All White Kit

A Few More Suggestions For WPS October 1, 2010

Stream the 2011 WPS Draft.

And if streaming doesn’t work, an audio broadcast would be okay too. The fate of a team’s season could be decided in a matter of seconds. It’s exciting stuff and fans (particularly college fans) would appreciate being part of it.

Cultivate the Philadelphia/Boston rivalry.

So this may not actually be a bona fide rivalry but who cares. Professional sports leagues are known for manufacturing drama. WPS needs narratives to make it interesting. Aside from FCGP, these two teams were the best in the league and they both happened to be underdogs. The A-Rod/DiCicco storyline may be obsolete now but that’s okay. How about Danesha Adam’s clear hand ball that eliminated the Breakers in the Super Semifinal or the Magnusdottir/K. Smith tussles? Or the fantastic matches these two teams have produced?

Fund bus trips for away fans to travel to these games. There’s nothing better than a fierce rivalry. And two awesome long-range goals from full-backs.

More female coaches, please.

This is less of a suggestion than an indictment. There are no female head coaches in the league. WPS has had three female head coaches in the past two seasons. Only one has actually made it through an entire season. Two have gotten sacked and one resigned.  

This probably speaks to the dearth of quality of female coaches out there but that’s a topic for another day. (For the record, the Frauenbundesliga only has three female head coaches out of 12 teams and two of them are leading newly-promoted sides.)  

Emma Hayes was a consultant for the Washington Freedom this season but Steven Goff reported that she had “returned to Europe” and team GM Mark Washo isn’t sure of her coaching intentions. so who knows if she’s interesting in taking the helm of a WPS club again. The launch of FA Super League in March may also complicate matters.

Are there any female coaches at the NCAA level that would be interested in making the leap? Are there any 99ers be up for the task?

Try calculating possession stats.

WPS has always been a really great record keeper of various statistics. But keeping track of possession percentages makes recapping games easier if you know that a team owned, say, 65% of possession. If UEFA can tab possession statistics for a U-17 Women’s Championship between Liechtenstein and Kazakhstan there’s little reason why a WPS PR person can’t.

 If European players are heading back home, look elsewhere.

With WPS’ French contingency now gone, will any other European players follow? Holmfridur Magnusdottir, Laura Kalmari, Laura del Rio, Daphne Koster, Veronica Boquete and Ifeoma Dieke won’t be appearing in next summer’s Women’s World Cup (their national teams didn’t qualify) so they won’t have that excuse. We’ll know about Johanna Rasmussen, Patrizia Panico and Ramona Bachmann next week. But for players like Lene Mykjaland, Caroline Seger, Sara Larsson, Kelly Smith, Alex Scott, Anita Asante, Karen Carney and Katie Chapman, the temptation of playing alongside national team players in a World Cup year might be too hard to resist. And then there’s the launch of the FA Women’s Super League but that’s for a different day.

It might be time to expand the horizons to continents such as Asia, Africa and South America. Asia and Africa have taken the largest strides in youth development of any continent as of late. The all-Asian 2010 U-17 Women’s World Cup Final and Nigeria’s excellent run in the 2010 U-20 Women’s World Cup are evidence of this. Why not try to continue scouting on such shores? The Boston Breakers’ interest in South Korean wunderkind Ji So-Yung is a terrific start. (She’s close to making her decision, apparently)

WPS has gotten some good service out of Asian players (specifically Japanese players). Women’s soccer has developed rapidly in Asia over the past five years. There might be a gold mine of untapped talent.

World Cup qualifying for Africa and South America kickoff October 28 and October 31 respectively. Coverage of these events simply does not exist so it may take some extra effort to scout players. Shek Borkowski has a list of players to watch in the Africa Women’s Championship. There will also inevitably be diamonds in the rough. There could be the next Genoveva Anonma perhaps. Anonma rose to prominence in the 2008 Women’s African Football Championship. She led Equatorial Guinea to the title, beating South Africa 2-1. She was the tournament’s top player, scoring six goals. It was a dream debut for the 19 year-old. She was signed by Frauenbundesliga club USV Jena and scored an unbelievable 25 goals in 30 games last season. She’s essentially kept the club out of the relegation zone this season with her team-leading six goals in seven games. That’s all 2/3rds of the goals her team has scored so far The 21 year-old is already one of the most prolific goal scorers in the women’s game. And she’s from Equatorial Guinea.

 There has never been an African player in WPS with the exception of Faith Ikidi whose player rights rest with the Chicago Red Stars. Ikidi currently plays for Linkopings in the Damallsvenskan. The talent is out there, it’s just a matter of finding it.

Fix the playoff schedule, not the system.

The system in itself is fine. The regular season champion should get rewarded for their efforts. It also creates a de facto storyline for an upset in the Championship game. But is forcing a team to play two matches in one week before making a cross-country flight competitively legitimate? WPS obviously had no control over the fact that both games went to extra time. Again, scheduling is going to be an issue with the World Cup but would it be possible to reserve two weeks of playoffs before the WPS Championship game? The First Round could be the weekend immediately after the conclusion of the regular season, then the Super Semifinal a week after and finally the Championship. The regular season champion would still get a bye and the last team standing in the playoffs would still have to contend with fatigue that comes from playing two extra matches. Compressing the playoffs into one week is a little unfair.

Now on to the host site. With the expansion of the Western New York franchise, we can possibly see some re-jiggering of the WPS Championship location. With five of the eight WPS franchises based in the East Coast, perhaps an East Coast neutral site or an NCAA tournament-type “festival” (which hearkens back to WUSA) would be considered. Personally, there’s nothing wrong with having the regular season champion get the right to host the event but others might disagree. And besides, there’s a 62% chance that an East Coast team will win the regular season anyway.

Some Offseason Suggestions For the WPS Powers That Be September 29, 2010

With the 2010 WPS season now in the books, there’s no better time to start looking ahead to 2011. Forget the doomsday scenarios that seem to be floating around, there will be a 2011 season. The addition of the Western New York franchise is proof of this.

Here are a couple offhand suggestions that may or may not improve the product, both on the field and off of it. Feel free to air some of your own.

New merch.

I direct you to Lauren Barker’s proviso on this. WPS has adult admirers, including 20-somethings. Why not target them? Even a T-shirt with a simple WPS logo would suffice (it appears as if there was one in the WPS main shop but it doesn’t seem to be there anymore). In 2011, there will be 42 states without a WPS team. Merch that isn’t oriented to a specific team would be attractive to fans that don’t live in WPS markets.

To continue on that point why not try marketing individual players? Star players transcend their local markets. T-shirts that read “I Support Hope Solo” or “The Living Legend” with Kristine Lilly’s silhouette could interest people. Make it cool. See if these places can help you. (Here and here).

Webcasts.

As Jenny from http://nightoflivingrefs.blogspot.com once said, there are thousands of college grads waiting to be unpaid. Get someone a tripod and a video camera and have them stream your matches. A lot of teams (particularly Washington, Chicago and Sky Blue FC) got into the act as the 2010 season wore on which was great. Get your team’s matches seen so they can be followed. UStream is a great (and free) service. Sky Blue FC can tell you about it. Even if you can’t always get commentary at least make sure your matches viewable so fans can track their team’s progress.  

And because it might be unwise to give away your product for free, you may want to consider a small pay-per-view fee. Offer your fans the opportunity to watch all your team’s matches over the course of the season. This is merely a suggestion and it may be countered by the fact that first and foremost, teams need to get people through the gates. Offering webcasts may lessen the incentive to actually see games in person. In this digital age, every professional sports team encounters this conundrum.

More behind-the-scenes videos.

Kelley and Ali’s Corner was great. It was silly and fluffy and people ate it up. It’s also cheap and easy to produce (Ali edited the vids herself, right?). Some WPS players are truly funny and interesting and smart and awesome. Why not showcase this? It makes players likeable and endearing which makes supporting a team more of a personal experience.  (In other words give Karen Bardsley a webcam and some editing software and watch what happens.)

Back in the WUSA days the San Diego Spirit produced a feature called “In the Spirit”. The show was broadcast on public access television but that was before the age of YouTube. It was goofy but highly enjoyable. See for yourself:

Some Frauenbundesliga teams also produce videos of training sessions and such like. Here’s one example:

Considering there will be more of an impetus on marketing at the local level in 2011, features like these could help spur a vested interest in a club and its players. There are quality videographers out there who can make this happen (just ask).

The costs concerns that come with producing videos like these are legitimate. This might be far afield but if teams are interested in charging fans for a full season of webcasts, these features could be included in the package. Just a thought.

Climate control uniforms.

PUMA has been terrific to WPS so far. Investing in climate control uniforms would be even more terrific (especially for the Boston Breakers and the Philadelphia Independence). Sweat stains can be prevented.

No midseason All-Star Game, if any at all.

WPS gave the midseason All-Star Game a shot this season and fair play to them. The game’s attendance figure may suggest that the match is best played at the end of the season like in 2009. It could be the last hurrah of the season, followed up by the swanky Year-End Awards Ceremony (done on the cheap, of course). It just seems right to wait until the season is over before you start celebrating how awesome the season was.

Some fans still fail to see the point in having an All-Star Game. WPS officials must ask if it’s worth it? Most WPS teams are essentially All-Star teams as it is. If the league is still interested in doing an ASG try to lure in one of the best women’s club teams in the world, like Umea IK in 2009. As of today that would probably be either Turbine Potsdam or Olympique Lyonnais (a return trip from Bompastor and Abily? Sweet). Scheduling might be a real issue as these team’s domestic campaigns start in August so a year-end All-Star Game likely wouldn’t work. It’s worth a shot though. Pair up the best with the best and see what comes out of it.

Scale back the schedule and eliminate most midweek games.

WPS attracted nearly the same total amount of people in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The difference? The 2009 season was shorter because the owners wanted their teams to play two more home games in 2010. Cost-cutting will be a major theme in the immediate future of WPS. If two extra games weigh down overall attendance, perhaps it’s not worth it. The 2011 WPS season will also start with eight teams (as far as we know, at least). That could also help make the schedule more compact.

Attendance really suffered this summer and a lot of that had to do with the copious amount of midweek games. Every WPS team experienced a dip in midweek attendance compared to their weekend gates. Shortening the schedule would eliminate this problem.

 The 2011 Women’s World Cup is going to be an issue WPS will have to deal with. More on this later but taking a short respite over the summer is another suggestion, even if it means having the season end in late September again.

Location, location or get the Philadelphia Independence and Chicago Red Stars new stadiums.

Danielle Harvey said everything that needs to said about the Independence’s stadium issue. That has to be a priority for that team in the offseason. It’s a shame to see such a great team go unappreciated in a soccer-obsessed city.

The Red Stars averaged some solid attendance figures this season, finishing second-best in the league. But the cavernous size of Toyota Park doesn’t do the Red Stars’ attendance justice. It’s a beautiful facility no doubt but it always looks sparsely-populated. There are college campuses in the city of Chicago, right?

The Boston Breakers could have the same problem even it wasn’t for the fact that Harvard Stadium is located in such an accessible part of Boston. That bodes well for the Breakers’ attendance.

FC Gold Pride can seemingly never seem to settle anywhere. Hayward Stadium is the team’s fourth location in two seasons. The attendances the team was attracting at Hayward weren’t much to write home about but the WPS Championship game was nearly a sell-0ut. Hopefully some of those fans will make return trips next season. Pretty please.

AWK's Ultimate 2010 WPS XI September 17, 2010

Congratulations to  the winners of WPS’ year-end awards including Marta (WPS Player of the Year), Amy LePeilbet (Defender of the Year), Ali Riley (Rookie of the Year), Nicole Barnhart (Goalkeeper of the Year), Paul Riley (Coach of the Year) and Natalie Spilger (Sportswoman of the Year). My prediction skills continue to fail as I voted for just one of those names and it wasn’t even a player (Paul Riley!).

Anyway, WPS doesn’t do a year-end ultimate XI but if they did this is what my formation would look like:

Although the formation may look a tad defensive with two holding midfielders, ask any Breakers fan if Tony DiCicco employed negative tactics when he used both Osborne and Angeli as buffers in front of the back four. Quite the opposite. The pair of  defensive midfielders allowed Boston’s formation to open up. The team’s five offensive players (some combination of Smith, Cheney, Tarpley, Lilly, del Rio, Fabiana, Bogus, etc.) were given the liberty to roam free, attack and score lots of goals.

It’s the same idea with this formation. The front four would be able to focus exclusively on creating chances and converting them. They wouldn’t need to track back to cover defensive holes.

Magnusdottir would add more protection in midfield if things so a little haywire as her physical presence was one of the most dangerous weapons in WPS this year. Buehler and LePeilbet are no-brainers. Ali Riley could bomb forward when the time is right and shift the formation to a 3-5-1 or something therein.

The selection of Osborne and Angeli has been covered, Kelley O’Hara (who will tragically miss the WPS Championship game) has proven to be one of the most effective wingers in WPS. Kelly Smith would control the run of play or try to score a few rocket shots from the edge of the area. She could join up with Wambach in the final third if need be.

Marta is the wild card in the formation. She would technically be on the left flank but would have a fairly free role and would absolutely torment her opponent’s right back. And then Abby Wambach would be the go-to target woman.

Here are the seven substitutes:

GK Ashlyn Harris – Harris is a very good shot-stopper and has had a great stint with the Freedom this season.

D Alex Scott – Scott is still one of the best attacking fullbacks in WPS.

D Whitney Engen – Engen’s versatility would be prized. It’s tough getting anything past her.

D/M Sonia Bompastor – It never hurts to have Bompastor on your team. Bompastor is probably the most skilled and technically refined player in WPS. She’ll find you the perfect pass.

M Johanna Rasmussen – If a pure winger is needed, Rasmussen is your player. Technically-skilled and strong, the Dane could cut in from the flank and score your team’s first goal of the game.

M Tina DiMartino – DiMartino has been one of the most underrated players this season which is a shame because she’s quite the tenacious young player.

F Tiffeny Milbrett – Another tragically underrated player this year, Milbrett has played twice as well as her fellow 99’er Kristine Lilly yet gets half the credit.

F Amy Rodriguez – If things get off to a rocky start and you need a striker with pace to get your team behind the defensive line, A-Rod will do the job.