Commentary
Concentration of women's soccer talent shifts
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Aug 11, 2021
Years from now, they will be talking about how Canada won the gold medal in women's soccer at the Tokyo Olympics.
Central to the story is how 35-year-old Englishwoman Bev Priestman led Canada to the gold less than six months after she coached the team for the first time.
The story of Canadian gold is a pandemic story.
Priestman wasn't supposed to lead Canada at the Olympics. Kenneth Heiner-Moller was Canada's head coach, but after the Olympics were moved from 2020 to 2021 due to the pandemic, he decided he could not wait until this summer to return to his native Denmark. He quit in June 2020, opening up the job for Priestman, who was the England assistant but knew the Canadian program from her work under then-women's coach John Herdman.
Priestman accepted the job in October 2020, but her first game in charge wasn't until four months later against the USA at the 2021 SheBelieves Cup in Orlando. Canada only lost, 1-0, but if you watched the game, you'd never have predicted that it would come back to knock the USA out of gold-medal contention at the Olympics.
Every player who started against the USA was at the Olympics, but Priestman was missing star Christine Sinclair, who was injured, and defensive standouts Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence, who weren't released by French clubs Lyon and Paris St. Germain.
The story of Canadian gold is a how its program overcame the pandemic shutdown and bettered its performances in 2012 and 2016 when it took bronze.
A key difference from the past is that almost all Canada's best young players, like Buchanan and Lawrence, who played together at West Virginia University, have moved to Europe. And in the last year and a half, they were still able to keep on playing while women's soccer was largely shut down in North America.
Canada had two players based in Europe in 2016 but eight in the team that beat the USA in the semifinals. Besides Buchanan and Lawrence, Stephanie Labbe, hero of the shutout wins over Brazil and Sweden, left the North Carolina Courage for Rosengard in Sweden, former University of Cincinnati defender Vanessa Gilles, who was outstanding at center back, has played the last three seasons for French club Bordeaux, and former UCLA star Jessie Fleming, whose penalty kick was the difference in the semifinal against the USA, plays for English champion Chelsea. Deanne Rose, who scored the tying penalty kick in the gold-medal game shootout, is headed to Reading in England after finishing up at the University of Florida.
Indeed, one of the biggest stories in women's soccer is the increasing concentration of talent in Europe and how it impacted the Olympic tournament.
Just what went so wrong with the USA remains a mystery. Many reasons for the poor tournament have been mentioned: inexperienced coach, aging team, bad chemistry, off-field distractions, excessive lineup changes, tactical errors, inadequate preparations. The list goes on and on.
They have all been focused on the WNT and what it did wrong, on and off the field. But a simpler explanation might be at work. The USA's opponents are getting better. And during the pandemic they surpassed it.
One trend that began before Covid-19 shut down the soccer world in March 2020 was the concentration of women's soccer talent at European top clubs, about a dozen of Europe's wealthiest soccer clubs. Those clubs were heavily represented on the Tokyo Olympic medal contenders.
Sweden, which beat the USA, 3-0, featured players from Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Juventus, the 2021 champions of England, Germany and Italy. Australia once had 14 players in the NWSL. Now, just one Australian player is in the NWSL as the Matildas have moved en masse to Europe. Even the USA had players who spent part of last season at Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham in the Women's Super League and Lyon in D1 Arkema.
Even with crowds hovering around 2,000-3,000 a game in many markets in 2021, NWSL is easily the best fan-supported women's league in the world. Top to bottom, the NWSL remains the most competitive league. (The level of Europe's best women's leagues drops off considerably below the top three or four teams.) But players on these top European clubs also have the opportunity to play in the UEFA Women's Champions League. And in the last 18 months, European-based players have been able to play a lot more soccer.
The Frauen-Bundesliga finished its 2019-20 season thanks to the financial support of Germany's powerhouse men's clubs. Sweden's Damallsvenskan, which plays a spring-fall season, played a full 22 games in 2020 and is part-way through its 2021 season. UEFA squeezed in a final eight -- like the men's version -- to complete its 2019-20 Champions League season. And completed a 2020-21 campaign, won by Barcelona over Chelsea in the final.
All these European countries played full 2020-21 league seasons, at least in their top tiers. By contrast, the NWSL was forced to shut down in the first week of preseason and never played its 2020 league season. (It introduced a Challenge Cup and Fall Series though some national team players opted out, as was the right of all players.)
Buchanan and Lawrence went 15 months between games with Canada, but they still managed to play 30 and 29 games for Lyon and PSG, which included two Champions League runs.
The amount of games Sweden's players in its 3-0 win over the USA had played was significantly higher than the amount of games the U.S. players strictly based in the NWSL had played: an average of 40.3 games vs. 23.7 -- for club and country -- from June 2020 to June 2021. And that's even with the U.S. national team playing an extra four friendlies outside FIFA windows.
NWSL is back in full swing. It will enjoy its longest season in history, extending from preseason in February to the playoffs in November. And it will welcome two very ambitious teams in Angel City FC and San Diego in 2022. But while we examine what's next for the WNT, it needs to be put in the context of what's next for women's soccer globally.
Big picture: Players based in Europe will be getting more opportunities to play more big games. UEFA is expanding the Women's Champions League this fall to make more clubs from the top women's leagues eligible for the competition and it is introducing a group stage. The bottom line: more big games for players, more money for clubs to pay players.
When UEFA postponed Euro 2020 to June-July 2021, Women's Euro 2021 in England became Women's Euro 2022 (why it's Women's Euro 2022 and the just-completed Euros weren't Euro 2021 or Men's Euro 2021 is a mystery). Ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup, all of Europe's top women's national teams will gather next summer for Euro 2022. And 2023 Women's World Cup qualifying? The first qualifiers in Europe are in just five weeks.
All in all, a busy, busy year coming up for top women's players based in Europe. And a big challenge for the U.S. national team program for the first time needing to play catch-up.
What went wrong? The coaching. In essence the team peaked in time for the plane trip home. It should have begun to peak at the first knockout match.
Thanks for the reminder......I forgot Rapinoe cashed her $75k for "no-show" NWSL job last year!!
It's' too late now--UEFA Champions League is the big draw. NWLS needed to scale and capture more players via an NWSL-W League tie-up--I don't see any other way but that involved losing control of the organization and USSF is all about control. So now there is no catching up. Women's professional soccer can continue to grow organically in the US, but can never trump Europe's big clubs.
NWSL needs to stop focusing on being the "Best" but go more the MLS route and develop players to sell to Europe.
Ball control was poor. Making long passes down field and hoping someone tracks it down is old-style English tactics and they don't work now.
What went Wrong.????..It was even evident back in 2015..."Santiago 1314 June 22, 2015 at 11:36 p.m.
“Awesome, Wonderful, Way to Play, Que Toque, Que Classe!!! What a Display of Skill and Technique!!.. Oops, I'm Talking about Colombia... USA???..How Embarrasing, Terrible, Disgusting, Disjointed Ridiculus High School Soccer...Actually, I've seen better High School Teams, Even On TURF...We Suck,!!! BUT; JUST WIN BABY, WIN...I Told you all...We can't play...But, We are THE USA!!! The Greatest Country the World has ever seen, The Greatest Women's Soccer Teams EVER...And this "American Exceptionalism" "Never say Die" attitude is worth ONE Goal a game...And if the Defense will hold up, We will WIN this Ugliest of Women's World Cups EVER...We are the U.S. of "F"ing America and WE BELIEVE THAT WE CAN WIN!!!!!"
Back to 2021; It has been all too common, in the Last 15 years, for our Youth Pay-to-Play and College Coaches to Make our Women... "PLAY THE WAY YOU ARE FACING.!!!".. "One Touch.!!!" ... "Don't Dribble.!!!" ... "Pass, Pass, PASS THE BALL.!!!" ... They "Literally" Beat the Skill Out of the Creative Youngsters... and "The Chickens have Come Home To Roost"
The Same Problem became Self Evident on the Men's Side, That is why there is only a Few Players over 24 On the Starting 11 ... When Most National Teams average 28. I see it as a 10 year Gap, 32yrs old to current 22 yrs old... We have Lost a Generation of National Team Quality Players...We really Shouldn't HAVE to be Building the Men's National Team around 20 year olds... But, WE ARE.!!! ... The Last time we did this was the 1988 Olympic Men’s Team...How did the Men Fix this Issue SOOO Fast.???...
Pro Academies and Parents that were Willing to take their 16, 17, 18 year old to Foreign Countries...We need to employ the same Strategies here.!!!
I Fear that the Gap on the Women's Side is 15 years... We CAN'T be Building our Women's National Team around 15 year Old Girls.!!! And Which Parents are going to send their 16 year old Daughters to Pro Clubs in Europe.???
Pro Acadamies we can do... Get the Pay-to-Play Scholarship Head Hunter Coaches and Parents out of the Equation...
The flaw in wanting Europe to develop our players for us is the ban on international transfers prior to age 18. You need duo citizenship to transfer to another country. So we need to get our act together here in the US.
Bob, are Women will just Sue Someone to get it done.!!!... Wink, Wink, Knudge, Knudge...
Good stuff, GUYS!!! What went wrong??? Let me say this, the 90's Mia Hamm could easily play with our current group of players or stiffs ,rather. Now here is the kicker. Mia Hamm didn't benefit when see learned to play soccer from what is offered to todays girls/women soccer is offered in way of training, development and the socalled sophistication of coaching.
YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF, what is going in our girls/women development??? NOTHING!!!
Have you watched women's college soccer...it's garbage! You see one game, you've seen them all, whether it current or 10 years ago. Players like Hamm, Wambaugh, Akers, etc., of the 90's have the same or more talent than the women we have today and could easily play today. WHY IS THIS?
The women players over the years haven't gotten better, but was has got better is the across the board numbers of players playing the women's game. In other words it is horizontal improvement not vertical which is the most important aspect, the quality aspect.
Santiago mentioned a big gap between the young and old. He's right but that reflects only the POOR coaching and developing aspect of women soccer. Players like Mia Hamm have a natural talent, it wasn't developed,she had no supporting cast of coaches ,trainers, pro--league, etc., that girls can benefit from today. The stars of today, or yesterday had talent it wasn't developed. They certainly didn't acquire it from the high-level college soccer<sarc>than and now.
Has anyone seen girls or women play pickup soccer, anywhere, perhaps in the deepest part of the jungles of the Amazon. Women have no individuality, due to a serious lack of pickup( remember Cissy of Brazil who learned to play with the boys); their skills are lacking; there is no dribble wizzardry to excite the fans. The only exciting aspect the women give the fans is on the National level which are WINS (enjoy that while you can) for most of the fans watching women soccer are clueless for better details of the game. After the game ,they walk off with their tooters and are just happy that their girls won.
As I mentioned ,no pickup or drive for pickup exist in women soccer. So unfortunately, girls/women are developed according to PROGRAMMED training, and coaching, resulting in girls/women soccer lacking CREATIVITY in their game.
Bingo, You are a Winner today Frank.!!!
Guys, I just watched a dutch soccer program that comes on twice a week. It consists of panel members who have played in Holland or elsewhere and or have coached. Three of the panel members also were former players ,played international as well as for Holland, the other a famous soccer journalist/former player and editor(Johan Derksen) of a famous dutch soccer magazine (voetbal International) who also was for many years Johan Cruyff's soccer 'confidante'. Also this time Wesley Sneyder was a guest.
The discussion was about women's soccer ,specifically at the Olympics
Johan bekeek vrouwenvoetbal: 'Net alsof ze tegen een hoop stront schoppen' | DE ORANJEZOMER - YouTube
Realize that in Holland ,the dutch are very direct in their opinions, are not PC and are definitely not afraid of giving their opinions bad or good. For example, the URL of the Youtube above in dutch states as I will translate it to English as referring to how women play ,specifically in relation the Championship game between Canada vs Sweden. " It was like they were kicking against a pile of sh*t". This is how bad they consider the state of women soccer.
You have to ask yourself, " a pile of sh*t ??? Why go to that extreme? Well because it sums up the LACK of good soccer, of good technique and tactics that's just not there in women's soccer. Derksen refers to the LOW LEVEL (quality) of evolution of women's soccer. He goes on to compare the Olympic championship games of women's volleyball, hockey, etc., is much better quality as compared to women's championship soccer.
We ofcourse don't get the more intricate analysis of soccer in the US for everything here is 'hunky dory" until we start to lose and then all hell breaks loose and we call for change. But change what?
We, fans don't get good analysis or good analytical insights to educate the fan in order to understand and see the game better. And that is the problem I have with the state of American soccer journalism, they lack good soccer insight and ,it is all so superficial.
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One of the panel members stated how bad the penalty kicks were (technically speaking). Derksen in another interview stated that watching women soccer hurts one's eyes, for it is so bad. It is shows like that,which we don't have, that gives a better picture of what is really going on,thus leaving the fan better educated. All throughout the year in Holland there is critical analysis given of women's soccer. And after a while the fan can see the good, the bad, the sublime of the game for it is being indirectly shown and discussed by experts who know the game.
The question "WHAT WENT WRONG?" as related to the USWNT takes on a bigger scope, internationally speaking. You have to look at it at 2 levels. One, we have not improved our development of women/girls players over the years and this is why I state that Mia Hamm and stars of the 90's would still be stars today even though they lacked all the benefits of today's women/girls soccer programs. What went wrong, here??? Fortunately or unfortunately, we were lucky to produce talented athletes, all along, who play soccer. So ,in a way, we were all conned into believing our women soccer programs of development is doing just great , which in fact it isn't. This negative aspect bares out when comparing it to that of other women's soccer programs, a la Sweden, Spain,etc who are improving.
Two, all the women teams in soccer, overal , lack good skills, PERIOD! This deficiency is also 'structural', although that can be solved but currently our girls are being PROGRAMMED, PROCESSED like 'Frankfurters' in a hot dog factory from day one by PROGRAMMED coaches..... thus lacking any INDIVIDUALITY. They play so robotic, without Creativity. If we watch a women player do a cute 'backheel' pass the fans would go , "oh,Wow". But that only points out the lack of INDIVIDUALITY and CREATIVE play.
There is a missing element in the girls game which has to do so much with technique and skills. The way we begin to improve that missing element is emphasize the Technical aspect to a such a higher degree. Remember how took all our energy and got to the moon , this is the kind of effort that we need to place in our girls program. Allow them to fully spend time on technical skills, the tactical aspect can be spend more time on when they reach 16. By the time they reach 16, they will have learned indirectly tactical know-how anyway.
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Teaching tactics has a much better result ratio when the players are older and begin to 'see' the game better. Like Cruyff states when they are young it goes into one ear and out the other.
We realize now that with these licensed coaches our women's program is going downhill, our competitors are improving. Than you have to ask yourself, what are the coaches doing wrong, or WHAT ARE THEY MISSING . One thing they are missing which is also missing internationally in the women's program....GOOD TECHNICAL SKILLS, for this is really what this youtube I posted is basically stating ,although in an indirect way.
Frank, great insight and thank you for sharing.
In my opinion a key reason why women's soccer in US has not evolved as much since Mia Hamm, etc and why European's are gaining at very high rate.....and will surpass...
Women's soccer in US still relies on College Soccer is the primary development source at key ages of 18-22.
This method has already been determined detrimental to development of male players (of course some great players still take that path) in relation to Europe where top players have been developed at professional clubs forever!
Until US women players can develop in a professional environment in scale it will be an issue. Unfortunately since the $$ is not in NWSL and those teams are mostly stand alone women are still better off going to college, getting degree and developing best the can
Wayne, the way I see it is that our saving grace lies in the improvement of technique in women soccer. Realize at the same time improving technique automatically means our tactical sophistication will concomitantly improve as well....IT ALL TIES IN...
NOTE, the other countries are catching up and improving. In other words they simply getting better WITH TIME! NOTE, no one is saying these countries are improving along the lines of technical skills and they will surpass us....NO not at all, these countries are just getting will catch to us because we HAVE NOT improved our game, especially the technical part.....
LACK OF TECHNIQUE IS THE BIGGEST COMPLAINT OF WOMEN SOCCER, Europe ,America and elsewhere....The other complaing made in on this talk show was that there is SO MUCH BALL LOSS IN WOMEN SOCCER.....POSSESSION GAME IN WOMEN SOCCER IS LIKEWISE POOR!!!!
In order for our women to stay on top it is imperative too IMPROVE TECHNICAL FINESSE, for we will soon no longer dominate ,athletically and physically for the women's game will become more sophisticated, which it isn't currently.
My suggestion is to make a big change a major impetus in thinking to develop our girls/women. If I ran the show I would hire so many BRAZILIANS, coaches and trainers in order to created a way of thinking ,technically speaking, flowing downward to all levels making our way of playing more so technically imbued. I mention Brazil , but it could be any individuals of those countries in South America who stress skill play.
Whenever you make a change like that you have to go all in. Sorry but the current crop of coaches, instructors will become assistants so they learn and perhaps take over much later down the road. But right now , our current crop of coaches our not good enough and that bares out with the lack of player development in women since Mia Hamm.
The other aspect is of course, PICKUP soccer, which if you want nurture INDIVIDUALISM, allowing the player to come into her own, that aspect is a must in player development....
We say this about the men's side but it applies to the women as well. There are players out there that do have close ball control, and are good in tight spaces. But they often don't get the right signals from coaches, family and friends unless they grow up in a specific environment that fosters joy and encouragement of their abilities. I've watched players good on the ball get pushed into positions that help the team instead of themselves. Shifty small players at d-mid or center back because the back line is terrible on the ball. That's what happened to Zalalem and he was kicked for it. But coaching/scouting filters prefer runners/kickers. We need a change in soccer values.
Correct, Correct, Correct, on all 3 Posts
Great Comments All,
The USWNT program is still the standard and will remain the standard for some years to come with recruiting, developing and training our future players. What went wrong with the Olympics.....lack of coaching leadership pure and simple. Vlatko was just over his head and will continue to be over his head at this level. There is tons of young talent as Jill Ellis capped almost 27 new players and over 70 got first caps. If you look at all the quality players on other teams, where are they playing, big NCAA DIV I schools. I don't subscribe that our players creativity is being stifled. I have lived (and still live) in Germany for over 14 years and the woman's programs here are light years behind the men.
We must face facts the normal power of European players will continue to gain on the US and we will never again enjoy the dominance we once did when the US was the only country putting any real money into any woman's sports. Just look at our dominant woman's basketball team. Have not lost in almost 60 games.....why? no other country puts the funding in that we do. So lets not go crazy saying our system is completely broke. Other countries are catching up to our men's basketball. It will just continue to happen as more countries want their programs to be able to compete at the big international tournaments.
I doubt US Soccer makes a coaching change at this point. I think you will see younger players go pro earlier based on the court decisions for NWSL so we will likely see more woman players going pro to develop in the states versus going to Europe. As someone stated before you need dual citizenship like Pulisic had. Shall be an interesting couple of years for the women's side.
No question that the big clubs within UEFA leveraged their advantages to facilitate WoSo's growth. As a professional soccer player, winning and even participating in the CL is a motivating factor.
At the same time one should not understate the negative impact of COVID as it certainly impacted the NWSL more so than UEFA. Certainly, the NWSL to remain competitive will have to compete "financially" to attract players to the USA. That said let us not provide a pass to some of those "big" UEFA teams that bailed on the women during the pandemic.
One other anecdotal comment that needs to be aired, While The UEFA Olympic qualifiers were limited to the Top Three finishers of WC 2019 in England, Netherlands & Sweden, only one reached the semi-final. Fully realize that Sweden lost the Gold on PKs, and that many of the Aussie players are in Europe. Still Netherlands and GB (comprised mostly of English players) were as much of a disappointment as the USA, if not more so.
Excellent points Michael.
WE NEED RADICAL CHANGE! WE NEED UNORTHODOX VISIONARY LEADERSHIP. WE NEED A SOCCER REVOLUTION. WE NEED A 21ST CENTURY MASTER PLAN. WE NEED TO CREATE THE USONIAN WAY. WE NEED TO CREATE A NEW SPARTA!
But first We need 600,000 futsal courts so kids can play Queen/king of the court, 24/7/365, for free and no adult interference. We need a Rucker’s Park soccer environment. We need to create Courts of Dreams. You build them. They will come
https://youtu.be/M7JBcu0MzvI
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The proximate cause of the failure of the USWNT was the preponderance of NWSL players, who didn't play enough matches to hone their skills and minds to the level needed to win the Olympics. The teams that beat the US when it really counted relied on European-based talent. Due to the pandemic and its travel restrictions, the USWNT played only against pushovers in the runup to the Olympics. Bottom line is that the USWNT was ill-prepared for the Olympics, and I am still trying to figure out what else Vlatko Andonovski could have done to fix the team, other than changing tactics from kick and chase.
R2dad. Agree totally with your comments on the I've watched players good on the ball get pushed into positions that help the team instead of themselves. Shifty small players at d-mid or center back because the back line is terrible on the ball. That is very true. Watched that happen to my youngest daughter. She was a wing/forward and very fast. Great speed and ball control. Scored almost at will. She was recruited by an ECNL team at 11 and I watched all that change. Because she had such skills they switched her to center back. She still did well but I watched her creativity slowly diminish. She could still easily take the ball from the box down field and score or cross into their box. But the coaches critzed her for going forward. And because she was such a good defender she was constantly left on an island with two or three players coming at her.
Chance and R2dad, what you're describing is a process I've seen repeated too many times with players that have natural goal scoring capabilities. Somehow, some way, they get this rare "nose for the goal" drummed out of them and because of this, it's rare to see great goal scorers developed here in the U.S. Chance, sorry to hear that this happened to your daughter. It's wrong, and I'd even go out on a limb and say it's a sin. These kids deserve to be trained to be the best they can be, and that entails a coach knowing what will help that kid get there. I've always found that, back in the day, sweeper backs (now center backs) possessed the mindset to be good goal scorers, so when I'd need a goal I'd often move that sweeper up and have two center forwards. Often that would result in a goal. There is also the tactical move for overlapping and doing so correctly so that there isn't as big a risk if that center back does move forward. Ugh. Were any of these coaches strikers? It's rare to get a coach that played striker, so most of them revert to teaching how to destroy rather than how to create.
As I sit here I can picture these players, and it's to theirs' and to our nation's soccer that their development is not handled properly. Thirty years ago our country had the oppor
Thx for all that info.
I said in previous postings. That usa players got to be able to play in those top teams in Europe and not be excluded from playing on the National teams. Most of the Swedish players play in those top teams, in England Germany and Spain thats why Sweden beat USA and all the others, except falling to PK in the final. And as you pointed out not only big clubs but big tournaments. Our National league don't really have those tournaments to play in. You can complain as much as you want about all the other stuff but bottom line is the level of competition you play in makes a big difference.
I know some usa players went for a short time to play in England but I don't think they got that much play time.
I want the NWSL to flourish as much as we all want but let's not bar players to go overseas to play.
I guess next WC will be the barometer for US soccer to see how they can compete vs European based players.
my biggest disappointment was Japan they just didn't play as well as in the past and I love watching them play.
canada just got the surge they need to get more girls to play and dream big.
Good article and some valid points. We need to get our young talent playing time at the international level. Rapinoe. Lloyd, O'Hara and Morgan have been great ,but they were mediocre in the Olympics. We still have more talent than any team in the world, and we dominated the second half v Canada. We had many quality chances to score, and their penalty kick was a lucky break they took advantage of. I'm looking forward to seeing our younger talent out there. We have some players( Horan, Mews, Davidson and others) that provide a nice core to suppllement our next wave of young talent. GO USWNT!