Coach’s Corner

The above photo is how I imagine the recent WPS behind closed doors Expansion Draft went down

Umea IK received a teeny tiny blurb at uefa.com. Mika Sankala stepped down as head coach this week because the traveling took him away from his family (awww). No word on his replacement (that I know of). And St. Louis just signed former Umea players forward Madelaine Edlund and midfielder Elaine.

Hope Powell and the England squad will play Turkey on Thursday (while we Americans eat turkey on Thursday) and a win for England means they qualify for the World Cup. That’s a potential spot earned in three games. Uh, wow. No wonder CONCACAF are dragging their heels on this. Anyways, Powell wins quote of the week from a Guardian interview where she spoke about England’s 8-0 beating of Malta last month:

Now we have to build on what we’ve achieved this year, and to do that we must qualify for the World Cup. We made a good start in terms of the result against Malta, but it was disappointing that we didn’t score more goals.

The WPS site has an interview with new Sky Blue coach Pauliina Miettinen where she discussed scouting and what she looks for in potential players. Part of her research is finding out more about the player off the field: “I also want to know what they are really like, day-to-day, and also about their personality.” Um, ok. I’m all for co-workers getting along and finding the right fit and all that but it does seem that she mentions this sort of thing A LOT. And coupled with the fact that this is a women’s league and she’s a female coach, it tends to imply to the average person that maybe THIS IS ACTUALLY A HUGE PROBLEM IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Just a fyi there – especially on the heels of the whole Elizabeth Lambert fiasco. Yes, I may be totally overreacting here but it bothers me.

Category: Sky Blue FC, St. Louis Athletica