Something Happened!

By: Melissa | September 22nd, 2009

Today was all a-twitter as Philly and ATL got to pick five international players each to stock their rosters. But, assuming similar rules apply from last year’s international draft, both expansion teams really picked five players each with whom they have the exclusive rights to negotiate a contract. Or, they picked five players each with whom they have the exclusive rights to trade the rights to another team so the other team can negotiate a contract. Here’s a rundown of today’s picks. In essence, this is the first round intended to give the expansion sides a slight advantage because the “International Discovery Period” begins tomorrow (Sept 23rd). That means all teams will get the chance to claim a new group of internationals – but not before they clear their rosters. So yeah, that’s happening too. Players are getting waived left and right. But all is not lost in that department either. WPS does do one thing that MLS fans may raise an inquisitive eyebrow over. Free agency begins September 30th so all those waived players get the opportunity for each team to compete with each other and woo the players into a new contract. That should be fun… I think. We’ll see.

In other news:

Lotta lotta lotta loans. Marta is in Brazil with Santos FC. Kelley Smith, Alex Scott, & Karen Carney are back with Arsenal. For the Freedom, Sonia Bompastor is in France with PSG, Homare Sawa is in Japan with NTV Beleza, Lisa De Vanna is in Australia with Perth Glory… and there are probably heaps others all over the place either playing or just training. I’m sure there’s a full list somewhere. All this does is really make me wish I found a different line of work. Sure, playing in WPS can’t pay well but you do get to see the world a bit. Damn.

The USWNT training camp begins this week. Pia gets 12 days with her call-ups to decide who goes to Germany to play a friendly in October. There are a few new faces on the roster and the NYT Goal blog has a little interview with midfielder Yael Averbuch. Also, Abby Wambach got a dog. Hey, this is off-season news, y’all. We take what we can get!

And in much much more serious and somber news, one of the men accused of the “corrective rape” and murder of South African footballer, Eudy Simelane, received a life sentence. He was the second man involved who received a conviction so far.