WPS: Backing Up an Unpopular ATL Opinion

Ruth at Cross-Conference gave her opinion on the 2011 Atlanta Beat — an opinion that most people, it seems, tend not to agree with.

The Beat are newer at this workhorse game than Boston and Philly are, so while this is a good roster, we have to be realistic about the drawbacks of these players having not been given a fair chance before. But with the World Cup this year, they are going to have a chance to develop a real team here. There is a lot of very real potential on this roster. All the disrespect for this year’s Beat is horribly misplaced.

Yes, Atlanta has Carli Lloyd. And Heather Mitts. Probably the two most maligned USWNT regulars as of late. And it’s true: I think that the World Cup won’t be long enough to keep Lloyd (in particular) away from the Beat roster as much as I’d like.

But even if Galanis attempts to build a team around Her Most Serene Incompetence, what I like best about Atlanta this year is that they’re serious about giving untested youth a chance. Shocking how some Beat fans think it’s a good idea when somebody else is doing it, but when their own team does it, they go into conniptions. If the league fails next year (which is a very real possibility), at least one team should step up and do what even Philadelphia did not dare to do — build a team with a lot of young players fresh out of college.

Yes, it might be just because they’re being cheap. But really, it’s sickening to see so many people writing these kids off.

Call me starry-eyed, but these girls are fighters, who are hungry to prove themselves because they must know that the pundits, even their own team’s fans, think that they’re hopeless.

These are the U.S. players who want this league to survive, even if a certain Canadian believes that the U.S. doesn’t care about WPS. Mitts and Lloyd might not care, but the likes of the practically unknown U-23s (well, they are known to me, but not to most pundits) DO care about how they fare in WPS.

Atlanta is a team that everyone has written off. They are the underdogs and always have been, it seems — but this year is different.

WPS: OMGLOL what is this

A Puma commercial.

I spy four WPS players in this video. The constant camera cutting makes me epileptic.

WPS: Collectibles

Last night I was trolling Flickr and was mildly amused by this collector’s collection of old WUSA stuff and WPS media guide covers.

Now only if person would show what was INSIDE of those covers, that would be brilliant. The late lamented Chicago Red Stars were prime at Photoshop or whatever image editing software they used.

If you are one of those people who were too young to remember WUSA, have a look-see (ponytail overload! Birgit Prinz with short hair! Etc.!)

(I wasn’t that young, but alas my parents were hell bent on making me into a musician, and thought athletics was a waste of time. So the San Jose CyberRays, sadly, never got my money…hopefully the Philadelphia Independence will.)

WPS: So, like, the 2011 Draft was today

Seriously.

And I have Strong Opinions.

1. I see this list of drafted people. Where’s Megan? (Jesolva, that is)
2. See #1. Lori Walker was going on and on about Lauren Barnes’ being only 5’4″ and yet having upside, which, by the way — that description fits Jesolva as well.
3. Um, so Oklahoma, have you been doing something and not telling me? Two draftees? Because usually you’re better known for your men’s gymnastics team…
4. Oregon’s Jen Stoltenberg. What a pleasant surprise; I hope she does well and makes the roster.
5. Dear WPS coaches, don’t you realize that Kylie Wright and Lauren Barnes simply cannot function without each other?
6. See #5. It’s the same with Sinead Farrelly and Meghan Lenczyk. There needs to be trading between ATL and PHI, please.
7. See #1. I know ten WPS teams who missed out: the six who still exist and the four who don’t.
8. Wasserman Media Group, which, through clever acquisition of other sports agencies, represents some big-name male soccer players— such as Steven Gerrard and Park Ji-Sung — is the agency that now represents Alex Morgan. Round of applause, please.
9. I try to remind myself that the last rounds of a draft don’t really matter, but it doesn’t stop this one from being a farce.

Then I went home and pan-fried some marinated pork.

UPDATE (1/23/2011): Jesolva has been signed away to the Atlanta Beat. Treat her well, Atlanta, or Soulja Girl will threaten legal action.

USA Women’s National Team: Ringing in the New Year

What better way to the ring in the New Year 2011 (and bring in the blog search hits) than with Alex Morgan? (Don’t answer that.)

Question: Why? Answer: Because I can.

So without further ado:

The electronic version of Alex Morgan’s ESPN The Magazine blurb (small picture) (Note that the magazine is the January 10, 2011 edition)

A bigger (less flattering) preview, but I do love the beanie

And of course the highlights video that has Morgan’s own stamp of approval (the massively annoying song that plays during the middle portion of the video is Kat DeLuna’s “Unstoppable”):

Now for the somewhat anticlimactic 2011 WPS Draft next week! As per protocol I will wait for everyone else’s previews and then complain about them.

WPS: “You can’t buy my love but I will flip through that magazine”

I haven’t spoken about WPS for a long time. I didn’t even chime in when FC Gold Pride, my hometown team, folded. I was angry and sad for a little while, but then NCAA heated up, the USWNT got in trouble, Alex Morgan suddenly got famous (or as famous as a women’s soccer player not named Mia Hamm can get in the United States), and Lauren Fowlkes got her NCAA championship ring. Morgan and Fowlkes can make my day, any day.

Well, it seems that since FCGP collapsed, so many interesting things have happened. As of this writing, Sinclair, Riley, Bock, Zerboni, and Wilson are going to Western New York Flash (blech what a mouthful). They’ve already got Fountain and Goebel, as you all should know by now — and of course a certain princess is slated to be the #1 2011 WPS draft pick, which WNY owns. I begged WNY to take Carrie Dew and Emma Hayes thanked me for my input. The Washington Freedom’s crazy-ass new owner is sending Freedom fans into conniptions — never seen so much whining in my life — at least, the most whining I’ve seen that wasn’t caused by Hope Solo. The Chicago Red Stars are not showing any signs of life. And, most oddly to me, Kelley O’Hara has been signed by the Boston Breakers, coached by the man who cut her from the 2008 U20 team (and in doing so I firmly believe that he drove a wedge between her and some of those other players). I mean, isn’t she Dennis the Menace to Tony’s Mr. Wilson? (Wonderful analogy, whoever came up with that.)

Other things have happened as well: the U-23s are going to camp again, Tiffany Weimer and co. start Ocho FC, the utopian women’s soccer team (hence it’s perfect and non-existent), Alex Morgan gets interviewed on a blog, and Morgan also did a photoshoot for ESPN the Magazine. Normally I don’t give a rat’s ass for ESPN anything, but OMG OMG, I WANT THAT ISSUE THAT HAS HER PICTURES IN IT, I WANT IT.

WPS: Woo-hoo!

Apparently there’s some sort of voting going on for the WPS Official Best XI, and I have only one real complaint: that the Cross-Conference Collector wasn’t allowed to vote. Even if they’re not media, they actually interview players that matter (i.e., not the ones everyone talks to).

Anyway, if I were voting, I would vote for (4-3-3):

• Hope Solo (Ha. Ha ha. Ha Ha HA HAHAHA …I would actually vote for Erin Guthrie. But that’s besides the point)
• Marian Dalmy (because…uh. I’ll get back to you on that. Maybe.)
• Daphne Koster (because she has a lot of haters and I feel bad for her)
• Nikki Marshall (BECAUSE SHE IS THE BEST. THE REST OF YOU SUCK AND ARE UNWORTHY)
• Holmfridur Magnusdottir (SHE WILL CRUSH YOUR BONES. None of this messing around, Wambach!)
• Lori Chalupny (because I haven’t thought about her in a long time)
• Becky Edwards (because she expects nothing less)
• Carrie Dew (because she is a dear. This is the real Carrie, not Jackie Molinda)
• Patrizia Panico (because she pissed Boston off. Hey, Magnusdottir does that too. YAY)
• Kelley O’Hara (because she’s not a midfielder, Pia)
• Ramona Bachmann (for underachieving and diving and getting Rachel Brown into trouble)

I patiently await the true results!

NCAA, WPS: Start tagging your tweets with #JillianMastroianni

Last night, like some people, I was watching Philadelphia vs. Boston. And I am so glad that Tony DiCicco will not have the satisfaction of getting the Breakers to the Final. Jerk.

My feelings all came out on Twitter, so I won’t rehash them. There was only one Boston team doing Massachusetts proud, and it was not the Breakers.

Now for NCAA.

• Cal scored first on Portland, thanks to Katrin “Thankful For My Sports Bras” Omarsdottir, a regular on the Icelandic women’s national team — she assisted the actual goal scorer, Lauren Battung. Who so happens to be the niece of the massage therapist for the 2008 USA U-20 WNT — yes, the one Morgan and Leroux were on.
• And then Portland’s coach probably spanked his Pilots for being stupid, so that they came out and scored three goals to win in the second half.
• Needless to say, Alex Morgan was not there. It would have been ridiculously ironic, and very sad, if the Bears had toppled Portland without her, but thankfully Foxhoven and Schmidt and the Purple Gang prevented that. Thanks Pilots!
• The Cross-Conference Collector has already been celebrating Boston College’s win over the Evil Clones North Carolina, so I’ll just point you there.
• With that said, I’m starting a new hashtag movement on Twitter!!!11!!!eleventy!!
• Since Jillian Mastroianni was apparently THE ALMIGHTY HERO in the Eagles’ victory (not counting a) the sans-Kelly Henderson backline, and b) Kristen Mewis and the third-oldest DiMartino sister, who have their own tag: #DiMartinoMewis, if you’re willing to help out with that), I’ve decided to honor her with her very own hashtag: #JillianMastroianni.
• I will use it to mock all of Boston College’s opponents, except my poor Virginia Cavaliers.

UNRELATED: Stanford Women’s Soccer keeps flooding my Twitter account like Hope Solo on fifteen cans of Red Bull. Maybe I should just stop following them.

WPS: No I’m not talking about Hope Solo…much

I am glad that SBFC won’t have a chance to repeat as champions. That’s what you get for depending on poor Karen Bardsley to save your ass all the time.

Also, I am waiting for the league’s justification as to why the WPS commissioner left. I see that they have a replacement ready, but I hereby propose Lisa De Vanna as a better candidate, because she doesn’t know how to keep everything private and therefore we would not be constantly kept in the dark about what shady business the league does, especially if it involves inflatable penises.

WPS: In which there are DiMartinos arguing

I am in love with this video for several reasons.

1. Seger’s Valerie Henderson imitation
2. Val’s Caroline Seger imitation
3. Everything that had to do with DiMartinos
4. Katherine Reynolds