Saw that clip yesterday or the day before, and what good times! Saying that, I was assuming she was on multiple teams radar to some degree since it's the A-League.
I’ve seen a preliminary top ten nominees list, unfortunately neither Jule & Lily or for that matter, any Americans are on it. Mostly likely Putellas will win it again even if Barca flops in the Champions League finals(as the elitist voters love tikki tacca zappy crappy stuff)
since its Facebook, the posts & meme come & go, but if I remembered it was Putellas Hansen Pajor Dumornay Harder Shaw Russo Renard the other two not sure about
Renard? Really? I can see the others, and would think Shaw might be a front runner assuming Man City win the FA cup, and particularly if she plays in the CL next season (assuming European bias).
Shaw ain’t going to win, Man City didn’t make this year’s Champions League and -to Ballon d’Or voters, Champions League isn’t everything—-it’s the only thing!—-well maybe the WC, but that’s the only thing that over rules these days
I think your first instinct was right, this is probably Putellas award, as both Bonmati and Caldentey (the former missed too many games and the latter didn't win any trophies or rack-up the stats specifically goals and assists). You are right about Shaw not playing Champions League is a disadvantage and even scoring 9 goals for Jamaica against a bunch of Caribbean minnows is inferior to any Spaniard's accomplishments.. Russo had a great year statistically but Arsenal didn't win anything, nor did her stellar play for England yield a trophy as Putellas did in Nations League. In my opinion, this award isn't about the top 10-20 players, this is about the absolute best, factoring in all the details of their accomplishments for the year, ruthlessly penalizing those who might have come close--like Claudia Pina, who should be second. If Barcelona win the UWCL final, I guarrantee it will go to whoever between Putellas and Pina plays the best in that win. Even if Lyon win and Dumornay is brilliant, her stats are just not comparable nor is her national team play. But having said all this, apparently this can be a very subjective award and as you say the UWCL is everything, so . . . who the heck knows. Last year Caldentey should have won instead of Bonmati but voters have their favorites. Oh, and by the way, why are we getting side-tracked from Yanks Abroad discussion, with this silly award? PS. a correction, Arsenal did win a trophy this year, the FIFA Champions Cup, don't think that changes the narrative.
The semifinals of the the Concacaf W Champions Cup were held in Pachuca a couple of days ago: Club America beat Gotham 4-1 to make the finals: Started: Karina Rodriguez (out in 56th) Scarlett Camberos (3 goals) Alexa Soto Kim Rodriguez Sarah Luebbert off the bench for 10' Giana Riley DNP Washington Spirit beat Pachuca 1-0. Started: Esthefanny Barreras Nina Nicosia Mackenzee Vance DNP Carmen Lopez DNP The 3rd place match (6 pm ET) and championship (9:30 pm ET) will be on ESPN+ on Saturday.
Charlton Athletic (2nd tier) & Leicester City (1st tier) are battling on ESPN+ for a spot in the WSL next year. It's currently 0-0 in the 99th minute. Started: Sophie Whitehouse Gillian Kenney For Leicester City: Chantelle Swaby came off the bench in the 88th.
Barca 4 - Lyon 0 Lyon controlled much of the first half possession wise and Heaps had a goal called back due to her being off sides. Barca broke the deadlock just before the hour mark and after that the floodgates opened up. They were just too much for Lyon. Heaps went 90 and looked like Heaps. She got stuck in and was mostly reliable on the ball, had one or two turnovers. Had the goal that came back. Understandably was emotional after the game. Lily went 72 and was replaced by Shrader. Lily was part of the reason why Lyon controlled the midfield for the first half of the game IMO. Very clean in possession, and with her long legs managed to win her share of duals. She is an under-rated tackler in my estimation, maybe because she doesn't often come into tackles hard, but just kinda gets in the way and dislodges the ball. She had a very slick back heel in the box that almost led to a goal in the second half. It would have been a brilliant assist. She might have been a little bit culpable in the first goal, I think she and Dumornay let Guijarro split them on the dribble which resulted in a 3/4 field counter that led to the first Pajor goal. Happened in the opponents third though, so how much can you pin it on that? Things really started going off the rails when Lily came off, not saying that was the reason, but they certainly did't get any better. Shrader had one long shot that was way off the mark, ill advised IMO. Would have been a worldie if she scored it though. In the end Barca clearly were the better team.
Club America lineup facing Washington Spirit in W Concacaf Cup finals: Starting: Karina Rodriguez Scarlett Camberos (captain) Kim Rodriguez Bench: Alexa Soto Sarah Luebbert Giana Riley Match (in Spanish) is on ESPN+.
Canberos got two assists & came really close to scoring in the 90+ minutes but it was declared an own goal. Shocking defeat for the Spirit though; giving up 5 goals might be a record for them. CA’s Geyse looked like an superstar out there but Spirit was simply atrociously awful been an bad week for Michelle Kang; two defeats in championship games, and then UEFA declaring that no majority owner can have two clubs in the Champions League at the same time—-I mean without mentioning her name, an obvious direct jab at Kang who was ready to buy the likes of Putellas & Bonmati for her London Lioness
Just read on the NWSL Reddit group; the fans were complaining about the 7.8K feet altitude of the host city, Pachuca, Mexico as to why both Gotham & Spirit succumbed to so many goals scored against them. I guess they might have a point?
Or, maybe, they just did not and do not take the competition seriously. There is an arrogance in USA women's soccer, somewhat deserved, that no other CONCACAF women's team can hold there own with any NWSL team and altitude or home field advantage or any other factor not directly related to soccer can overcome the vast talent gulf between the rest of CONCACAF and the NWSL. While no NWSL team or owner or official or even player will ever actually say anything like that it is rather obvious that it is a pervasive attitude. But to be honest I do think that the players on the field for any given match do take their play seriously it is just very very hard to overcome the "superior" feeling that informs the entire NWSL. Also every NWSL team is weakened by expansion for at least one season and this is an expansion year. The final thing, at least for now, is that other CONCACAF teams see beating any NWSL team as a huge feather in their cap. I think it will not take long for the NWSL's superiority complex to get weakened to the point where they treat most other CONCACAF teams as equals and not inferiors. The league is just not there yet. It may take another two or three years but it will happen mainly because so many players in the NWSL just hate to lose and, ultimately, it is the players themselves that drive the desire to win. Of course it could be that I am just chock full of blueberry muffins and the teams that won last night are really better than the NWSL teams they faced.
Rodman's nails are so awful (at 34:18) Ugh, all these players acting like cheap starlets... Isn't Rodman the highest-paid woman in the NWSL? What did she do in the game? From what I saw, nothing. Well done to Rosemonde for her two goals, despite the loss. Geyse is a nightmare, what a fantastic player!!
There’s a few Germans that wished hair beads were banned, lol. Rodman often feels like a big question mark——sometimes especially her athletic ability takes her to great heights, other times she barely shows up. She comes with a big background story with an famous dad who was one of the NBA/basketball great rebounders but was very controversial in his day—-had an flair as well for dying his hair & bountiful tattoos all over and added that he had this oddball close friendship with North Korean leader, Uncle Kim & blew all his fortune in only God knows what. I would say though Trinity had the ability to be an star in any practically any sport. OMG just saw the whipping Gotham got at the hands of Pachuca(3-0),m for third place, lol. The reason could be a bit of several things you mentioned. The Mexican league is jumbo sized as well(18 clubs in it), quite a few are in the same towns as well—-Monterey FC, Tigres & Radayas all part of Monterey? or are they the same team? For the most part, mainly player names I’m not familiar with. Camberos & Geyse used to play in the NWSL without making a mark it but now looking like superstars, so feel like altitude could have been part of it(I mean those two were used to it/the NWSL were not) But I agree, the average NWSL team is looking weaker these days
Best XI for the Concacaf W Champions Cup: Scarlett Camberos Karina Rodriguez (I assume -- Kim Rodriguez also plays for America & is a Yank)
Back in 1990, the US had national tryouts for one of their youth teams (I think it would have been either U19 or U18). One of the players on our girls' team (which was a brilliant team) made it all the way to the final tryouts (I think, might have been the regional finals). No way would that type of thing happen now (having national team tryouts). But I think about her just about every time I see a U18 national team roster.
I have similar memories and even memories of the fudes between state associations and between the state associations and the AAU. I had a girl (U17) that wanted to play for me but she lived across state lines by about 15 feet the closest club to her in her state was a 30 minute drive away. The one I coached for was a 5 minute drive. She attended school with the others from my team and her state had no problem with that. But the local state soccer assn. would not, under any circumstances, allow her to change states for soccer. We made arrangements that allowed her to play in the local league for me but she could not play in the regional and state tournaments. For the next season (her senior year) we arranged, a little illegally, to have her official address with one of the other girls on the team so she was fully able to play that year except half way through she decided that soccer was not for her and she got married right after HS, and no she did not have to. The last I heard she had five kids and they all were pretty good soccer players. Even the one that was U7 at the time. I know that story is not directly related to your post but your post made me think of her for some reason. But, maybe, that is the best way to build soccer in this country. Play the kids that want to play and assure that they enjoy the sport and then simply let them breed. Eventually they may replace many of the closed minded people that still hate soccer and even displace those that think soccer is only for boys/men. I guess I will not live long enough to see that but I can at least take some comfort from the fact that I may have had some positive impact on the future. Now back to watching reruns of the original "One Day at a Time."
It's too bad you're not out here in Oregon. Then you would have lived long enouth to see it. Being a transplant from the East Coast, I consider myself very fortunate to be here (a totally lucky relocation so far as women's soccer is concerned). We do, however, have our troglodytes, one of whom reports for our main newspaper, so it's not perfect. On the other hand, Ann Schatz started out here, so we even have that.
Yeah. Tennessee is not exactly forward in its thinking and action. At the time of my coaching the girl I mentioned I was in east Tennessee a little south and east of Memphis. When I returned to the 'States many years later I settled in SE Tennessee. So my main experience with coaching soccer has been in Tennessee. BTW: The State I had the fight with was Mississippi and they are still just about as backward as they were then but Tennessee has progressed just a teeny bit since then. One of the things that drove me out of coaching was fighting the beuroracy and, from what I can tell, it is little different now from then. BTW: I have thought about moving to the left coast but I think that time has passed as my health makes it nearly impossible to pack and unpack.