Reviewing a Busy Week
Courtesy Florida State University
Zach Allen-Kelly made a prediction in one of our pieces for the State of Louisville website that Racing would replace over 50% of their roster in the off-season. The off-season isn’t over yet, but as of the end of the day they have only 60% of their players returning from last season. At the end of the season, Racing’s roster looked like this.
GK
Betos
Money
Lund
D
Simon
Bonner
Fox
Miramontez
Martin
Hendrix
Ashley
Riehl
Merrick
MF
Milliet
Olofsson
Otto
F
Kizer
McCaskill
Salmon
Nadim
Ekic
Nagasato
Matthews
McClure
Kara
Baucom
Racing have currently lost 10 players from last year’s roster, while adding 10 as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the roster is fully set. If Racing make no more off-season moves, which I find unlikely, their roster next season will likely look like this. The new additions are in bold italics and the leaving players are struck through.
GK
Betos
Money
Lund
Jordyn Bloomer
D
Simon
Bonner
Fox
Miramontez
Martin
Hendrix
Ashley
Riehl
Merrick
Charmé Morgan
Sydney Cummings
Emily Smith
MF
Milliet
Olofsson
Otto
Jaelin Howell
Savannah Demelo
Parker Goins
F
Kizer
McCaskill
Salmon
Nadim
Ekic
Nagasato
Matthews
McClure
Kara
Baucom
Jessica McDonald
Kirsten Davis
Jenna Menta
In my opinion, Racing will add at least one more defender and are probably still a little heavy in the forward department. They will almost certainly need to add a 3rd keeper as well, but that keeper very well may end up being one of the players on the supplemental roster. If the rules mimic last year, Racing will be able to fully roster 24 players and can keep 0 to 4 players on the supplemental roster. That means last year one of the players was on supplemental roster, and I would assume that player was Money. To recap the week, Racing lost Kaleigh Riehl to San Diego in the expansion draft and essentially traded Savanah McCaskill for Jessica McDonald. Racing also traded Julia Ashley for the pick that became keeper, Jordyn Bloomer. Savannah McCaskill’s trade may have seemed to come out of the blue for some fans, but there were rumors surrounding her departure for at least a week or so. McCaskill’s fight and fire will be missed, but like I have said many times, I never felt like she had a true position at Racing. I hope Angel City figure out how to best utilize her skills. Word of a trade for McDonald had been circulating for awhile as well. McDonald will hopefully bring goals and assists into the team. She has a great track record for club and country.
The nine other new players however have no NWSL history. Jaelin Howell is the marquee name, but each of the nine new players has either all-conference or all-American honors. I am particularly excited to see what Parker Goins can do as a MF/F. On balance, I think the team got much better on paper. However we will have to wait until next season to see for sure. The other thing to note about drafted players is that they could easily decide to play overseas. Highly rated Julia Grosso, would have been a first-round pick if she hadn’t signed for Juventus. Hopefully, the all of the players that entered this year’s draft did so with the intent of signing with the teams that drafted them. At this time, the threat of playing overseas is really the only leverage that a player has if their rights are held by a team that they don’t want to play for. That or not playing at all in hopes of a sunnier destination.
About next year, the NWSL also announced some of the competition format rules for next season. The Challenge Cup will return, but will be three 4-team groups playing a home and away match against each other with 4 teams making the semifinals. Presumably the 2nd place team with the highest point total will join the 3 group winners in the semifinals. The other change is that the league will play a balanced schedule for the first time, with each team playing a home and away match against every other team. I like balanced schedules. Almost every other league in the world plays a balanced schedule and the winner of the competition is based solely on this. Of course, America being addicted to the concept of playoffs, the NWSL will crown a champion just like last year: with a 6-team playoff. For me the bigger achievement will be the regular season title, but I know I’m probably in the minority in that opinion.
