Defensive minded Red Stars: A preseason glance

Posted on by RJ Allen
Photo found at chicagoredstars.com
Photo found at chicagoredstars.com

“Defense wins championships…” It’s a quote coined by famed college coach Bear Bryant and has been echoed throughout various sports scenarios since it has been uttered into existence. In soccer, a strong back line and a goalkeeper who can demonstrate leadership of that back line is essential to a successful team. When the Chicago Red Stars announced their preseason roster it featured several defenders and goalkeepers. A mix of veterans, draftees, and invitees (trialists).

Last season, Chicago appeared to have a solid defensive foundation even during a World Cup cycle in which key defensive players were absent. 2015 saw goalkeepers Katrina Leblanc and Michele Dalton, along with defenders Julie Johnston and Michelle Lomnicki, among its core pieces.

However in the off season, the Red Stars were left with defensive holes in forms of retirement, expansion drafts, and trades. LeBlanc and Lomnicki announced their retirement. Taryn Hemmings was selected by Orlando Pride in the expansion draft (she later announced retirement). Abby Erceg was traded to WNY Flash in a deal involving Whitney Engen, who was later traded to Boston Breakers for United States National Women’s Team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

Chicago’s 2016 NWSL draft class featured 4 defensive selections. 3 of those picks were called to the preseason roster. Notre Dame’s Katie Naughton, Depaul’s Sarah Gorden, and Northern Colorado’s Adrienne Jordan. All draftees are strong capable players of making the squad, and with all the changes, they can use this preseason to make their case.

In addition to a busy off season, the same day Chicago released their preseason roster they also announced Rachel Quon would not be returning to the Red Stars for the upcoming 2016 season. Quon, a key utility player, offered depth at various positions as defensive back and defensive midfield. Along with signing Alyssa Naeher, the Red Stars announced the signing of defender Casey Short. Short has ties with Chicago dating back to 2013 when they acquired her rights from Boston, however, due to injuries she was unable to play. She is coming off a successful season with Avaldsnes football club in Norway and is expected to make an impact for the team.

Chicago Red Stars Coach Rory Dames has been quoted saying she will provide options at outside back “…She will slide straight into one of our outside back spots and give us the attributes we look for in those spaces.”

Finally, a surprising pre-season roster move, second year Forward Cara Walls and veteran Midfielder Alyssa Mautz were listed as defenders on the roster. Their experience will be leaned on tested in these preseason games. Kassidy Brown, Madison Krauser, Jennifer Pelley, and Brianna Smallidge were invited as trialists. The preseason roster rounds out at 11 defenders and 4 goalkeepers.

GOALKEEPERS (4): Michele Dalton, Alyssa Naeher, Jennifer Pelley, Brianna Smallidge

DEFENDERS (11): Kassidy Brown, Arin Gilliland, Sarah Gorden, Samantha Johnson, Julie Johnston, Adrienne Jordan, Madison Krauser, Alyssa Mautz, Katie Naughton, Casey Short, Cara Walls

The Preseason is officially underway with a closed scrimmage having already taken place against Illinois State. Two more games will follow and are open and free to the public. April 3rd against Northwestern at 5pm and April 6th against Notre Dame at 6pm.

 

Terms of the Deal Were Not disclosed. Wait, why?

Posted on by RJ Allen

“Per league and club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.”

That sentence shows up in every story on NWSLSoccer.com about a player signing. Officially, no club  can create a page on their website that lists  what each of their players make. The only things we do know are that non-allocated players (players from the United States and Canada on their women’s national teams) are paid between $6,800 and $37,800 and that each team has a salary cap of $265,000. 

The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), which just finished its first season, took a different route. You can go to their website and find a page that lists the salary for each player. The 72 players on the 4 NWHL teams have what they make listed. From the 16 players making just $10,000 to Kelli Stack who makes a league-high $25,000. This isn’t to say the NWHL is perfect, but in this one area it’s already ahead of the NWSL. 

Yet, in the NWSL, it’s league and club policy not to give out any information of the terms of the player deals or how much they make off of those deals. 

And that’s not even getting at the impact that having such low salaries has on teams and players in the first place. 

To look at the impact that the $265,000 cap has on a team, we need to have some fun with math. Let’s look at the 18 player roster for Seattle from the 2015 Championship game and see what Laura Harvey, head coach and GM, might be paying her players. 

The roster: Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, Kendall Fletcher, Rachel Corsie, Lauren Barnes, Stephanie Cox, Elli Reed, Keelin Winters, Kim Little, Jessica Fishlock, Merritt Mathias, Katrine Veje, Beverly Yanez, Haley Kopmeyer ,Amber Brooks, Mariah Bullock, Danielle Foxhoven, and Kiersten Dallstream. 

First off, Solo and Rapinoe can be taken out of consideration, because they are United States allocated players. US Soccer plays them to play in the league. (About $55,000 according to the court documents in the law suit between US Soccer and the United States Women’s National Team.) 

For the moment, let’s assume that no other players outside of the 18 that dress for game day are getting paid, just to keep the math simple. Teams are allowed to carry up to 20 players even if not all teams do.

So, 16 players have to fit under a salary cap of $265,000. That would be $16,562.50 per player, if everyone on the roster was being paid evenly. But as we know, in the world of sports, things are rarely fair.

Out of the 16 non-allocated players, Seattle has two from the Scottish Women’s National Team, (Kim Little and Rachel Corsie), one from the Welsh Women’s National Team, (Jess Fishlock), and one from the Danish Women’s National Team, (Katrine Veje). Let’s say each of them made $30,000 each. They are good enough to be called on for international duty after all. 

What does that give us? Two allocated players (Solo and Rapinoe), four international players making $30,000 (Little, Corsie, Fishlock, and Veje) and the 12 remaining players making roughly $12,083.33 each, if we’re keeping the rest equal. 

But the 12 left wouldn’t be all paid equally. The starting XI would likely be getting more than a bench player, right? 

The starting XI: Solo, Fletcher, Corsie, Barnes, Cox, Winters, Little, Fishlock, Mathias, Rapinoe and Yanez. 

So let’s increase the rest of the starting XI (Fletcher, Barnes, Cox, Winters, Mathaias, and Yanez) to $20,000 each.

So now you have two allocated players (Solo and Rapinoe), four international players making $30,000 (Little, Corsie, Fishlock, and Veje), six starters making $20,000 (Fletcher, Barnes, Cox, Winters, Mathias and Yanez), and the six bench players making $4,166,66 each. 

That puts the bench players’ salaries under the league minimum. 

See how quickly that $265,000 goes? 

I can’t tell you, with 100% certainty, what the players on Seattle make (outside of Solo and Rapinoe), but I can tell you that some of the players make close to the league minimum. Not making that information known only serves to keep the public from seeing just how many of those players are closer to the $6,800 end of the spectrum than the $37,800 end. 

Releasing the players’ salaries would give the public a chance to see just what each team is doing with their $265,000. It will give fans a chance to call GMs out if they aren’t using the money wisely, just like every other sports league has their fans do. 

The NWSL making it to its fourth season is huge. But that doesn’t mean that fans and members of the media should give them a free pass. The only way the league will change for the better is by fans and the media pushing them in that direction. 

And push we shall.