Thoughts and updates
After the Spirit game, the last time I wrote, it was hard to determine what to write next. After the Utah game, the only thing to talk about was Savy King, and the details of the game didn’t seem that important. My focus has always been just on the soccer side of things; I think that there are a number of other writers that cover the off-the-field aspects of Angel City and the NWSL. So I didn’t really have any thoughts to share. I think that Meg Linehan summed up my feelings much better than I could. And strictly looking at the on-the-field side of things, there wasn’t a lot to discuss in the Bay or Louisville games. My previous thoughts stand, that there are signs of the team taking shape, but it’s not there yet, and really, all aspects need to improve. Also, with Straus coming in, those games aren’t going to change the trajectory in a meaningful way. And of course, with the Bay game especially, the Angel City players couldn’t be focused on football yet. Added to this, personally, I wasn’t able to get into the depth of analysis that I really wanted to when I write about every game. So as we get into the Straus era, I will write about what changes I see, and have more game analysis. In the meantime, though, I do have a couple other longer articles I’ve been working on that will be more about the league in general.
New Players
I did have a few thoughts though. The first is about the two new players that Angel City signed, Sveindís Jónsdóttir and Hannah Seabert. Both of these feel like Straus signings. Jónsdóttir had played at Wolfsburg for the past four years, so Straus would have encountered her on numerous occasions while he managed Bayern Munich. Seabert’s Sporting CP did not play against Munich, but they did get into the early rounds of the Champions League. Sporting eventually fell 5-1 on aggregate to Real Madrid, with Seabert in goal for all of their matches, and I would imagine that Straus and the Munich staff were monitoring all Champions League opponents.
Both players seem to have upside. Jónsdóttir in particular has shown flashes of greatness, like her four goal performance against Roma. In her game footage, she clearly has pace and power, but she just hasn’t been consistent yet, and was usually coming off the bench with Wolfsburg. Still, she’s only 24, so there’s reason to believe that consistency can happen. Seabert is 30, and has done well in her career, but the Portuguese, Norwegian, and Danish leagues are not among the best of Europe. On paper, Seabert looks more like a depth signing, rather than a clear upgrade on Anderson.
The thing that strikes me as odd is the positions they play. Wide attacker is maybe the deepest position for Angel City. Fans are already upset about the lack of minutes for Press, and Endo seems like she’s close to returning from injury. How much playing time will Jónsdóttir receive, or do they envision her playing somewhere else? And adding a fourth goalkeeper is surprising, to say the least. There is finite salary and roster spots available, and at least two, if not three keepers will probably never play a minute this season. If it were someone like Ann-Katrin Berger, then of course you make that deal, but Seabert doesn’t have that kind of resume.
These moves are even more striking, since there is a glaring hole in the roster. We were not particularly deep at centerback to begin the year, and my expectation is that King won’t play for the rest of this season, judging by cases like Christian Eriksen. Hopefully, she will be back at 100%, but for the time being, Angel City looks very thin at centerback, and we’re already one of the worst defensive teams in the league (13th in Goals Against, and 11th in xGA). To me, adding a dominant centerback was the most important move to make. Instead we added two players in positions of depth and it’s hard to envision either getting much playing time. We can’t really judge the moves until we see how Straus lines up the team, and I would really know who was pushing for these particular players.
There is also the question of outgoing players. Do these moves signal that someone is going to be moved? It would make sense for Bre Norris to be loaned out, at least. Also, very quietly, the Vanessa Gilles saga finally came to an end, with her leaving on a permanent transfer to Bayern Munich. I did not see a lot published about the fee, but I hear it was for €200,000. If there are other outgoing players, there could be the funds for another major signing, although after last year, I’m not going to try to pretend that I can figure out Angel City’s salary cap levels. I don’t have my eye on any particular centerback, but I’m looking for a move. As a side note, though, I think that Gotham, Orlando, and San Diego also both have a lot of money to spend, so even a big signing isn’t necessarily going to move us up into the top portion of the table.
CONCACAF W Champions Cup
The semifinals and finals of the W Champions Cup happened, and I don’t know that that many NWSL fans are into this, but I really am, and so I wanted to share what I like about it. I think that it’s always exciting to get to play teams that we don’t normally see, and the games against Club America and Tigres were definitely a different style from NWSL games. Gotham won, if you didn’t see, and will represent North and Central America for the upcoming FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. I think that the upcoming Club World Cup for the men is kind of a joke, and definitely just a money grab. The men’s team that wins the UEFA Champions League is the best club team in the world. But in the women’s game, it’s different. The NWSL is, in my estimation, still the best overall league in the world, but probably the single best teams are in Europe. Getting to see the best of each play each other is going to be amazing.
I think that this is also important for the growth of the women’s game. A lot is said about the number of games that some footballers are having to play, and I don’t discount any of that or want to diminish that. It is a real problem that needs to be addressed. But this also is only true for a fraction of professional players. If you’re in the starting eleven for you’re club, and if you’re on a national team, then you will play a lot of games. But I think that there is a huge gap between the top levels and the bottom levels. Coaches need to understand the physical demands of playing more games, but rotating a squad will give more opportunities to more players. Also, no country in CONCACAF has a league as devleoped as the NWSL. Many are not even fully professional. And these teams don’t get to play enough games, and especially never get to see the level of competition that someone like Gotham will provide. This competition is going to raise the level of play all across the region.
The other factor is financial. As the competition grows, the reward for winning it also grows. And even if broadcast rights are pretty small, that’s potentially 16-20 countries that want to buy the broadcast rights, and that can result in a real financial incentive. I don’t want to say it’s all just about money, but in my experience, people rarely do the right thing just because it’s the right thing. If there’s an incentive to do the right thing, that’s another story. If, say, the winner of the tournament gets an extra $1 million dollars, teams will invest more to win that. And for the smaller countries, it’s entirely possible that they could get more from this competition than from their league. Should people invest in women’s sports anyway? Yes, absolutely. But we have seen plenty of countries unwilling to do that. Winning money is a great incentive to do that. Growing this tournament into a something with fincial clout is important to the whole region, and I’d like to see NWSL clubs fighting to be one of the teams that gets a W Champions Cup spot. It’s good for the NWSL, but it can be massive for the region.