This week, we discuss some NWSL Signings and Changes for 2016, and review the NCAA College Cup Semifinals and Final.
NWSL TEAMS PERSONNEL CHANGES FOR 2016
There have been some interesting recent off-season moves by NWSL clubs of late, looking towards 2016, in part due to four coaching changes (Boston, Portland, Sky Blue FC and Washington) and a new club in Orlando.
Forward Chioma Ubogagu, who went to Stanford but bypassed NWSL last season to play with Arsenal, has had her rights acquired by the Houston Dash from Sky Blue FC.
Dash Coach Randy Waldrum said: “I am extremely excited that Chioma has decided to come back to the NWSL after a very productive season with Arsenal. I coached Chioma when I was coaching the U.S. U-23 Women's National Team, and I've also watched her for many years as a youth player in Dallas. I know Chi is excited about coming home to Texas to play, and her family is very excited as well. Our fans will love her creativity and her ability with the ball. She brings some flair to her game, and will certainly add some attacking quality to our team. She won a U-20 World Championship along with (Dash forward) Kealia Ohai, so reuniting these two players will be great for our club."
Ubogagu, who was born in London, scored 6 times in 19 games for Arsenal last season, but had only signed a one-year deal. Ubogagu tallied 27 goals and 37 assists in 89 appearances over four years at Stanford, winning a national championship in 2011.
The Seattle Reign, who have dominated the NWSL regular season for the past two years but fallen in the NWSL Final to FC Kansas City on both occasions by a single goal, has loaded up again on two top international performers.
Dutch international forward Manon Melis will finally grace an American league, having been signed by Sky Blue of WPS for the 2012 season, which never happened. Melis most recently played in Sweden for Goteberg, where she scored 25 goals in 42 appearances in two seasons. Before that Melis played for Malmo (now Rosenberg). Melis topped the Damallsvenksan in scoring twice at Malmo and helped the club win three league championships. The 29-year-old has made 132 appearances for Netherlands, including all four matches at her country's Women's World Cup debut this summer. Melis has scored 55 international goals, the most of any Dutch women's player in history, while helping to propel her national side to unprecedented success on the international stage in recent years, after years of struggling.
Reign head coach and general manager Laura Harvey said: “Manon is a fantastic talent who will bring something new to our attack next season. We're thrilled to have a player with her experience and consistent record of success at the highest levels of club and international football join our club next season."
The second new Reign international acquisition is Swedish midfielder Antonia Goransson, who comes from Vittsjo GIK in the Swedish Damallsvenskan. Goransson played at the 2011 Women's World Cup (where they finished third) and 2012 Olympics for Sweden, though head coach Pia Sundhage did not select her for last summer's World Cup in Canada.
This is not Goransson's first stint abroad, as she played for a number of years in the Germany's Frauen Bundesliga, first with Hamburg and then with Turbine Potsdam.
Laura Harvey explained: “Antonia is someone that I have been watching for a while and I think has huge potential to make an impact in this league. She can play in a variety of positions, including left back and midfield, which are areas we need to strengthen for the coming season."
Since Wales international Jess Fishlock recently qualified for her green card, Melis and Goransson can join Scottish internationals Kim Little and Rachel Corsie on the field, as four internationals (not including allocated players from Canada or Mexico) are allowed on NWSL rosters.
The Boston Breakers traded U.S. international goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to the Chicago Red Stars for fellow World Cup winning defender Whitney Engen, who formerly played for new coach Matt Beard at Liverpool. Beard is also familiar with Naeher's probable replacement, American Libby Stout, who recently signed with the Breakers. Stout played at Western Kentucky University from 2008-2011 and then in France and Germany. The move not only reunites her with Beard but should help her visibility in terms of getting noticed by the U.S. National Team, a key reason why a number of American players return to the States after a few years abroad.
Stout explained her decision in a statement: “Having had a fantastic couple of years at Liverpool Ladies, it has been a really difficult decision to move on, but I feel as though moving back to the United States in the NWSL was an opportunity that I couldn't turn down."
As an aside, another player that Matt Beard coached at Liverpool, Natasha Dowie, is on loan with Melbourne Victory. Victory is a young side that started the season with 5 consecutive losses but Dowie made an immediate impact with an assist on the winning goal in a 3-1 road win over last season's Grand Finalists Perth Glory. She scored 14 goals in 24 matches this season for Liverpool. Dowie just missed making the 2015 World Cup squad that made history with a stirring run to capture third. There have been some rumors that, when her contract expires next season with Liverpool, she might consider offers from NWSL sides. She would be an impactful player in the NWSL if she should ever decide to move stateside.
Portland Thorns, having replaced Paul Riley with Mark Parsons from Washington Spirit as their head coach, have named recently retired goalkeeper Nadine Angerer as their goalkeeper coach for the 2016 season.
Angerer said: “I'm very happy to be coming back to Portland. Over the past two years, Portland has become my second home. I am very thankful that the Thorns have given me the chance to share my knowledge with our goalkeepers – it's a dream come true… I have a positive feeling about the upcoming season."
Angerer, 37 played two seasons with the Thorns after years in Germany and a few seasons in Australia. She captained Germany to a fourth place finish last summer and finished with 146 caps. She led Germany to their 2007 title while not conceding a goal.
Orlando Pride, the expansion side for 2016, has been putting together a core of its roster through trades and the league expansion draft, allowing the Pride to draft one player from each of the other nine teams. In addition to acquiring U.S. international forward Alex Morgan, who has scored over 50 goals in 95 appearances with the U.S. Women's National Team from the Portland Thorns, the Pride acquired Canadian international midfielder Kaylyn Kyle (Portland) and Sarah Hagen (F.C. Kansas City). Hagen had eight goals in 26 games over two seasons with two NWSL crowns. Hagen played over 50 games for German club FC Bayern Munich, scoring 38 goals in two seasons with a German Cup title. Hagen, who played collegiately at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has two international caps for the U.S.
Former U.S. and Australian international and new Pride head coach Tom Sermanni used the expansion draft to stock up on some solid talent, including U.S. international goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, who won a WPS title with Western New Flash in 2011--saving a penalty on the last kick to win the title in penalties over Philadelphia Independence in what was the league's last game. Harris has had brief club stints in Germany and Sweden.
Other Pride selections included defender Taryn Hemmings from Chicago Red Stars, who has played in Denmark and Australia, forward Jasmyne Spencer from Western New York Flash, who has been a prolific scorer the past two seasons with Sydney FC but has only 6 goals in 42 games with the Flash over two seasons, and defender Camille Levin from Sky Blue FC, who has played in Australia, Sweden and at Stanford University.
Another strong draft pick was Lianne Sanderson, who was a backup forward on last summer's England team at the World Cup team in Canada. Sanderson has been a prolific scorer in England for Arsenal and Chelsea and with Boston in WPSL and Philadelphia in WPS. She was selected from the Portland Thorns. Another good selection was former U.S. youth international Toni Pressley, who played for the Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash, and the Houston Dash—who the Pride selected her from. Pressley spent time in 2012 in Russia with Rayzan VDV.
PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS WIN FIRST EVER CHAMPIONSHIP
Penn State (22-2-3 W-D-L) defeated Duke (15-5-5) 1-0 in the NCAA Division I College Cup Final on Sunday, December 6 in Cary, North Carolina with a goal midway through the second half by senior midfielder Raquel Rodriguez, who scored on a shot inside Duke's penalty area.
Rodriguez is a Costa Rican international who scored her country's first ever goal in a Women's World Cup at the 2015 games in Canada versus Spain. Rodriguez had 6 goals and 6 assists for her side in 2012. Another international on Penn State's side was Alina Ortega-Jurado, a sophomore from Germany who has played youth internationals for her country and was a member of 1FFC Frankfurt's Women's Champions League squad in 2014-15. She finished the season with 1 goal and 3 assists. Sophomore forward Megan Schafer (13 goals and 4 assists for 30 points), sophomore forward Frannie Crouse (11 goals and 7 assists for 29 points) and senior forward and U.S. U-20 international Mallory Weber (8 goals and 10 assists for 26 points) were the top three scorers in 2015 for the new champions.
Penn State and Duke had played to a scoreless tie early in the season. For the Nittany Lions it was their second College Cup Final after losing in the 2012 Final and their first ever national championship in women's soccer.
Duke's roster was comprised entirely of Americans with the exception of Canadians Anna Munro (Ottawa) and Rebecca Quinn (Toronto.). Sophomore midfielder Rebecca Quinn is a Canadian international who has played in the U-20 Women's World Cup (Canada in 2014) and U-17 Women's World Cup (Azerbaijan in 2012). Junior defender Christine Gibbons has played with the U.S. U-23 team and in the U-20 Women's World Cup in Canada. Freshman Midfielder Taylor Racioppi also played for the U.S. at the U-20 World Cup in Canada in 2014. Duke lost to Stanford in their only previous trip to the finals in 2011.
In the semifinals on Friday night, Penn State defeated Rutgers 2-0 (19-3-4) and Duke surprised reigning champion Florida State 2-0. For Florida State (18-4-3), they had two players from Ireland, two from Iceland, a pair from Finland and one from Germany; all of whom were youth or full internationals. Acclaimed freshman forward Megan Connolly of Cork, Ireland is a full international with her national team after U-19 and U-17 caps. Connolly led the Seminoles in points (28) with 9 goals and 10 assists.
Senior defender Megan Campbell (Louth, Ireland) is also a full Irish international who played in the U-17 Women's World Cup when the team made it to the quarterfinals in 2010. She captured the 2013 Women's National League title and FAI Cup with Raheny United in 2013. Freshman forward Elin Jensen of Iceland is a full international and won her league's cup with Valur; she finished the season 7 goals and 5 assists. Her college and international teammate--junior midfielder Berglind Thorvaldsdottir--had 8 goals and 2 assists. Senior American forward Cheyna Williams, who transferred from Vanderbilt after two seasons there, finished second on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 7 assists; should do well in NPSL if she wants to play professionally. She should go high in the league's college draft next January.
For Rutgers, 21 of 28 players on their roster were from their home state of New Jersey, with only senior midfielder Samantha Valliant from Canada coming from outside of the States. Sophomore goalkeeper Casey Murphy had 19 shutouts and a minuscule Goals-Against-Average of 0.37. Senior defender Erica Skroski, along with Murphy, were named Second Team All-Americans.
Next week, we review the U.S. National Team games versus Trinidad and Tobago in San Antonio and versus China in Phoenix, which tribalfootball.com will report live from. We will also discuss why the game on December 6 in Hawaii versus Trinidad and Tobago was cancelled the morning of the game, due to strong complaints from the players about the state of the Aloha Stadium field. We will discuss the impact of this decision on the relationship between the players and their federation as well as the longer term ramifications.
