There has been much nail-biting among FCKC supporters this offseason, given all of the retirements that the team has suffered. Grade: Defense wins playoff berths (they hope). Picks: Katie Bowen, Brianne Reed, Alexa Newfield, Alex Arlitt The real question now is how many of these late draft choices will stick with the team - as forward Jen Hoy has done after being drafted in the fourth round in 2013. And Arkansas target forward Ashleigh Ellenwood, currently recovering from a torn ACL, may be a bit of a project, but she too is a Chicago-area player who has spent time with the Red Stars Reserves. (Raetzman and Flaws also have experience with the Red Stars Reserves.) Candace Johnson of Missouri is a Red Stars-style physical centerback. Of the later-round draft choices, DePaul’s Sarah Gorden and Kentucky’s Courtney Raetzman offer depth in central midfield and are local players, as is Illinois striker Jannelle Flaws. (This led, among other things, to the slightly farcical sight of Chicago drafting five of the ten players in the fourth round.) U-20 Women’s National Team experience.Īfter that, Chicago basically turned into the skid, trading down to maximize their number of picks. 19, Katie Naughton of Notre Dame was probably the best center back on the board, and a local player with U.S. Picks: Katie Naughton, Sarah Gorden, Courtney Raetzman, Jannelle Flaws, Adrienne Jordan, Candace Johnson, Ashleigh EllenwoodĬhicago needed more central defenders, but came in with no high draft choices. But it’s hard to escape the sense that overall, this was an opportunity missed for the Breakers. youth national team goalkeeper Abby Smith is a definite upgrade at the backup ‘keeper spot behind newcomer Libby Stout. New coach Matt Beard has made sensible roster changes so far to improve on last year’s woeful performance but given his current center forward options, if he’s content to stand pat that’s not a good sign.īrittany Ratcliffe, a dribbling winger in the Stephanie McCaffrey mold, makes somewhat more sense. Christen Westphal is a good player, yes, but she’s by no means a sure thing-and, more importantly, what is Boston doing using their first pick on a likely fullback when they need a forward most? Whether or not the Breakers need to strengthen at fullback, the need isn’t so urgent to require using the no.3 pick. What they did with that no.3 pick, though, was a bit of a head scratcher. And it’s not clear whether they could have leveraged their top spot in the new allocation order to get the first pick in the draft from the Portland Thorns, rather than No. In fairness, the Breakers were as probably surprised as the rest of the league by the changes to the allocation system that were announced by the league shortly before the draft. Well, it wouldn’t be an NWSL draft without Boston doing something screwy. Picked: Christen Westphal, Brittany Ratcliffe, Abby Smith Some thoughts on how everybody did, and what roster questions remain between now and Opening Day. 1 was easily the least interesting roster-related move they made on Friday Chicago managed to draft seven players while having only one draft pick in the first two rounds and Laura Harvey again made no trades on draft day - using the time saved to instead banter with fans by selecting Adele. The Portland Thorns’ selection of Emily Sonnett at No. The NWSL has completed its fourth(!) college draft, now with more draft picks, more people in the audience, and streaming video coverage, to boot. +READ: NWSL draft: Portland Thorns pick UVa’s Emily Sonnett No. Mark Shawhan was among the sizeable contingent of media on hand, and he’s compiled a detailed evalution of the 2016 draft crop. Editor’s note: Last week’s NWSL draft offered intrigue, upgraded production quality and an exciting start to the professional soccer careers of dozens of talented young women.
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