Megan Rapinoe #2 pick in WPS draft Sari Selected 66th

Congrats to Megan, Go Chicago!

And Lisa joining Steph in LA

Quote from Megan's new coach Emma Hayes.


“I been on the road scouting players a lot this season, and Megan is undoubtedly the most exciting player I’ve seen coming out of the college ranks,” said Chicago Red Stars Head Coach Emma Hayes. “She is going to be a star.”


Have to say I couldn't agree more

Ha ha ha... oh man, I completely missed this earlier thread. My bad!

So how many Pilots is that?

Sinclair (FC Gold Pride, curious name....)
Cox (LA Sol, I'm assuming this is for the hispanic population...)
Rapinoe (Chicago Red Stars, for the red stars on the Chicago flag)
Sari (LA Sol)
Woznuk (St. Louis Athletica, couldnt find the info on this one either)
Alexander (Sky Blue FC (NY/NJ) named for an existing club from the area)

Not a bad contingent... Am I missing any?? And futhermore it makes it hard to root for any one team with Pilots spread out, and NO teams in the PNW, I guess we can eliminate the Breakers and Freedom from contention...

Such is life when you support a school like Portland. I mean, if you were a fan of, like, Miami, or Texas, or someplace like that, how would you pick an NFL team to root for?

Megan plus Carli Lloyd means a hard-shooting midfield in the Windy City. Cheers to Megan (No. 1 in my book whatever the draft results).

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Such is life when you support a school like Portland. I mean, if you were a fan of, like, Miami, or Texas, or someplace like that, how would you pick an NFL team to root for?

Texas? or anything from the Big 12? Ew... Dear lord I hate the NFL...

But back to the WPS... I'm assuming Puma is the outfitter, and after seeing the jerseys handed out it pretty much looks like they just slapped a team badge on an existing stock jersey of the matching color... I hope in the future they can put a little effort forth (but then again most companies develop jerseys/gear 2 years ahead of time, they only had a few months to put anything together)...

It'll be interesting to take a look at the rosters once all is said and done to see where the strength lies, I selfishly was hoping Megan would drop 1 spot and lineup alongside Sinc again.

DaTruRochin wrote:
I'm assuming Puma is the outfitter, and after seeing the jerseys handed out it pretty much looks like they just slapped a team badge on an existing stock jersey of the matching color... I hope in the future they can put a little effort forth (but then again most companies develop jerseys/gear 2 years ahead of time, they only had a few months to put anything together)...

Sadly, that seems to be the extent of Puma's design skills. It was easy to see at Euro 2008: Take a blue Italy shirt, make it red, put on a different badge and...presto! A Switzerland shirt. Sometimes Nike takes it too far, but at least they try different things.

yeah Nike and adidas definitely deserve their #1 and #2 rankings as far as ingenuity and design go (I think nike is #1 here, but adidas is #1 globally)... It doesn't help that Rudolf Dassler's political persuasions forever haunt Puma's global marketability, but again that has nothing to do with design.

Go Chicago. Hopefully the goofballs who picked her as only a second team All-American will scratch their heads until they need Rogaine.

I think that the scouts saw this, and decided she was a keeper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ2_RkXU-lM

And that was one of those mini balls. She would have destroyed him with a regular ball.

I like Lisa in LA. You fans of yore might remember she was a big reason Sinc had such great sucess. So look you got Marta as forward. Lisa in the Midfield and Lopez on defense. Nice foundation to build a team around.

Not to mention Shannon Boxx and Aly Wagner... Not too shabby at all...

Do we know yet if Marta and other Brazilians (and Europeans) will actually sign on to play in the league? Just because a team has the rights to negotiate with a player doesn't clinch the deal. Also, have any Germans (a powerhouse group that prospered in the WUSA) been drafted? I'm curious about how the league will shape up; can't say I've read anything about it in the news outside of the leagues' own Web site.

Marta is on record saying she will sign with LA. Since she declined to reup with the Swedish league she was playing for, the facts seem to point to her making a move. And to your second question, and to my surprise, no Germans have been drafted. My guess is that they saw no upside to moving from the homeland to play soccer when they are getting paid well to stay home. Marta is quoted as saying the WPS will be the best women's league in the world. I doubt the Germans feel the same way.

Thanks for the info, Auto Pilot. I thought the absence of Germans was notable. The league will have to prove itself to other doubters as well. An economic crisis of historic proportions is probably not the best time to launch a new sports league, but I will follow WPS with interest, and mainly from afar, given the distance of any teams from Portland.

"An economic crisis of historic proportions is probably not the best time to launch a new sports league..."--purple haze

Yeah, I'm kind of concerned about that too. I want to see the league do well. These are questions that I have:

* How is the sponsorship of the WPS versus the prior league?
* Will supporters of women's sports get behind this league in a way comparable to how the latino and European community has started to get behind the MLS?
* How did the organizers decide which cities to award teams to? Did local ownership arise? Wouldn't cities like Portland without a lot of major professional sports be appealing? I mean Chicago has 2 baseball teams, one of the best basketball teams of the '90s, and an NFL team, and the MLS. That sounds like a brutal market to me...

Without looking anything up, I know this time around organizers are trying to be responsible and take thing in baby steps relative to the WUSA...

I know they are outfitted and sponsored by Puma, and they did act for proposals from Nike, adidas and Under Armor, but all three declined based on the lack of past success, the current economic climate and a relatively meager outlook. Even that sponsorship is relatively limited, e.g. the official ball design/graphics comes from an existing puma pattern, and the uniforms are just the basic stock puma kits for sale to youth teams, but with the pro logos slapped on them. Additionally i wouldn't expect to see much merchandise beyond the team logos screened on to tees and hoodies and whatnot.

This isn't all the manufacturers fault either, they had limited time, and a limited budget to work with. The league doesn't have the same cash flux from a burgeoning economy and explosion of popularity via the 1999 world cup that the WUSA gained from. But they are trying to do more with less, so to speak, and learn from the failures of the past, such as spend money at an astronomical rate like the WUSA.

A couple things they are doing right include keeping salaries in relative check. Also having all the venues be smaller, Merlo-sized venues hosting 5K or less, which is less expensive to operate and looks a lot better than having a 5K sparsely spread throughout a large football stadium, and it also creates a more intimate environment for fans to bond with their new team as role models on and off the pitch. In addition they are keeping tickets VERY reasonable, I've seen season tickets for 10 home games for 100 bones at some clubs, a good way to make it affordable and build their fan base.

I think the league is a great idea, but there flat out isn't the money via sponsorships and whatnot to go around right now. It's going to take a dedication of players to put a good product on the field, responsible spending and patience by the owners, and a willingness for fans to truly embrace their respective teams. I hope they can do it.

Oh and...

I think if you see good players come in and do well, a la Marta, the European and latino community can't help but take notice... but again that is just my unsophisticated, bawdy, American point of view...

From what i understand at least half of the teams are owned by the same owners as the original WUSA, and at least 2 of the teams (D.C. and Boston) are reincarnations of the original teams... I agree that tackling major markets is definitely a challenge, especially with ones sharing markets with MLS clubs since both leagues will run at the same time... Will it only be women's sports supporters?? will people already shelling out to see MLS games ALSO be willing to support their local WPS club?? I think one thing that must be considered is the WPS will be one of the top 3 leagues in the world, something the MLS definitely cannot tout. But back to the topic, a market like Portland would be perfect, there would be no competition in the summer, other than the beavs and timbers, and if PDX doesn't get an MLS franchise i think the WPS would happily attempt to fill in that void. I'm not sure if I addressed anything substantive, but AJ, I most definitely share your concerns and have the same questions, I guess only time will tell...

Here is a link to Megan's blog from draft day. Seems like she is impressed and enthused

Megan's Blog Here

Thanks for the link. Megan proves she is not only a world class athlete, but she can handle a blog with ease. She was thoughtful, incisive and funny. I hope we get more blog entries from her as her new career progresses.

Let the Megan worship continue! "Pronounced rah-PEE-no" is the next lesson for Chicagoland to learn.

Great blog. Go Megan!

I'm actually a little bit concerned about the extremely low prices of season tickets for the WPS. I don't understand how those prices are really going to put enough of a dent in operations costs and everything else. Hopefully they know what they are doing though. Maybe there's a good model out there that they are following like minor league baseball or something else...

I'd love to see the league succeed in difficult times...