Excited about that friendly between the U.S. women's national team and Canada kicking off in a few hours at Toronto's BMO Field? You know, the first of three consecutive games between very familiar rivals scheduled a scant 25 months before the start of the Women's World Cup? Well, U.S. coach Pia Sundhage and the federation's public relations staff sure seem to be."With the onset of the new league, each international match takes on greater importance, as the players must show [Sundhage] that they are worthy of investment for the run to the [World Cup]," a U.S. Soccer press release said, hoping to add some hype to a match quickly arranged to fill the gap after the skittish Japanese team abandoned its North American tour.
Apparently two of those players are Abby Wambach and Heather O'Reilly, who have scored a combined 124 goals in a national team shirt.
Their respective WPS clubs, the Washington Freedom and Sky Blue FC (continuing the tradition of unfortunate, indecipherable women's soccer team names from its home in central New Jersey), played Saturday afternoon in the first half of a WPS-MLS doubleheader at RFK Stadium in Washington. The coed twin bills had developed into a bit of a tradition during the WUSA's run in 2001-03, and the game afforded the relaunched league its chance at a record crowd.
The WPS has barely registered on the American soccer landscape two months into its first season, and exposing more than 16,000 fans (greater than three-times the league's average attendance) to two of its most talented and marketable players would have seemed like a worthy idea -- certainly one good enough to justify leaving the pair out of a friendly that, despite the federation's claims, has to be one of the most meaningless ever scheduled. Wambach has tallied 99 international goals and will be a fixture for at least the next half-dozen years, while Reilly is a speedy offensive threat who offers valuable diversity in the attack. Neither needs to prove herself in a U.S. shirt.
Yet Sundhage disagreed, calling both into a camp that forced them to prepare for tonight's epic throwdown rather than play in a match that could really have benefitted the nascent league. She should know better. Sundhage is an excellent coach, and had first hand experience trying to grow the game in this country as an assistant with the WUSA's Philadelphia Charge and the head coach of the Boston Breakers. She knows the value a viable pro circuit would bring to her program and had a front-row seat from which to assess the WUSA's demise, which was brought about largely by naivete and arrogance (I was fortunate enough to cover the league on a daily basis for three years -- trust me on this one).
The new league has corrected a lot of those old mistakes, but not all. Sundhage needs to help, and when she has the opportunity to let WPS clubs showcase their marquee players, she must allow them to do so. There's more than two years before the next World Cup! Plus, if she's desperate to see how Wambach and Reilly fare against the Canadians, there are those highly-anticipated games on July 19 and 22 to look forward to.
