WPS player allocation

Steph goes to LA WPS team.

http://fans.womensprosoccer.com/

It looks like they got a good distribution of talent. I like L.A. drafts of course but I think St. Louis with Hope Solo and Lori Chalupny got the best defensive draft.

I was looking at the player allocations and noticed that most of the head coaches have been assigned to teams also. Where Steph is going (L.A.) I see the head coach is Abner Rogers.


You may recognize him as the director at the Laguna Hills club team where several players have come to UP from, including Michelle Enyeart. He was great friends with Clive. Another reason to root for them.

Next week is foreign player allocations.

Friends with Clive eh?? I wonder if him getting Christine allocated is in the cards as well....

Abner is an interesting choice for L.A. He is friends with Anson Dorrance too. He also coached Amy Rodgriguez from USC and Casey Moore from Texas (you will remember her big sister for sure Kristen), also Kiki Bosio and Courtney Lewis from SCU. Yes they were all on the same club team at the same time. Quite an extraordinary group of girls.

i was pretty surprised that angie, [i know i'm biased], that she was't allocated to a team?!! i realized she had a back injury in u.s. training camp for the oplympic team, but really?!!! what are these teams thinking??

knock 'em out wozzie!!!

My understanding is that the allocation was only for the Olympic team members (and Abby - she was named to the team.) Foreign players and other players are still to come...

maybe i misunderstood the parameters. i thought it was olympic team 'pool' players from what i read in the Oregonian. they reported the cities angie wanted to go to out of a preference were the bay area, l.a. an chicago. as far as i know, angie is in the olympic team pool, while maybe not being an olympian.

They were only going to "allocate" 21 players... So inherently 7 of the 28 US players available were going to be left out... Unfortunately one of those was Angie... That said, she is a free agent now, and could theoretically sign with any team

Rochin, I heard there will be another draft for other players not allocated. There is a goal of parity among the teams to help facilitate the sucess of the league.

There will be a draft of international players beginning Sept 26 then a draft of the domestic players in October.

International Player Draft Results

First pick, second round.... After a whole bunch of Brazilians
Congrats Christine!!!

I can't believe Christine did not go until the second round. The only player I would have considered in her category is Marta. Go figure.

Different teams different needs I guess but it is interesting that Christine wasn't picked until the second round.

So how does this work since many of these players have been playing for clubs in different countries. I'm assuming that this only gives the WPS teams the right to these players if they come to terms with their current teams, is this correct?
So we may not see these players playing with these WPS teams right away.

PilotPoseur, The teams must deal with the owners of any player under contract with a club or team. I anticipate it will be similar to the model that allows players under contract with european clubs to be "loaned" or "sold". That very much could have been a factor in who got chosen first.

An attractive pick would be a player who had no other existing contractual obligations. The US National players have a contract with US soccer but obviously has made some type of deal with the new league hence the "Olympian Draft" Its kinda like the NFL you can draft them but then you must be able to sign them too.

I think each player was interviewed before the allocations as to their availability and perhaps had to declare they would play.

More than likely... And brazilians put butts in seats, thats the only reason why I can see Christine dropping so far. But hey the Bay team landed the 1st pick and still managed to land Sinclair in the second round?? Not too shabby.

I just hope the league can actually find some sponsors. They don't even have a jersey manufactuer for the teams, much less a TV contract. It seems a long way from viability, but maybe I'm just cynical....

Rochin, me boy. With the information you imparted in your last paragraph, you are much more realistic than cynical. No jersey manufacturer and no TV contract at this point is very concerning - unless things are lined up and under control, just not announced yet.

I mean, how could they hold drafts if they couldn't put jerseys on their backs? How could they be getting ready to launch next spring if they couldn't pay salaries?

I guess I'm just going to sit back and see how it all unfolds. We all love the idea. Watching it all come to fruition could be a lot of fun.

But I wouldn't bet the house on it. That's true with every fledgling sports league.

(BTW - your "websmiley" is one of the best I've seen. Made me laugh at first glance.)

As far as I can tell Soccer United Marketing will be responsible for sponsors and sales. Its a pretty beefy organization see for yourself.

Soccer United Marketing