This week we look at Carolina Morace and her staff's decision to walk away from the Trinidad and Tobago Women's National Team program over a pay dispute, which leaves the island nation starting over in terms of planning and developing a vision for their quest to make the 2019 Women's World Cup Finals.
We also review the first two games for each group at the 2017 Women's European Championships in the Netherlands. We finish with the U.S. and Australian National Teams rosters as they are participating in a 4 team tournament in the Western U.S. next week.
More Chaos in the Caribbean—Carolina Morace and her staff leaves their national team coaching jobs after having not been paid for three months.
Carolina Morace was named Trinidad and Tobago National Team Head Coach last December with much fanfare in the island national. This writer thought at the time that this was a bit of a risk on the T&T Federation's part, as Morace's track record as an international coach with Canada and her native Italy was not outstanding. However, she and her staff should not be blamed for leaving Trinidad as this situation is all down to the apparent inability of the T&T Football Federation to once again effectively handle its finances—Morace and her staff of three assistants have not been paid for three months.
Remember, this is the same federation that received several thousand dollars from Haiti's Women's National Team players to get through a pre-training period just prior to the start of the final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2015 Women's World Cup. Ultimately, Trinidad barely missed qualifying for Canada, losing out on aggregate 1-0 to Ecuador in a play-in series for the last spot, surrendering the winning goal in the final minute in the second leg at home before a large crowd.
Morace, who has a law degree, emphasized to Lasana Liburd, the founder and editor of Wired 868—a long time follower of the men's and women's game in his home country—that "the contract [is] terminated for just cause." Morace and her three assistants—Nicola Williams, who was in charge of T&T's U-20 side (born in the U.K. but who moved to Australia in her youth and is a well-respected coach down under, having led Perth Glory in their first season in the W-League in2008-09 and played in the previous Australian top level league for the Western Waves of the WNSL—which operated for 9 years from 1996-2004, but included her Perth side for only the last season of the league's existence), Elisabetta Bavagnoli (a former national team player for Italy who assisted Morace in Canada) and Manuela Tessa, who was T&T's U-17 head coach {she played for FIFA's World All Stars when they defeated the U.S. Women's National Team 2-1 in San Jose early in 1999, ahead of the Women's World Cup Tournament that the U.S. won)--was reportedly costing the federation US$24,000 a month.
Thus, the Federation owes the four coaches about US$650,000 for the rest of the two and one-half year contract, through the 2019 Women's World Cup. No doubt there will be some negotiation to settle the pay dispute and the TTFA probably won't have to pay all of that $650K, but the damage is already done. Tesse was reported dissatisfied with the support she had for the youth side, as no games were scheduled and she found significantly less infrastructure than the senior team, while Bavagnoli only visited the island on one occasion.
The women's programs has to start over with new coaches, a new vision, and more concerns that the TTFA doesn't have the money to pay for a UBER fare, much less invest in their women's team, and with experienced stars like Canadian-based Aaron King, and professional players Tasha St. Louis and Keenya Cordner; what should be a golden generation could turn into a lost generation. A few days ago, experienced local men's coach Jamall Shabazz was named as head coach of the women's senior team and the U-20 program, while also overseeing the U-17 team. Local coaches Desire Sarjeant and Joanne Daniel will assist him.
Shabazz is very well-respected on the men's side, having coached men's club sides in Trinidad and been involved in their national teams program. He also was a very successful men's national team coach in Guyana on a couple of occasions. Two questions apply here: how will he adjust to coaching the women's side and will he be given the resources that are needed to help build the program? At least Shabazz can draw on some younger players who are based in the States, who were playing for Morace and in the local summer Women's League of Football (WOLF), including: Victoria Swift, (North Carolina State), Maya Matouk (University of Tampa), Naomie Guerra (William Carey University in Mississippi), Chevonne John (Regis University in Colorado) and Khadisha Debesette (West Texas A&M).
Another former Canadian National Team women's coach went through a similar situation on his salary when he was in the country less than a decade ago; Even Pellerud went to T&T to direct the women's national team program for a short time after he left Canada after 8 years in charge and ended up having to petition FIFA to receive his pay, with the world body threatening to suspend the TTFA until they settled with him. Liburd learned that TTFA President David John-Williams was going to use a CONCACAF grant of $125,000 a year to pay for Morace and her coaches.
Obviously that covers only a half year so they needed an advance from CONCACAF to cover the balance. CONCACAF was willing to pay the money but directly to Morace and her coaches, rather than to the always circumspect TTFA (which is somewhat ironic given CONCACAF's problems with money issues a few years ago, with former General Secretary Chuck Blazer—who just passed away last week—taking huge slices of television contracts and spending large sums on CONCACAF offices and a personal apartment in the Trump Tower. This spending ultimately attracted the attention of U.S. federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service and led to the FIFA scandals and arrests of CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and other federations' officials a few years ago. Morace had legitimate concerns on tax issues of that indirect payment plan.
One has to wonder if the results of two friendlies against minnows Venezuela in March (3-1 defeat and goalless draw) entered into John-Williams thinking, who has not yet commented on the situation. Morace also had run-ins with stars Ahkeela Mollon, Maylee Attin-Johnson and Kennya Cordner, which led to them either walking out or being banned from the senior side. Morace pulled out of a national team evaluation session in Tobago when the field was just being marked when she arrived, even though they had a week's notice; her petulance ended up hurting players who wanted to try out for her side. Morace has standards, but is not the most flexible person and frosted relations with many during her time in Canada and with a few in Trinidad. Still, the blame for this mess rests solely on the TTFA who will never advance the women's program without effective planning and financial management.
Women's EURO 2017—Thoughts After Two Rounds of Group Games
We present our thoughts on Women's EURO 2017 after viewing most of the first two games in each Group.
We have to start with England's shocking 6-0 thrashing of Scotland in their opening Group D match, a huge boost for England which confirmed to many in the media that England could equal or better their third place finish in the World Cup two summers ago. Jodie Taylor, who played at Oregon State and bounced around teams in the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and Sweden, scored a hat trick and validated Arsenal's faith to bring her home from the Thorns after the 2015 season. Scotland, who then lost 2-1 to Portugal and is mired at the bottom of the group, was hugely impacted by injuries to Kim Little (Arsenal), Jennifer Beattie (Manchester City) and Lizzie Arnot (Hibernian) earlier this year, and then lost forward Jane Ross (Manchester City) during the England game due to a shoulder injury that will keep her out of any further action in the Netherlands.
Spain looked brilliant in defeating Portugal 2-0 in the latter's EURO's debut, with former Arsenal and Western New York Flash forward Vicky Losada scoring the winner in the 43rd minute. Portugal oddly didn't include Amanda Da Costa, current Boston Breaker and former Liverpool midfielder in that match. Da Costa played in the 2-1 victory over Scotland and assisted on Ana Liete's (Sporting Lisbon) winner in the 72nd minute. Vanessa Marques (Braga), said after her side's first ever win at the European Finals:"This is a historic moment for us and getting this win gives us a real confidence boost ahead of the game against England, though we'll still have to play at our very, very best. This victory means a huge amount to all of us; we've worked very hard to get this far and we're managing to get the rewards for that good work. Scotland were very tough opponents, but we managed to pull together, give it everything and clinch the victory. That, along with our effectiveness [in front of goal], was the key." England, after a 2-0 win over Spain in driving rain, with goals from Fran Kirby (Chelsea) and Taylor, are in a strong position to win the group and will face Portugal in their last group match. Spain dominated possession against England by a 3-1 advantage and on style points should advance behind England to the quarterfinals.
In Group C, Austria opened the tournament by shocking neighbors Switzerland 1-0 as both teams were appearing at their first European Championships. Austria, with a heavy roster of German Frauen-Bundesliga players, frustrated the heavily favored Swiss, who advanced to the Round of 16 in Canada in their debut international tournament two years ago. Switzerland had to then pull points off of France and Iceland to make the quarterfinals. Iceland held France scoreless until the final two minutes losing 1-0 on Eugenie LeSommer's penalty kick goal in their first game.
Switzerland looked outstanding in the second half to come back from Fanndis Fridriksdottir's 33rd minute goal which gave Iceland a 1-0 lead. Fridriksdottier played her whole career with local Icelandic club Breidablik except for a couple of years in Norway with Arna-Bjornar and Kolbotn. Experienced Swiss internationals Lana Dickenmann and Ramona Bachmann scored the goals that Switzerland needed to eliminate Iceland 2-1, with Bachmann rampant in the second half, hitting the crossbar late in the match. France has underdelivered and Austria continued to upset the form book with a 1-1 tie against the 2019 WWC hosts in their second game; Amandine Henry (Portland Thorns) scoring in the 51st minute to counter Lisa Makas (MSV Duisburg) goal in the 27th minute. France couldn't find a winner despite a 66-34 advantage on possession, 19-7 shot advantage and 7-3 shots on goal. On Wednesday July 26th, Austria (4 points) plays Iceland (0 points) while joint leaders France (4 points) play a dangerous looking Swiss side (3 points), based on their second-half performance versus Iceland. A tie will advance Austria to the quarterfinals, continuing their Cinderella story.
In Group B—Sweden and Germany played a scoreless tie in their first game and then respective wins over Russia and Italy sent the Italians packing and Russia is now a long shot to advance, facing Germany in their final game. Their first goal by Elena Danilova (Rayzan VDV in Russia and who once played for FC Indiana in the States) in the 2-1 defeat of Italy on Day 1 was breathtaking.
In Group A, host Netherlands are through, just rewards for their attacking and positive style in wins over Norway and Denmark. Netherland and Belgium face off in the last game with a quarterfinal berth at stake for Belgium but if the Danes tie Norway and Belgium ties the hosts, the debutants Red Devils of Belgium are through on goal difference. Elke Van Gorp (Lierse SK) and Janice Cayman (who played with the 2016 Champions Western New York Flash, at Florida State University and is now with Montpellier in France) scored to leave Norway at the bottom of the table for a 2-0 win, but Norway is still not eliminated. Norway has looked dreadful at times during the tournament and the big question is will Swedish Coach Martin Sjogren survive the summer if Norway is indeed sent home after their final group game. Sjogren did so well as coach of Malmo and Linkopings at home and has said that his goal is to improve the Norwegian team for the 2020 Olympics. He should be more worried about keeping his job as Norway's performance was probably the worst of any of the 16 teams in the tournament.
The fact that the only blowout victory was England over Scotland (6-0)—with the other games either ties or 1 or 2 goal margins—speaks to the quality of preparation for all the teams in the expanded finals tournament (increased from 8 to 16 teams this year).
Australia names their national team for the U.S. hosted Tournament of Nations, opening up against the US in Seattle on July 28.
Australia has brought 20 players in for the Tournament of Nations, which begins this week on the West Coast and involves the host Americans, Brazil and Japan. The Tournament will take advantage of the FIFA national team window for the European Championships. Eight of the Australians are with Australian W-League or Provincial sides, 5 come from NWSL sides, 3 play in Norway, 2 in Japan and 2 in Germany. Laura Alleway was released by the NWSL Orlando Pride earlier this season.
Lydia Williams—Houston Dash (US)
Gema Simon—Avaldsnes (Norway)
Caitlin Cooper—Illawarra Stingrays
Clare Polkinghorne—Brisbane Roar FC
Laura Alleway—Melbourne City
Chloe Logarzo—Avaldsnes (Norway)
Steph Catley—Orlando Pride (US)
Elise Kellond-Knight—FC Turbine Potsdam (Germany)
Caitlin Foord—Vegalta Sendai (Japan)
Emily van Egmond—VfL Wolfsburg (Germany)
Lisa De Vanna—South Melbourne/Canberra United
Tameka Butt—Klepp I-L (Norway)
Alanna Kennedy—Orlando Pride (US)
Emily Gielnik—Avaldsnes (Norway)
Haley Raso—Portland Thorns (US)
Princess Ibini—Football NSW/Sydney FC
Mackenzie Arnold—Brisbane Roar
Katrina Gorry—Vegalta Sendai (Japan)
Sam Kerr—Sky Blue FC (US)
Ellie Carpenter—Western Sydney Wanderers
Alex Chidiac—Adelaide City
U.S. Women's National Team 2017 Tournament of Nations Roster by Position - Caps/Goals
Jill Ellis named 23 players for her Tournament of Nations roster, 22 from NWSL sides along with Chelsea's Crystal Dunn. North Carolina Courage and Chicago Red Stars supply 4 players each, with Houston Dash sending 3 players and Boston Breakers, FC Kansas City, Orlando Prides and Portland Thorns having two each named to the team. The other NWSL sides had one player selected: Seattle Reign, Sky Blue FC and the Washington Spirit. Ellis selected three players who have yet to play with the national side: Boston Breakers goalkeeper Abby Smith (in her third national team camp), North Carolina Courage defender Taylor Smith, (in her second camp) and Boston Breakers midfielder Margaret Purce, who played in the 2014 U-20 World Cup in Canada, received her first ever call up. She is the first ever women's player from Harvard University to ever receive a national team invitation.
Interestingly, Chicago Red Stars forward Sofia Huerta will train with the U.S. team for the entire tournament. Huerta, who played for Mexico at the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and has five caps for the senior team, is not currently eligible to play for the United States, but U.S. Soccer has petitioned FIFA on her behalf to change her international eligibility, so that she can play with the Americans in the future. Huerta was born in Boise, grew up in Idaho, and attended Santa Clara University. She has been wanting to play for the Americans for over a year and has 3 goals and 4 assists this season for the league-leading Red Stars, after recording 7 goals and 2 assists in 2016 Australia, Brazil and Japan are the other teams participating in the matches in Seattle, San Diego and Carson (suburban L.A.) California from July 27 to August 3.
US National Team Roster for the Tournament of Nations
GOALKEEPERS (3): Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars; 15/0), Jane Campbell (Houston Dash; 1/0), Abby Smith (Boston Breakers; 0/0)
DEFENDERS (7): Abby Dahlkemper (NC Courage; 4/0), Julie Ertz (Chicago Red Stars; 49/8), Ali Krieger (Orlando Pride; 98/1), Kelley O'Hara (Sky Blue FC; 96/2), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City; 126/0), Casey Short (Chicago Red Stars; 10/0), Taylor Smith (NC Courage; 0/0)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Morgan Brian (Houston Dash; 66/6), Carli Lloyd (Houston Dash; 239/97), Allie Long (Portland Thorns FC; 27/5), Samantha Mewis (NC Courage; 25/4), Margaret Purce (Boston Breakers; 0/0), Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC; 121/31)
FORWARDS (7): Crystal Dunn (Chelsea FC; 52/22), Lindsey Horan (Portland Thorns FC; 35/3), Sydney Leroux (FC Kansas City; 75/35), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride; 125/73), Christen Press (Chicago Red Stars; 87/42), Mallory Pugh (Washington Spirit; 23/4), Lynn Williams (NC Courage; 8/2)
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get your copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
