Mustonen Comes, Yankowski goes... From the WUSA website... Any clues as to why the Courage would take on a foreigner of Minna's apparent lack of stature in the league??? http://www.wusa.com/press_room/332991.html
this was really a bad choice..from what i heard she wasnt even at most of the games with new york because of the finnish natl. team, what good will she do us if she cant even make it to most of the games?
Good point staciwilson2. According to the article posted at the Courage website Mustonen only played in 12 matches last season for the Power: I expect the Courage to continue playing a 4-4-2 with Fotop and Prinz on top so that means Mustonen will probably only get to start when Prinz is with the German National Team or if there is an injury or suspension. I think it is a mistake to use one of your four international player slots on someone who won't be starting most of the time.
For what it's worth...Mustonen was away on her national team a lot last year because Finland was trying to qualify for the World Cup. They didn't make it so she should be more available this year.
I had a chance to see Mustonen in action for Franklin Pierce College and the Boston Renegades. She is a tall player with good physical presence and a great shot. She does not have the killer instinct that you see in Prinz. Minna is too "nice", but maybe Riise and Prinz can toughen her up and get her to the next level. As a bonus, Minna is a starter on my all-blonde team. Can you say "salary cap"?
Yanki gone Hello all. I think this is a trade we may soon regret. Kinda like New York waiving Nel and then Nel starting and winning the Founder's Cup. Kim, we are gonna miss you. But play hard and we will see you here twice this year. Kara
Actually Minna could end up missing almost as much WUSA action in 2003 as she did in 2002. She will likely miss at least two to three weeks of the Courage's spring training camp while she is with the Finnish National Team preparing for and competing in the Algarve Cup. I believe that Finland will also be playing at least four of their Euro2005 qualifying matches next year as well. At least Finland isn't in the same group with either Norway or Germany so there is the chance that Minna won't be away during the same time that Hege, Unni, and Birgit are also with their national teams.
The main problem with the player movements is that they're all occuring in a vacuum. Unless Ramsey is planning on coaching the team, I would hope that there be some movement on who is going to be carrying the whistle next season. The Women's NCAAs finished over a week ago - and no rumors, lists, anything. Just silence. The delayed waiver lists are due today, and the waiver draft is Wednesday. I don't really have too much trouble with the trade - in and of itself. We were never going to give Kim the chance at being an every day player. And Mustonen definitely gives us youth. Plus maybe they were just trying to draft a girlfriend for Sami Kappenen . Has anyone heard anything about coaching since McDermott stepped down?
It does seem a bit strange that over a month after Marcia McDermott stepped down there has been no news at all about any Courage coaching candidates. A couple of weeks ago I posted an excerpt from a conversation I had on the radio with Marcia McDermott , but it disappeared during the "BS restoration." One of the co-hosts of "Inside Soccer," Brian Halliday, asked me to give my predictions on the air for who would be the next Courage coach. I mentioned the names of Courage Assistant Coach Susan Ellis and USWNT and UNC Assistant Coach Bill Pallidino and Marcia McDermott responded to this by saying that I was "paying attention" and then went on to say that she has "a lot of confidence in Susan Ellis." McDermott continued by saying that Ellis was "a huge part of our success thus far" and that she couldn't say enough about what Ellis had done both with the draft and the organization of Courage defense during the past season. Since so much time has gone by without any official announcement being made, it looks doubtful that Ellis was the top candidate for the Courage head coaching position. Perhaps Susan is one of several candidates and an announcement will hopefully be made very soon.
Which brings up another issue. The current assistants are left dangling. Almost any new coach will likely bring in their own staff. If you promote someone (e.g. Ellis), then you still need to bring in a replacement there. Maybe a wildcard here has to do with the ongoing CBA discussions. Perhaps one of the items up for discussion is "player-coach"..... Afterall, the player we traded went to NC State...
This was my big question, too. Aside from the value (or not) of a particular player, why make a trade when the coach is unknown.
Level of impact and Flank play from the courage OK quick quiz, how many assists or goals did Yankowski have a hand in, in her two years as a courage player? what is the system played by the courage and do they utilize flank players? It's not like these people are trading Hege Riise here.
The Courage used different formations at different times. They started 2001 with 3 in back and flank midfielders. Later they used 4 in back and did not have flank midfielders. There was not really a place for Yanki in that formation. I think the complaint here is more about what we got than what we gave up...
But if we were paying for more than we were willing to use.... Kim will likely get a chance at being a 90 minute player in New York. I didn't see that happening here. Of course a new coach.... The one player that I see having McDermott gone affecting the most is Staci Wilson who was definitely in McDermott's doghouse.
I agree with that thought. The players traded, as I alluded to before the latest BS hiccup, was a "nothing-for-nothing" trade. What the transaction did was escalate CAR's salary close to, or over, the cap. Internationals cost more. And you used up the last international slot for someone who may not even log 1000 minutes. CAR, in effect, helped NY to trim salary off their cap. Not to mention the fact that NY got rid of an unproductive international. How quickly people forget the quagmire WAS faced at the start of last season when they wanted to sign an international but were stuck with two Brazilians. They traded one, & cut the other. In order to finance that roster cut, they had to trade a 1st-rounder for cap relief. With that little bit of history, I suspect the Mustonen deal was Ramsey's downfall. The finance guy may have told him that it was an acquisition not worth making, from a purely financial point of view.
Just because Mustonen is an international, it doesn't mean she costs the league more than Yankowski. She's also younger, and playing internationals. There's a huge upside to Mustonen. Let's not condemn her out of hand. Yankowski showed plenty of fitness, and she was in awesome physical shape, but I never exactly saw her take over a game, either. Maybe this trade was bad, maybe it was good. It's certainly waaaaaaay too early to tell.
I agree with this Andy here, you get a young player with a solid upside. Andy is correct again in saying that an international is not necessarily more costly than a domestic player. Secondly, look at the enviornment in NY, NY made even Milbret look ordinary most of the time. So they didn't give up any production (to answer my earlier query - 2 assists in two years) but we're not sure if they got anything either............it's like a grab bag.
Birgit and Hege will be missing time due to friendlies for their national team. The European Championships shouldn't be a problem. The first games for most teams are in late September two years before the date of the Championships themselves. However, due to the World Cup they will probably start them with one game in late October and then start early the next spring. Finland just has Sweden in their group of teams who will be going to the World Cup so it will be good for them anyway. So things are in good shape for Minna to play. She's good. She just hasn't found her niche yet.
Keep in mind that Mustonen is not guaranteed to play in Carolina. Just because someone is involved in a trade does not mean that they are automatically on that team. She can be waived, just like anyone else (and probably will, if things happen the way they should). Keep in mind Yankowski's age and the fact that her husband lives and works in Connecticut.
Norway's Euro 2005 Schedule With the Courage schedule as it stands right now, Hege and Unni will miss at least two Courage matches in May due to Euro 2005 qualifying matches that will be played in Norway. All of my previous posts with that information were lost during the "BS restoration," but I recall that Norway's third Euro2005 match is scheduled for 9/11 against Denmark. I'll post the exact dates of those matches in may when I get a chance to look this information up again.
Status of Solveig Gulbrandsen This is a good point that you are making. I believe that AndyMead also wrote something similar to this in one of his posts that was lost during the "BS restoration." My first reaction to this trade was that this meant that Solveig Gulbrandsen would definitely not be coming to the Courage next season. I have a feeling that Kolbotn's GM will still continue to do whatever she can to prevent Solveig or any of her players from transferring to the WUSA, but maybe there is at least an outside chance that Solveig could still end up in a Courage uniform.
I did not see any Euro 2005 matches listed yet but that is still a possibility but I doubt that it would be their third match just in September. So they are trying to get more done before the World Cup instead of adding more later on. I would not advise it but if that's their decision then they must think it is to their advantage.
Norway's 2003 Euro2005 Fixtures I just found my post from Dec. 11 that I made to the WUSA message boards about this topic:
Now that is a bummer. However, they may do without Riise for one of these matches. They don't really need her because they can easily handle the Lowlanders without her.