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The Target Man: WPS Draft a Sign of Positive Things to Come
The inaugural draft for Women’s Professional Soccer’s did more than stock the league’s teams with players, says Goal.com’s Greg Lalas. It captured the spirit that the new league needs if it is to succeed.
Jan 17, 2009 2:02:29 AM
By Greg Lalas
ST. LOUIS – Meeting Room 275 is a low-ceilinged, nondescript box in the back corner of the America’s Convention Center. To get there, you have to walk the equivalent of at least two soccer fields, right past the grand ballroom where on Thursday Major League Soccer held its carefully choreographed, ESPN-televised SuperDraft.
But Women’s Professional Soccer isn’t a grand ballroom league (yet). They know that. Which is why they decided to hold their inaugural draft in Meeting Room 275. Honestly, they thought, how many people are going to show up for the draft of a league that has yet to kick its first official Puma ball? The top prospects would be there, of course. And probably a few local hopefuls and their families. A journalist or two. Maybe a smattering of curious onlookers from the NSCAA Coaches Convention being held downstairs in the center’s main hall. But other than that, not much. So, yeah, Meeting Room 275 would suffice.
However, by 9:30 on Friday morning, when the doors were meant to open, they realized they had guessed wrong. The line of fans who wanted to watch the WPS draft snaked down the hall and around the corner. The press seats were overbooked. “Wow, more media than I expected showed up,” WPS Director of Communications Rob Penner said, chuckling apologetically as he cleared some extra workspace for an in-limbo journo.
The room buzzed with a mix of business-like intensity and wow-this-is-cool excitement. At the front of the room, the coaches and team GMs huddled at their desks, studiously pouring over their draft boards, imagining possible starting lineups. At the back, a standing-room-only crowd made up of ponytailed girls and curious onlookers in adidas tracksuits, all of them electrified with excitement.
“I’m very pleased to say, the Boston Breakers are now on the clock with their first pick of the 2009 draft,” WPS COO Mary Harvey said.
The clock started counting down: 3:00... 2:59...
Then someone, a lone fan unable to contain herself, did what everyone wanted to do: She clapped. Immediately, the rest of the crowd joined in.
It was then that everyone realized something: This was not a draft; this is a revival meeting. Women’s soccer is back! Hallelujah!
The Breakers didn’t let the clock countdown many more seconds before selecting US international Amy Rodriguez, who beamed her California smile for the next four hours. The WPS draft was off and running. Megan Rapinoe went to Chicago second, Christina DiMartino third to the Bay Area, and so on.
Midway through round three, US Women’s coach Pia Sundhage showed up and laid down the new law.
“This league is about getting a chance and about taking the chance,” she said, her gaze directed at the players in attendance. “There are players out there that I don’t know about. Playing in games every week, that’ll be good for women’s soccer. It’s not that you are a national player any longer. I will pick from one camp to another. In between, you are club players. That will remind the players to perform. If you are successful [in the league], I will call you up to the national team.” Hallelujah!
While Sundhage looks to the future, a few teams decided to see if they can’t squeeze a few more drops of mojo out of a couple of old warriors. The Washington Freedom snagged 37-year-old World Cup-winning goalkeeper Brianna Scurry in the 5th round, and FC Gold Pride used their 7th-round pick on a 40-year-old defender who did something important a lifetime ago. Her name is Brandi Chastain.
A few minutes after Chastain’s name was called, her longtime US teammate Joy Fawcett, whose induction into the Hall of Fame was announced on Thursday, stepped onto the stage. When asked if she would consider coming out of retirement, she had a quick response: “No.” She smiled, happy in her firm declaration, then added, “But let me say to the girls out there: Watch out. Those old women are really smart.”
Whether any of the “girls”—most of whom giddily snapped photos of Fawcett—will heed the warning is doubtful. Scurry and Chastain might possess bold-face names and golden resumes, but the new generation exudes a fizzy confidence. WPS needs this kind of impassioned fervor, both from its players and its core fans, if it is going to have any chance of bucking the fate of its forerunner, WUSA, which shut down in 2003 after just three seasons.
At one point, former US international Julie Foudy, in town for some promotional appearances at the coaches’ convention, popped in. She didn’t take the podium, choosing instead to linger in the shadows, shoot the bull for a few minutes with commissioner Tonya Antonucci. Foudy, who had been a central figure in WUSA, knew the overflow crowd in Meeting Room 275 was not here to reminisce.
“It was so great with the old league,” she told me. “You had something coming out of college. You know, [before WUSA] you had this big gap and everyone would fall through the cracks if they didn’t play for the national team.” She glanced at the front row, where the top prospects sat, waiting for the their name to be called. “The thing that I love is that now they have a dream again.”
Hallelujah!
Greg Lalas is the Site Director of Goal.com USA. His column, “The Target Man,” appears regularly on Goal.com.
Discuss women's soccer in the Goal.com Forums.
ST. LOUIS – Meeting Room 275 is a low-ceilinged, nondescript box in the back corner of the America’s Convention Center. To get there, you have to walk the equivalent of at least two soccer fields, right past the grand ballroom where on Thursday Major League Soccer held its carefully choreographed, ESPN-televised SuperDraft.
But Women’s Professional Soccer isn’t a grand ballroom league (yet). They know that. Which is why they decided to hold their inaugural draft in Meeting Room 275. Honestly, they thought, how many people are going to show up for the draft of a league that has yet to kick its first official Puma ball? The top prospects would be there, of course. And probably a few local hopefuls and their families. A journalist or two. Maybe a smattering of curious onlookers from the NSCAA Coaches Convention being held downstairs in the center’s main hall. But other than that, not much. So, yeah, Meeting Room 275 would suffice.
However, by 9:30 on Friday morning, when the doors were meant to open, they realized they had guessed wrong. The line of fans who wanted to watch the WPS draft snaked down the hall and around the corner. The press seats were overbooked. “Wow, more media than I expected showed up,” WPS Director of Communications Rob Penner said, chuckling apologetically as he cleared some extra workspace for an in-limbo journo.
The room buzzed with a mix of business-like intensity and wow-this-is-cool excitement. At the front of the room, the coaches and team GMs huddled at their desks, studiously pouring over their draft boards, imagining possible starting lineups. At the back, a standing-room-only crowd made up of ponytailed girls and curious onlookers in adidas tracksuits, all of them electrified with excitement.
“I’m very pleased to say, the Boston Breakers are now on the clock with their first pick of the 2009 draft,” WPS COO Mary Harvey said.
The clock started counting down: 3:00... 2:59...
Then someone, a lone fan unable to contain herself, did what everyone wanted to do: She clapped. Immediately, the rest of the crowd joined in.
It was then that everyone realized something: This was not a draft; this is a revival meeting. Women’s soccer is back! Hallelujah!
The Breakers didn’t let the clock countdown many more seconds before selecting US international Amy Rodriguez, who beamed her California smile for the next four hours. The WPS draft was off and running. Megan Rapinoe went to Chicago second, Christina DiMartino third to the Bay Area, and so on.
Midway through round three, US Women’s coach Pia Sundhage showed up and laid down the new law.
“This league is about getting a chance and about taking the chance,” she said, her gaze directed at the players in attendance. “There are players out there that I don’t know about. Playing in games every week, that’ll be good for women’s soccer. It’s not that you are a national player any longer. I will pick from one camp to another. In between, you are club players. That will remind the players to perform. If you are successful [in the league], I will call you up to the national team.” Hallelujah!
While Sundhage looks to the future, a few teams decided to see if they can’t squeeze a few more drops of mojo out of a couple of old warriors. The Washington Freedom snagged 37-year-old World Cup-winning goalkeeper Brianna Scurry in the 5th round, and FC Gold Pride used their 7th-round pick on a 40-year-old defender who did something important a lifetime ago. Her name is Brandi Chastain.
A few minutes after Chastain’s name was called, her longtime US teammate Joy Fawcett, whose induction into the Hall of Fame was announced on Thursday, stepped onto the stage. When asked if she would consider coming out of retirement, she had a quick response: “No.” She smiled, happy in her firm declaration, then added, “But let me say to the girls out there: Watch out. Those old women are really smart.”
Whether any of the “girls”—most of whom giddily snapped photos of Fawcett—will heed the warning is doubtful. Scurry and Chastain might possess bold-face names and golden resumes, but the new generation exudes a fizzy confidence. WPS needs this kind of impassioned fervor, both from its players and its core fans, if it is going to have any chance of bucking the fate of its forerunner, WUSA, which shut down in 2003 after just three seasons.
At one point, former US international Julie Foudy, in town for some promotional appearances at the coaches’ convention, popped in. She didn’t take the podium, choosing instead to linger in the shadows, shoot the bull for a few minutes with commissioner Tonya Antonucci. Foudy, who had been a central figure in WUSA, knew the overflow crowd in Meeting Room 275 was not here to reminisce.
“It was so great with the old league,” she told me. “You had something coming out of college. You know, [before WUSA] you had this big gap and everyone would fall through the cracks if they didn’t play for the national team.” She glanced at the front row, where the top prospects sat, waiting for the their name to be called. “The thing that I love is that now they have a dream again.”
Hallelujah!
Greg Lalas is the Site Director of Goal.com USA. His column, “The Target Man,” appears regularly on Goal.com.
Discuss women's soccer in the Goal.com Forums.
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