Agreed, let's see who else is on the roster and what they can bring to the pitch!
Also, the FIFA Women's Champions Cup will always be heavily favored to be dominated by non NWSL teams. NWSL has a salary cap and great parity. The English, French, German, Spanish, etc. leagues all of super teams based on their owners willingness to spend & recruit the worlds best (see Naomi Girma). Unlikely that any NWSL team could compete with them in a tournament format. No big loss for the Thorns to miss out.
Barcelona women super team almost started a champions league final with an own goal in one of the most amateur fashions, saved only by an offside in the build up of play. The Arsenal women are a mess where they can qualify for a champions league final and lose to Brighton and Aston Villa. Who knows where they will be in 2028.
The USA has an annual playoff. They should be ready for a cup competition. The European teams are not miles ahead what NWSL can offer here in the states. We have had WICCs and other small summer cups show this. The best matches up just fine even on a salary cap, we just aren't the best mostly due to who our manager is and the choices they make. We will have another WICC type tournament called the FIFA Women's Champions Cup in Jan/Feb of 2026. Where 6 champions cup/league winners will play each other from the 6 continents North/South America and Europe getting into 3 of 4 semi final spots and Asia/Africa/Oceania fighting for the last spot. It will be in our pre season like the WICCs have been part of European team pre seasons. It won't crown the best team anymore than WICCs did, neither will a club world cup. More games is more fun.
This CONCACAF trophy was our easiest trophy to get this year and it would have been fun to raise it and qualify for 2 other international tournaments, maybe.
My real issue with the 2028 and FIFA is that this push back will likely see another push back. As silly as it is for a 2025 game to qualify you for something in 2028, it is completely irrelevant if it gets pushed again or end up scraping it. I hope it happens in 2028 but when it comes to women sports and FIFA I have no faith they will deliver on this.
My seat geek season ticket account has tickets for July 23rd and 26th friendlies, for opponents yet to be announced. So we do have 2 July friendlies against still unnamed opponents. Those 2 might count as lower stakes than this 3rd place game. They all might be tied for the bottom though.
This 3rd place game is definitely time to give players with lots of minutes already this year a rest.
Agreed, let's see who else is on the roster and what they can bring to the pitch!
Also, the FIFA Women's Champions Cup will always be heavily favored to be dominated by non NWSL teams. NWSL has a salary cap and great parity. The English, French, German, Spanish, etc. leagues all of super teams based on their owners willingness to spend & recruit the worlds best (see Naomi Girma). Unlikely that any NWSL team could compete with them in a tournament format. No big loss for the Thorns to miss out.
Barcelona women super team almost started a champions league final with an own goal in one of the most amateur fashions, saved only by an offside in the build up of play. The Arsenal women are a mess where they can qualify for a champions league final and lose to Brighton and Aston Villa. Who knows where they will be in 2028.
The USA has an annual playoff. They should be ready for a cup competition. The European teams are not miles ahead what NWSL can offer here in the states. We have had WICCs and other small summer cups show this. The best matches up just fine even on a salary cap, we just aren't the best mostly due to who our manager is and the choices they make. We will have another WICC type tournament called the FIFA Women's Champions Cup in Jan/Feb of 2026. Where 6 champions cup/league winners will play each other from the 6 continents North/South America and Europe getting into 3 of 4 semi final spots and Asia/Africa/Oceania fighting for the last spot. It will be in our pre season like the WICCs have been part of European team pre seasons. It won't crown the best team anymore than WICCs did, neither will a club world cup. More games is more fun.
This CONCACAF trophy was our easiest trophy to get this year and it would have been fun to raise it and qualify for 2 other international tournaments, maybe.
My real issue with the 2028 and FIFA is that this push back will likely see another push back. As silly as it is for a 2025 game to qualify you for something in 2028, it is completely irrelevant if it gets pushed again or end up scraping it. I hope it happens in 2028 but when it comes to women sports and FIFA I have no faith they will deliver on this.
My seat geek season ticket account has tickets for July 23rd and 26th friendlies, for opponents yet to be announced. So we do have 2 July friendlies against still unnamed opponents. Those 2 might count as lower stakes than this 3rd place game. They all might be tied for the bottom though.
This 3rd place game is definitely time to give players with lots of minutes already this year a rest.
Ha, thank you again for the inside scoop on scheduling!
Seatgeek now has the teams for the July friendlies. Urawa Reds July 23rd and Seattle Reign 26th. Any idea who the Urawa Reds are?
Looks like they are one of the better teams from Japan. Interesting!