NWSL becoming a retirement league as well?
I mean, the USWNT players could make a shit-ton more money in England or Spain or France, and play against similarly paid players, and not just a bunch of second-rate players on teams that will not be relegated.
Re Olympics announcing, I was surprised and pleased to hear Julie Foudy and the anonymous(?) play-by-play announcer calling players “in an offside position,” instead of “offside” as other dumb American announcers do.
Hoping this trickles down to the fields I’m reffing at. “Trinity, you’re in an offside position!!”
5 yd penalty? Still first down?
Gonna miss her. I’ll keep the SI photo shot, though, to remember her by.
Good timing as she’s expecting her second child at the age of 35.
Reminds me of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode when the heavily pregnant woman was running hard on the treadmill. I wonder how far into the pregnancy one can keep playing?
Shouldn’t be an issue of safety, really (Disclaimer: not that kind of doctor on the internet). But if you’re not as good as the next player in line, and you’ll be 37+ when you try to come back, you should probably stop playing at this relatively high level.
I hope to see her on my touchlines in a few years (probably not, as they will probably be playing club, and I don’t referee club). I’ve seen Julia Roberts and Will Farrell (who actually refereed at a tournament) on touchlines.
Emma Hayes (and other women) probably wants to coach a men’s team, but owners still not ready:
“The only reason I took this job was to meet athletic chicks!! Now, it’s too stressful and I have to watch what I say and do!! Oh, me!!”
Well, that’s what you get when you have to work with a bunch of chicks who now have power and say, because they are the product the consumers want to see and spend money on. Not you, you piece of shit GM.
“There’s a fear amongst staff about what you can say, what you can’t say, what you have to ask players’ permission for, what you don’t, if you’re going to get in trouble for this,” one GM said. “And that means, to me, it’s gone too far.”
NWSLPA chief Meghann Burke, however, said that it was “disingenuous” for GMs to simultaneously support improved player protections and then claim that the players have too much power.
Some general managers expressed worry to ESPN about the gray areas of everyday interactions, and whether a player complaint could disproportionately damage the reputation of a coach or staffer over a misunderstanding.
“The league has gone from one end of the spectrum to another,” another GM said as part of the survey. “We need to find a middle ground.”
These sentiments were shared repeatedly, but were not unanimous.
If you can’t do your job right, get out.
NWSL goes full-on Euro-style. No draft, full free agency, no trades without player consent – probably will start adding transfer fees, like Euro, in which the player can consent to the sale, which would then turn into a new contract for the new team, while the old team now has money to spend on a new player.
Now that there is a second top-tier team, I hope that the leagues eventually merge and start pro/rel. Too bad there is too much money and investors in the NWSL that want their risk-free return. And pro/rel is a huge risk.
Next season, there will be 14 teams in the NWSL and 8 playing a normal Euro schedule right now.
Turn that into 10 teams in top tier, 10 in the next tier, and then add the 22 in the UWS. And there are 142 other teams in 4 unofficial tiers. Just begs for pro/rel.
Meanwhile, the USWNT is going with a new policy: current form matters more than your USWNT experience. So no more cronyism that doomed the 2023 WWC.
Still some cronyism, though, to make sure the Olympic team gets paid:
The coach had limited room to add players to this camp due to the USWNT’s collective bargaining requirement that all available players from the Olympic-winning team be recalled. Hayes requested an expansion of this camp roster to 26 players.
FIFA: we are an inclusive organization that includes all sponsors, even those that exclude certain groups like women. But the money! Oh my, the money!
FIFA pointed to the impact of sponsorship revenues on investment in the women’s game.
“FIFA values its partnership with Aramco and its many others commercial and rights partners,” a spokesperson for FIFA said.
"FIFA is an inclusive organisation with many commercial partners also supporting other organisations in football and other sports.
“Sponsorship revenues generated by FIFA are reinvested back into the game at all levels and investment in women’s football continues to increase, including for the historic FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup and its groundbreaking new distribution model.”
Basically,the FIFA say: if you want money, you can get it only from a crappy sponsor.
Men are just so uncomfortable around women…
Probably should have a separate, but equal (good luck with that) ceremony for the women at a convenient time in their calendar.
Also, why wait until freakin’ October, as it is meant to find best players of the prior club soccer season? Season ends in early June (though late July in 2025). Get ballots, have ceremony in late July (in case of WC).
Naomi Girma never scored a goal for club, country, or college, yet is on the board twice already. That header was particularly sweet.
The USWNT U-17 squad will play for 3rd place on Sunday. Make of it what you will, but it’s only the 2nd time since FIFA started doing a women’s U-17 tournament that the USWNT has made it into the semis - which finally matches the number of times the U-17 team didn’t make it to the World Cup at all. It’s still never won the U-17 WC, with a best finish of runner-up back in 2008.
It’s as if our WWC Champion Teams were never U17? Just jumped from. say, 12, right onto the Senior team.
Gonna guess some lack of organization at junior levels. Or, that parents have to pay for the costs (of the whole program) and say, nah, we’ll stay with this local club team.
OK, so women don’t have a Club World Cup (until Feb 2026), cuz women. So, this guy wants Orlando to call FCB to set up a match (College Football-Style) to determine the mythical World Champion/.
Good thing they are on the same season schedule… oh, no, they’re not. Might have to have this during ORL’s season and after FCB’s season. So, June, maybe.
More interesting due to specific details of the season:
Are there a lot of freshmen on the team?
*Freshwomen
I didn’t want to judge.