Posting for the day is suspended due to extreme unrest somewhere south of my ribcage--who knew the Uterine Republic would go nuclear on East Fallopia so soon after last month's debacle that only featured mortars and possibly biological warfare, and paper cuts? not me--but before I go collapse into a ball of will someone please make me some hot chocolate and call my mommy, a note on the WPS player allocations.
The Red Stars made out marginally, I think, with Lloyd, Tarpley, and Markgraf. Despite Tarp's tendency to get fatigued by about the 70th minute in the Olympics, she's a steady and occasionally threatening presence on the wing, and depending on the players surrounding her, she could provide some decent offensive production. Markgraf is past the sell-by date on her international career, but will probably manage to stick around for a few more years at center back at the WPS level, and will certainly make an excellent mentor for up-and-coming young defenders. Lloyd? Wow. Despite her cannon of a leg and gold medal-winning goal against hated Brazil, her accuracy is suspect at best and her conscience is on permanent hold when it comes to continuing to fire away after her first several shots come closer to the corner flag than to the frame, and her touch in the short possession game is not exactly there. She does have a killer work ethic and appears to value team outcomes over petty infighting, which will make the average Chicagoan want to adopt her even though she's from New Jersey, so if she can get the gunsight calibrated a little better and turn her workout focus to the first touch and recognizing the proper passing lanes on the field, she'll do pretty okay for herself at Toyota Park. If not, well, at least they'll be better than Washington.
LA and Washington looked like they were trying to see who could pull off the least subtle tank job in hopes of landing Marta in the international draft, and from my vantage point it was a tossup. Cox-Boxx-Wagner or Whitehill-Wambach-Krieger? Slow-old-rusty or ACL-snapped leg-who? Not sure who the loser in that derby will go after next.
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