olympians will be around, so I'm not sure there will be much turnover, although with Nairn, Mewis, Winters, and some of the U-20's, there should be some competition.

FW - If Wambach stays healthy, I've got to believe she wants one more crack at a World Cup. Barring something unforeseen, I've got to believe that Leroux and Morgan will still be there. That leaves Rodriguez (?), Press, maybe Henderson, and probably a host of other younger forwards.

So if you were all making an educated guess, how many of the 2012 Olympians (and let's throw in the alternates, too) will make the 21 woman roster for the 2015 World Cup? I'm guessing around 13. If Pia is still head coach, I think the number will tend to be higher than if she's not. The makeup of WC rosters tend to be 3 keepers, 6-7 defenders, 7-8 midfielders, and 4 forwards.

 

Guessing: ~10 should make it. Might be a little higher, a little lower depending on who the coach is.

 

My guess at 2015 WC starters:

G- Solo or Loyden
D- Kreiger, Sauerbrunn, LePielbet or Beuhler, O'Hara
M- Rapinoe, Lloyd, Mewis, Horan
F- Press, Morgan

With Heath and maybe two of Wambach, HAO, ARod, LeRoux, and Klingenberg on the bench.
So that would be 11 from the list above (when I say "or" I do not mean "and"...)

Of course if Solo's shoulder doesn't last it would not be surprising if somebody younger shows up to take over-- I just think if not, Loyden is the best bet of those we've seen.

Mewis may not develop as much as I think, and it wouldn't shock me if Heath, Klingenberg, Press, Horan, or someone I've never seen claimed the playmaker job even if she does. (I'm assuming Lloyd settles into a more Boxxlike approach.) Also wouldn't surprise me if Cheyney took over for Wambach, but my instinct is that she peaked at the last WC.

 

Yes, please make it's own thread. That way people interested in this new topic might know it's being talked about and could join in.

 

A new thread has been started for the USWNT 2015 discussion.

Still plenty of good things to discuss here, though, including has anybody heard any new news (redundent???) about Olympic tour sites other than Rochester and Carson. I'd really like to catch one of the games if they get within 500 miles of me.

 

The first game of the victory tour in Rochester on September 1st has already sold out during pre-sale and stadium officials and US Soccer are working on expanding the stadium for the public sale option.

Story is here.

 

So what does "pre-sale" mean in this context? Are we talking about Ticketmaster buying them out, or are we talking 4000 coaches, governors, and Trumps wanting to secure 3 or 4 tickets each before they ever hit the streets? That is, does anyone know whether this is more like shipping platinum or actually selling platinum.

Either is impressive but the latter suggests a corner might actually have been turned. If we know the fannies will be in the seats without ticket one hitting the counter, something has changed.

 

I don't think we can read much from this other than "Abby is really popular in Rochester." Last year, the Flash drew 15k+ when magicjack came to town after the WWC, and Abby didn't even play.

If this starts happening at other venues, then something's up.

I looked at the press release and it says "With more than 11,000 tickets already sold during the general and Visa pre-sales" meaning that the general public has been able to buy tickets. You simply have a venue with a very popular local player and a history of over-selling a small arena.

 

All of the Wambachs will be in attendance.

Seriously, USWNT has a very good record of ticket sales and attendance in Rochester.

 

Correction, they HAVE NOT SOLD OUT--sales are suspended. There are probably 3,000 tickets remaining in permanent seating. Sahlen's Stadium is working on getting temporary seating so they can get a final count of the number of tickets that will be available. My would imagine they could get up to 3000 additional bleach seats installed bring the total of over 16K.

 

To buy a ticket during their pre-sale you needed a special code to access the webpage to buy the tickets. The public sale was supposed to open today at 10am ET.

And yes, BlitzSpiele, my mistake that that I said the stadium was completely sold out already. It's current capacity is 13,768 and it's largest crowd ever was a WNY-MagicJack game that had a crowd of 15,404. I agree with your estimate of them possibly reaching 16K.

 

It wasn't the number that impressed me-- it was the "pre-sale."

But it sounds as though this was really more of a staged sale than the promoter having to find tickets for the rich, famous and influential...in which case its pleasing but no surprise.

I'm reasonably familiar with Rochburg, having lived there when Abby was born. Used to work on a loading dock with a bunch of the Lancers back when Bora was their coach...

 

Pre-sale. Being naive, I was not aware this existed. There was a 'rolling' presale for this event, with the vips getting first shot, then on Tuesday Rochester Rhinos and WNY Flash season ticket holders, and many of the local youth soccer clubs were provided a pre-sale code for use on Wednesday. And then there was the Visa cardholders (an elite group for sure) on Thursday. I think by early Thursday they hit 11,000 and then suspended sales. I read that people were posting the codes on facebook, twitter, etc.

I was at the 15,000 Abby game - they pretty much filled the open end of the horseshoe with temporary bleachers. I agree 16K is pretty much the upper limit.

Also the stadium has a group of what I will call mezzanine suites - which are simple, non-luxury. I don't know how those were allocated. I can guess USSOCCER, NBC, Rhinos, Flash, and others with connections.

 

Questions and Answers - Ticket Situation - United States-Costa Rica - Rochester, NY - Sept 1.
http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/?p=8162

 

Do you have any idea what 2 players are making noise?

 

I had one source quoting noises from the olympic village, but no one else I spoke to has heard anything. I didn't get names. I might be wrong

 

They don't have to play if they get permission from ussoccer, but they don't get their share of the gate if they don't, and their player residency contract with ussoccer takes precedence above all others. It is the way the USWNT gets it tournament bonus for winning. I guess it depends on how much they get compensated in Europe.

 

Ticket sales for United States Womens National Teams match vs Costa Rica
resume Thursday at noon - http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/devo/?p=8186

 

The U.S. Women’s National Team’s first post-Olympic match against Costa Rica
on Saturday, Sept. 1, at Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester, N.Y., is sold out.

After selling more than 11,000 tickets during the pre-sale, an additional 1,000 temporary
bleacher seats were added in the south end of the stadium and went on sale earlier today
to the public. The additional tickets sold out in 30 minutes to bring the capacity to nearly
13,000.

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Womens...sta-Rica-in-Rochester-on-Sept-1-Sold-Out.aspx

 

such a small stadium..odd choice