Yank Women Abroad 2024

Another solid game for Emily Fox against West Ham, looks like she can only get better the more game-time she gets with her teammates. As they dominated in possession it's kind of down to the skill players like Mead, Miedema and Foord to take their chances. Russo had a good game as usual. Blackstenius has looked off in her executing good set-ups. Hope more Americans can get over to England as it is a fun league to watch.

 

Lily Yohannes has not been called into a US camp since January 2022 as a U15. She is clearly not on our radar for our full women's team.

 

It is a softer league though. Emily Fox looks like a superstar there. Good player in the NWSL, superstar in the WSL because most of the WSL teams are much weaker.

 

I'd prefer NWSL get more technical and tactical than physical. The disorganized style of our domestic league is too error prone, relies on mistakes by the defense and probably is an unsuitable league at present for someone like Fox who shines playing with more technically competent players across the whole first team, ie. she outgrew it. I think one of the problems is we don't have enough internationals to fill-out the rosters of the clubs. Arsenal has a roster of mostly internationals, past and present. I'm not saying that the four best Euro leagues are top-to-bottom better than NWSL, but their top clubs are and they are on a path to become sustainablly better because their development and competitive methodology is aligned with the men's at a smaller scale. Things like Champions League and promotion-relegation are examples of the structure of European soccer that will help to continue to advance their level of their leagues that sadly we can't match.

 

I watched part of PSG playing Fleury the other day and was surprised. The level of technical and tactical skill seemed very poor, from both sides. The game ended 1-1.

 

WHAT??? Carolina Courage play beautiful possession soccer. Fox was a good player in the league, but hardly the best. She did. not outgrow it.

The NWSL is far from disorganized style. You sound like you do not actually watch the league and instead rely on hater bias. Try harder next time.

The Champions league for the women's game is not what it is for the men. Esther called the NWSL the champions league every weekend. Have you noticed that Laura Harvey and Casey Stoney chose NWSL over Chelsea interest? Have you noticed the Barca coach is leaving for NWSL?

Arsenal cannot even qualify for the group stage of the champions league. No wonder Fox looks like their best player from day 1.

WSL is considering getting rid of promotion/relegation. In fact, English coaches the NWSL have said that English clubs would kill for our single entity league.

 

I guess as a US soccer fan myself I have been reluctant over the years to credit European improvement in women's club soccer, so I might be over-compensating for my bias, especially as I've been watching, recently, Americans playing on European clubs and really enjoying the games. Whether the games are less strong defensively all I can say is I am enjoying the attacking style of soccer played in Europe and I recognize a lot of their players from recent international tournaments, so I feel like I'm seeing a level of soccer that reflects the talent from around the world.

I am not a "hater" of NWSL, I have tried to watch it in recent seasons but it's a small sample size so my opinions are not to be taken so seriously. I haven't been moved to watch their games regularly, for whatever reason, and haven't connected with any of the clubs, probably unlike you. But I do want the League to succeed, and get stronger, grow--I'm happy the League is expanding and the players are getting a much better compensation--that probably helps to draw more world-class players and coaches. I was under-appreciating the growth of some of the NWSL clubs acquiring more international talent. I looked at some of the rosters and there were a lot of more internationals than I thought.

Regarding Champions League, I understand it's not like the men's, but it has been growing a lot over the last few years. It provides a basis to evaluate the competitive differences among the national leagues which is something we don't have in our Hemisphere and perhaps as soccer grows in the US and North and South America we can have an international club competition of our own.

In the end all I want is for American women to get better both at the national team level and at the club level. Constantly testing ourselves against the best in world is what will keep us growing and staying ahead of the pack.

 

Good

 

Please, Emma, be recruiting.

16-YEAR-OLD SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA NATIVE (@LilyYohannes10 ) HIT THE GRIDDY AFTER SCORING FOR AJAX TODAY. 💃🏽

This is what football is about. That feeling. That joy. Just wonderful to see.

pic.twitter.com/oeS9aEUHlI

— The Women's Game (@WomensGameMIB) February 10, 2024

16-year-old @LilyYohannes10 from Springfield, VA grabbed a goal, and this delightful assist in Ajax's 4-0 win over rivals Feyenoord this morning. The weight of that pass... hang it in the Louvre. 😍
pic.twitter.com/Uep5lZEIe3

— The Women's Game (@WomensGameMIB) February 10, 2024

 

Why? She was in our YNT camp in January 2022. They have not brought her back. There is clearly a reason for that. She is not a USWNT level player. Ignore the media hype train.

 

OK, so we write off a player with that kind of touch because of a youth camp under different coaches when she was 14?

 

Do you understand how US Soccer works? They scout year round. They brought her in January 2022. She was evaluated. They scout her with club. She is not part of the training camp for her age group in September, and she is not part of the current Concacaf squad. It is not about a single coach's opinion.

Having a nice touch doesn't mean you make national teams. We have a lot of talent. Yes, she is talented. But that doesn't guarantee you a spot on the national team.

Maybe she has expressed her desire to play elsewhere. Maybe she has not made our cut. But they know who she is and they scout her. Emma doesn't scout for the YNT's. Vlatko did not either. Emma is the head women's coach of the senior team.

 

Well if they've ruled her out at this age, we'll see her in orange and see how that works out.

 

Re, L. Yohannes: First leg of the Champions League knockout series is 3/19/24 against Chelsea at Amsterdam, should give us all (including E. Hayes) a clue as to what we could have or what we might lose. I'll just go ahead and assume we've done our due diligence on her and are keeping tabs on her up-to-date. We're bringing-in 18-19 year olds now to the senior team, one (G. Thompson) just to train, so I don't think we are excluding youth from being incorporated into the team. But those players were first with U20 teams, perhaps Yohannes, who is in her first season breaking-through as a first team pro at 16, would be expected to start there and if she is patient and eager for the US and maintains her performances, could quickly ascend to the senior team. She may have already been told all this and wants to explore other options.

 

Funny correction about this tweet: went to the tweet and it says the club is FC Szeny (which I can't find a record of); but in the graphic in the tweet it shows the club is FC Slovacko in the 1 Liga Czechia. It's located in a small town of Kunovice in eastern Czechia near the border with Slovakia. The club is in third place in the 8 team league. There is another American at the club, Emily McNesby 23 attacker.

 

Seem to be FC Slovacko Zeny, who use 1FCSzeny on X (fd twitter) and since Zeny seems to mean women actually must be FC Slovacko's women's team.