There are five basic mechanisms to fill out WPS rosters: The USWNT allocation (3 players), the international draft and discoveries (5 players), tomorrow's general draft (4 players), the January post-combine draft (tbd) and tryouts (tbd).
The allocation of US players rightly generated considerable publicity and the international draft was followed closely by those who are trying to get an early read on WPS teams. Tomorrow's general draft however, will likely fly beneath the radar screen of many and that is a shame, because i believe the 28 players from this draft could very well be the difference makers in the League's first year.
i'm not saying that these will be the stars of the League, although a few will be. Since most teams have used the allocation and international draft to fill their attacking positions, in general, the players from this draft will be those that provide important strength and stability on the defensive side of the field and depth in the attacking half. There are certainly exceptions to that and Dan Lauletta provides a very good breakdown of team needs on the WPS social networking site.
A year from now, it will be interesting to look at team rosters and see how they were built. It is my bet that tomorrow will turn out to be a critical day in determining the success (or failure) of WPS teams.
Tomorrow, you can follow the draft live via Twitter at 1:00 pm CT and the analysis on Fox Soccer Channel at 7 pm CT.
1 comment:
i agree and think we may see a lot of the 'future' players come out of this draft. this is also where all the puzzle pieces come together. i can't wait to see how teams use this and respond to each other's picks.
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