… And the Good Lord Taketh Away: USWNT Players on WPS Rosters

In order for Women’s Professional Soccer to succeed, the league needs strong performances from the U.S. Women’s National Team.  If this summer’s Women’s World Cup generates some popularity, especially if the USWNT manages to win (or even get to the final), the hope is that the excitement and publicity will lead to increased interest for the women’s game year-round.  For this reason, the WPS agreed to shut down its schedule between June 22 and July 6 (the first two weeks of the World Cup) and to permit any of its players on various national teams to take a leave of absence and return after the World Cup is over.

But some WPS coaches whose players play on the U.S. team are starting to feel taken advantage of.  In addition to the actual World Cup games, USWNT coach Pia Sundhage has instituted a heavy training schedule that will keep many of the league’s better-known players out of action for much of the season.  Although helping the national team is both a patriotic duty and a smart business move, is the league going too far to be accommodating?

WPS fans might see a lot less of Lindsay Tarpley this year

Our Game magazine provides a good run-down of the national team’s training schedule: they’re currently in the United Kingdom, to play the English on April 2 in London and train in Scotland up until April 7.  During this period, they’re also rumored to be playing the Scottish national team in a closed-door scrimmage.  After this, the team returns to the States, and the players are available to train and play with the WPS teams.  But, beginning April 18, Coach Sundhage is conducting another training camp in Florida, to last for three weeks.  This time, because the players are state-side, they will be “available” to go back-and-forth between camp and WPS games, but they still won’t be training with their teammates day-in and day-out.  The national team leaves for Europe on June 5, with a heavy training schedule before the World Cup actually opens on June 26.

A complicated set of fixtures, but the long and short of it is this: the WPS season opens on April 9, but players on the USWNT will have limited availability for basically the first two-thirds of the seasons.  During a lot of that period, they’re going to be out of the country (before they return from the U.K., then in the weeks leading up to the World Cup, and during the actual event itself).  Even when they’re in the U.S. and are available to play, they won’t be practicing with their teammates most of the time.  As anyone who’s played soccer knows, this is nearly as big a problem as being absent entirely; club players have to practice together every day (or at least several times a week) in order to work on tactics, timing and communication.  And if the team is struggling, the coach may want to change the formation, introduce new drills in practice, and even go over game film.  None of this can be done from afar, and teams with rosters that are heavy in USWNT players will be at a disadvantage.

Needless to say, several WPS coaches are displeased.  Breakers boss Tony DiCicco tells ChicagoLand Soccer News that U.S. Soccer (our equivalent of the FA) “made it difficult” on the WPS with the heavy dose training in the spring and early summer.  DiCicco says he won’t see his USWNT players until April 7 at the earliest, when they return from Scotland.  And Philadelphia coach Paul Riley appears equally frustrated.  The Independence open their season on April 10, and Riley isn’t waiting around for the USWNT players to get his team ready: “I actually put a team together to play without them … If they are here, they’re here. If they’re not, they’re not. That looks like the way it’s going to be at this point.”

It’s hard to blame Coach Sundhage for wanting to get her players together for as much training as possible.  She knows the U.S. team needs a good showing in Germany to keep her job.  The real question is, where has U.S. Soccer been for the last few months?  WPS teams that rely heavily on players who happen to play for the USWNT, like the Breakers and the Freedom (or whatever they end up calling themselves) are at a huge disadvantage this year – not only on the field, where their best players will be absent much of the year, but also when it comes to selling tickets.  This is exactly where the countries governing body of soccer needs to step in and try to find a better balance between the success of the national team and the growth and health of the sport.

Either way, the season opens in two weeks.  We’ll be back next week to take a look at the Week 1 match-ups, and maybe try to see which teams will be at a disadvantage for having a lot of players on the national team.  How weird does that sound?

Category: WPS News