Month: April 2014

soccer

MLS and single entity: I don’t think it means what you think it means

Posted on by Beau Dure

This post is going to start with an academic question and veer into the approaching collective bargaining abyss.

Major League Soccer is a “single entity” league. So what does that mean?

For lawyers, it’s an intriguing concept, and the lawsuit challenging it might come up in a local law school class. For the league’s detractors, it means MLS isn’t authentic competition.

But does it mean the same thing today that it meant in 1996, when the league started and Sunil Gulati was parceling out players, or 2002, when the league was down to three owners?

The original allocation of players was absolutely top-down. You get John Harkes. You get Tab Ramos. You get this guy who’ll be a bust, so we’ll figure out how to get you another guy.

The allocation structure has evolved into something much more complicated. It’s like having chips you can cash in or trade for talent that’s more experienced than a draftee but less sought-after than a Designated Player.

So MLS has a byzantine collection of roster rules, and it still seems like the big clubs have an advantage. Sounds like every other league, doesn’t it?

The NFL has a salary cap, but the Washington Redskins always manage to outspend people. (Fortunately for the competition, they spend poorly.) The NBA has a cap with plentiful exceptions and exemptions. Even the “open market” Major League Baseball has some quirks — MLS has the Re-Entry Draft, and MLB has the Rule V Draft.

Soccer leagues also have some top-down requirements. Transfer windows. Financial Fair Play, though that seems to have as many loopholes as the NFL salary cap. Revenue sharing on big TV deals. Parachute payments for relegated clubs.

So what makes MLS “single entity” any different from any other league from a competitive standpoint?

You can’t say “it limits investment.” MLS teams have done little but invest over the past decades. New stadiums. New training grounds. Youth academies.

Conversely, here’s what Stefan Szymanski (who’s currently discussing MLS’s future in a way that drew the wrath of Dan Loney) and Andrew Zimbalist said about England in their book, National Pastime (page 6):

(B)ecause competition between teams is so intense, and a club’s tenure in the top flight is so uncertain, the clubs themselves are often reluctant to invest their own money. This can lead to a problem of facility underinvestment, with often tragic consequences.

The authors go on to name the worst two tragedies in English soccer — the fire in the Bradford stands that claimed 56 lives and the Hillsborough disaster. Something needed to change, and in this case, the government stepped in.

Other laissez-faire leagues haven’t fared well recently. Women’s Professional Soccer had a light touch to begin with, then scaled back its central office to the bare minimum needed to run the league. Like weeds in a barren lawn, dysfunction quickly crept in and took over.

So if you’re looking for a professional sports league without some sort of top-down interference with the “authenticity” of competition, you’re going to be disappointed. MLS may have more rules than many, but the blanket “single entity” accusation doesn’t hold a lot of water.

Specific roster rules? Oh, we can argue about those all we want. And with the collective bargaining agreement in its final year, it’s time.

Let’s start with the Re-Entry Draft, a clever concoction that helped seal the last CBA and was then tested in real life by Jimmy Conrad, one of the union reps who pushed for it. Looking back, we’ll always be grateful that it fit everyone’s needs at the time so we could avoid a labor stoppage. But is it necessary now? If teams are bidding against each other for players at the top end of the pay scale, do we need any artificial limits to free agency for those players who are commanding the smaller bucks?

But the league’s biggest challenges must be met collectively.

In a lot of leagues, teams compete only against each other. MLS is trying to compete in a global marketplace. Improving the quality of play is Topic A. (Improving the quality of broadcasts is another issue, with NBC Sports Network raising the bar through its terrific work with the Premier League AND Major League Soccer.) Salaries have gone up from a $1.9 million cap a decade ago to an average of over $5 million per team now — progress, but there’s always room to make the game a bit better, either through more spending or other initiatives.

So as we head into collective bargaining — which actually is unique to the USA — perhaps the “single entity” can roar one more time.

(Or perhaps a couple of coaches quit prepping their teams to play with the negativity of a North Carolina Senate race. Just saying.)

1
olympic sports, track and field

Monday Myriad, April 29: Spike and swim

Posted on by Beau Dure

(Delayed by urgent family business)

Kerri Walsh Jennings? Michael Phelps? What is this — 2008?

That’s the modern-day Olympic athlete for you. It ain’t over until they’re my age.

Best team: 

Best team visiting China: U.S. archers grabbed five medals at a World Cup stop in Shanghai.

Best race:

Closest race: They had to break out the thousandths to determine that Kristi Castlin upset world champion Brianna Rollins in the Drake Relays 100 hurdles.

Best race in water: And to think that Katie Ledecky is best known for her long-distance swims …

Best mental matchup: The USA’s Hikaru Nakamura loves to challenge world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. Just went astray this time.

Weirdest closing position: Hey, if it takes 101 moves and this weird double-phalanx position to get a draw with world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, knock yourself out, Teimour Radjabov. Looks like the pieces are collapsing toward the center of a black hole.

Best 1-2: 

Best 3-4 (week) and 4-5 (season): Gwen Jorgensen and Sarah Groff are getting used to being in triathlon contention. 

Best comeback:

Best record: Kerri Walsh Jennings, now paired with April Ross after the retirement of longtime partner Misty May-Treanor, has a record 47 FIVB beach volleyball titles.

Biggest domination: World Series of Diving stopped by the London 2012 Olympic venue (just a week after I was there), and … it was a lot of China.

Biggest throw: This brief judo matchup comes from the always essential Frontier Sports roundup:

Best punchline setup: Also from Frontier Sports: “Rio’s mayor says sports are making too many “unnecessary demands” ahead of the Games.”

Like … having places to play games, run, swim, etc.

Least convincing denial / best humblebrag:

Worst handoff: It’s only fair that the Bahamas beat the USA in the Penn Relays men’s 4×400 after the U.S. anchor tried to run off with their baton.

https://twitter.com/dailyrelay/status/460147994583920640

Full wraps:

– Penn Relays/Drake Relays (and several marathons) at Daily Relay’s Monday Morning Run. Also includes a GIF of the messed-up baton handoff.

– Sailing: Stacked World Cup competition in France.

– TeamUSA.org: All the swimming, plus equestrian and field hockey.

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soccer

Goal-scoring stats from England

Posted on by Beau Dure

Flipped through the English standings today and thought League Two was curiously low-scoring. One spreadsheet later, here are the stats:

Premier League
2.76 goals per game
48.8 goals per team (mean — fewer games than other leagues)
40.5 goals per team (median)
96 – highest goal total (Liverpool, 35 games)
28 – lowest goal total (Crystal Palace, 35 games)

Championship
2.56 goals per game
57.5 goals per team (mean)
57.0 goals per team (median)
82 – highest goal total (Leicester and Derby, 45 games each)
35 – lowest goal total (Charlton, 44 games)

League One
2.67 goals per game
59.8 goals per team (mean)
59.0 goals per team (median)
84 – highest goal total (Wolves, 45 games)
43 – lowest goal total (Carlisle, 44 games)

League Two
2.32 goals per game
52.0 goals per team (mean)
50.5 goals per team (median)
68 – highest goal total (Rochdale, 45 games)
39 – lowest goal total (Northampton, 45 games)

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soccer

English soccer: Everybody’s got problems

Posted on by Beau Dure

One of the joys of visiting England and taking in the soccer scene is that you realize how wonderful it is — and how different it is from the conventional wisdom of those who think the version in the USA and Canada can’t compare.

//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/484830989?et=tqY28UfaRD9EhZDfTlahKQ&SeoLinks=off&sig=mw82OwQnz4UXufBEPxJNXV890yJnqzfq0nVmoDq7CHw=

My trip to Reading’s Madejski Stadium and my happy purchase of When Saturday Comes at non-import prices reminded me of a few things …

1. English soccer doesn’t turn its back on kids. Reading had a small “family stand,” but honestly, the whole place is family-friendly. The ample concession stands had plenty of options for young ones, along with the beer that has to be consumed in the concourse. Outside the stadium, mascots roamed about, and kids could take a few kicks to see how fast or accurate they were.

At halftime, a youth team piled onto the field and split in two. On each half of the condensed field, players took turns taking a pass from a coach and taking a shot against a goalkeeper. They called this exercise “American-style penalties.”

2. English supporters aren’t all that demonstrative. The Rose City Riveters posted a thoughtful piece on women’s soccer supporter culture, lamenting that their percussion and chanting wasn’t enough to turn all the kids at Sky Blue’s Yurcak Field into authentic supporters.

First of all, give the Riveters full credit for turning the Proclaimers’ classic tune into a chant about hauling a drum 3,000 miles. That’s beautiful. And it would fit right in at the Madejski, where Reading supporters answered Leicester City supporters’ boasts about being promoted to the Premier League with a reminder that Reading holds the record of 106 points in the Championship — one that Leicester can’t quite catch. (A couple also yelled that Leicester will be back in the Championship again after one season up, and if Leicester doesn’t come up with some skill to match its speed, they’ll be right. The ball goes inside the touchlines, guys.)

Drums? Maybe one. Tifo? Nah — Leicester had a couple of banners that said “Leicester City” just so you’d know which stand was the away stand. Standing? Against the rules.

American and Canadian fans really shouldn’t be self-conscious about their supporters culture. We’ve taken bits from everyone — chanting from England, drums and tifo from elsewhere, sawing giant logs from … well, that’s unique. And that’s good! D.C. United’s supporters groups set the standard in the early days, and now everyone’s adding a twist.

3. You don’t need Liverpool or Man City to have an entertaining match. Leicester City will be in the Premier League next year. Reading is still trying to scratch its way into the playoffs. But these teams are far from fantastic. Didn’t matter. Maybe it wasn’t terrific TV, but it was a fun game to watch in person.

And the next time I read some “I tried to give MLS a chance by watching D.C. United play New England, but it wasn’t as good as Liverpool-Arsenal” piece, I’m going to be either violently ill or just plain violent. I went all the way to England and watched a Championship game because I couldn’t get Premier League tickets (a little sad, given that I was staying within walking distance of Arsenal), and I enjoyed it. You can get in your bloody car and go to a live soccer game. If you only have an NASL or USL Pro team within driving distance, go to that. Get over yourself.

4. England has some crap-ass owners. You think MLS teams are alone in trying to make money? Consider Blackpool. WSC has a shocking piece about Blackpool supporters’ protests against their majority shareholders, the Oyston family. They’ve paid themselves an awful lot of money. They’re making loans from the club to “various loss-making companies owned by the Oyston family,” the story reads. Investment in a new training ground? Forget it.

Now consider this — MLS teams don’t have a century of stability on which to draw. Blackpool shared in Premier League TV money a few years ago. MLS is still building its infrastructure from scratch and still recouping the money sunk into the sport in the mid-90s and early 2000s. So you can excuse MLS owners for trying to pull out of the red. What’s Blackpool’s excuse for squeezing pennies?

5. English clubs’ youth pipelines are clogged. From WSC: “Following the departure of Emmanuel Frimpong this January, just two players from Arsenal’s 2009 Youth League and Cup double-winning side remain contracted to the club.”

6. Debt-ridden clubs face extinction. WSC tells the sad story of Bashley, a non-League club that may be next in a “swathe of winding-up orders” as HM Revenue & Customs pursues footballing debts.

7. The Bundesliga is lopsided. Bayern Munich ran away with it this year. Ratings are dropping. Oliver Kahn suggested “US-style play-offs” to make things more interesting. (WSC story: “Competition time.”)

8. The Championship teams are bickering over Financial Fair Play. Is everyone actually adhering to it? Can a team playing under FFP in the Championship turn around the next year and compete in the Premier League?

None of these problems will kill the game. The point here is that simple solutions don’t solve everything. You can’t just “be like England” and expect issues of finances and fairness to go away. MLS is struggling with the balance of parity and excellence. So is everyone else.

We’ll address MLS a little later this week. It’s a CBA year, you know.

WSC has several other good reads, including one in which a Scottish university team now has the opportunity to win promotion into the professional ranks. Tempting to wonder what would happen if Akron had that opportunity, isn’t it?

 

2
olympic sports, track and field

Monday Myriad, April 21: Meb’s marathon

Posted on by Beau Dure

This year’s Boston Marathon was full of inspirational stories. We knew that. We didn’t know one of them would be the first American man to win since 1983.

//embed.gettyimages.com/embed/485912009?et=_0guKcEITQFohmjdFUA6jA&SeoLinks=off&sig=tNvVwV9i4OV-WI7g0GHrZaOZJPG9PDJxPA4MEF8LtBA=

Meb Keflezighi wasn’t born in the USA, but through a long and distinguished career, he has always exuded love for the country that welcomed him and his family as they got out of Eritrea. And he has been quick to lend comfort and charity to those affected by last year’s bombing.

Here he is:

Other big U.S. performances in Boston: Shalane Flanagan led much of the way and finished seventh.

Then there’s Tatyana McFadden — major marathon, major marathon, major marathon, major marathon, silver medal in Sochi, major marathon (London, last week), major marathon (Boston).

Elsewhere in the Myriad world:

Best statement by a young runner: The Mt. SAC field for the women’s 400 included Lashinda Demus and DeeDee Trotter. Winner? Oregon senior Phyllis Francis.

Best comeback by a guy who usually wins: Jordan Burroughs won his first 69 international wrestling matches before losing to Nick Marable in February. He was 30 seconds away from his second loss but exploded for two late takedowns to beat David Taylor 7-6.

Best acceleration: Australia’s Caroline Buchanan and the USA’s Brooke Crain finished 1-2 in the BMX World Cup opener in Manchester, England.

Best miles: Also in Boston …

Best tiebreaker: The university in whose shadow I grew up has another national title:

Least existent tiebreaker: 

Best post-Olympic career: Win world and Olympic titles, then go to college. Only in gymnastics.

Most consistent cyclist: 

Best retirement: Jeremy Teela was a fun guy to cover. Glad to see him put down the gun and skis with grace.

And finally …

Least nutritious dinner for an all-time great:

0
soccer

Washington Spirit vs. FC Kansas City: Goal rush

Posted on by Beau Dure

What’s changed for the Washington Spirit this season? It’s pretty simple. Goals.

Never before had the Spirit scored three goals in a half. Only once last season did they have three or more in a game. Tonight, they had three in the first half and held on to beat FC Kansas City 3-1.

We can’t read too much into one game. Sometimes those shots go in, sometimes they don’t. The first goal was the result of a fortunate bounce toward Diana Matheson and a little deflection — exactly the sort of goal Mike Jorden often hoped for but never saw in his tenure as Spirit coach.

Maybe on another night, Ashlyn Harris isn’t in the superior form she showed tonight. Or Lauren Holiday is slightly more clinical in her finishing. Or soccer karma (which doesn’t exist) doesn’t help Harris make the big PK save on Holiday after a dubious penalty call.

FCKC outshot the Spirit 17-7. They had nine corner kicks to the Spirit’s zero. Three of the Spirit’s shots went in; another was saved only by the grace of Becky Sauerbrunn, KC’s best player on the evening.

“We had the better of the game, I thought,” KC’s Amy Rodriguez said. “We had the chances — we just didn’t convert them.”

“We can look good and play the beautiful game, but if you can’t put the ball in the net, nothing else matters,” KC coach Vlatko Andonovski said after graciously congratulating the Spirit.

It won’t be like this every game. But there’s one thing that has substantially changed for the Spirit:

Crystal Dunn.

My goodness, this rookie can play. She just gets the ball at her feet and drives straight at older, bigger defenders, usually with good results. Twice, the ball wound up at Matheson’s feet, and the Canadian sparkplug didn’t miss. Another time, she got past defender Kassey Kallman, who was forced to haul her down to set up a free kick and a yellow card.

I counted one mistake — a giveaway midway through the first half. She turned around and got it back.

She was supposed to be working her way back to match fitness, not playing the full 90. But there she was, in the inexplicably long second-half stoppage time, making a diagonal run across the field that killed off much of the remaining time. After the game, she hopped up into the stands to take a selfie with one of her many admirers. She looked like she could play another 90.

“I’m glad I look like I could run 90,” Dunn said with a laugh. “I felt great out there. Going into this game, I thought I was only going to play 75. But I’ve got a full game under my belt, and I’m ready for the next one.”

Dunn and Matheson lined up on the wings and shifted back and forth a bit. Good luck dealing with that, NWSL defenses.

The Spirit have a few leaks at the back. The center backs lost track of Holiday and company more than once as they tried to play a high line — a tactic they wisely abandoned as the game wore on. Good thing Tori Huster and Toni Pressley have recovery speed and a lot of heart. Tonight, it wasn’t costly except for one lapse in which Rodriguez was able to pounce on her own rebound after a strong Harris save. And they blocked a lot of shots — Parsons said Robyn Gayle took three shots to the face. Probably feels better after a win.

The center midfield — Lori Lindsey playing in front of Yael Averbuch and Christine Nairn — was solid, and Nairn scored the third goal on a gorgeous bending free kick to the same upper corner in which Matheson drilled her second goal.

So let’s say it one last time — games aren’t always going to go this way for the Spirit. But with Harris, Dunn and Matheson providing the highlights for a team with much more experience and depth than the 2013 Spirit, the good games shouldn’t be as far between this time around.

“The players decided to put a flag on this stadium and say we’re not going to get rolled over,” Spirit coach Mark Parsons said. “One of the players spoke about putting a flag down and make sure when people come here, they’re not just looking at the pitch going, ‘What a great field, we can’t wait to knock it about.’ It’s ‘We’ve got to play the Spirit tonight. They’re going to kick the crap out of us at every opportunity. They’re not going to stop running.'”

MISCELLANY

Rodriguez on playing after pregnancy and childbirth: “I didn’t think it was going to be this difficult. I’m working my way back. I feel like I’m not quite 100%. …

(I asked: Did Joy Fawcett make it look too easy?) “She did. They didn’t warn me at all. I give a lot of respect and credit to those girls who’ve had children and come back.”

Speaking of soccer-playing parents …

Sauerbrunn, less impressed with her game than I was: “Unfortunately, I’m going to take a lot of responsibility for the goals the other team scored, so I’m going to say (her save and her saving tackle on Lindsey) were neutralized.”

Harris on her PK save: I’ll have to upload the audio on this conversation to do justice to Harris’ outstanding comic timing.

UPDATE: As promised, here’s the audio of Harris on saving a PK after Rodriguez fell in the box.

1
soccer

Prep for NWSL season 2 with NWSL season 1

Posted on by Beau Dure

With the second NWSL season starting this weekend, it’s time for a reminder about the book I wrote on the first season of the Washington Spirt.

spirit-cover-smallEnduring Spirit: Restoring Professional Women’s Soccer to Washington tells the story of a team keeping it together through a stressful season. They didn’t win a lot. They had plenty of injuries. People lost jobs.

I went to a lot of their practices, went on one and a half road trips, and saw one team meeting. That gave me a chance to flesh out the team beyond the epic winless streak. I saw their sense of humor and their determination. I can no longer watch basketball without hearing goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley asking why anyone would invent such a noisy sport.

A couple of excerpts are available here: one from the road trip, one from the team’s preparation for Game 1. (That was one of the few times I was able to see them working on tactics.) I also ran through a quick list of what you’ll learn from the first couple of chapters.

You can get the book just about any way you like:

On that note, SportsMyriad is going on spring break. See you in a week or so.

0
olympic sports

Monday Myriad, April 7: Pentathlon power

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re in a lull between winter and summer sports, which means this is a good time to tell you there will be no Monday Myriad next week.

It’s also a good time to remind you that Margaux Isaksen is really good at modern pentathlon. And Twitter.

Not bad considering she was jet-lagged and had this just a couple of hours earlier.

Despite all that, Isaksen remained in contention throughout the fencing, swimming and riding phases of the pentathlon, then stuck around in the running/shooting phase despite missing 10 shots at the first shoot. (Athletes have to hit five shots to before running again.) She finished fourth overall.

Other best and worst of the week:

Best shot by a guy in funky pants: Norway’s men won the world curling title. This helped:

The U.S. men finished 10th.

Best non-women’s basketball performance by a Notre Dame athlete: Fencer Lee Kiefer won the women’s foil junior world championship.

Best look at the bright side:

Worst controversy: Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. Can you all keep your oars to yourselves?

And we’ll leave it at that (plus the TeamUSA roundup). Might be the shortest Monday Myriad of the year. Wait until track and field season.

0
soccer

Tom Sermanni and women’s soccer evolution

Posted on by Beau Dure

The U.S. women’s national soccer team changes like the continents — very slowly, with sudden earthquakes.

We had one of those earthquakes last night, when coach Tom Sermanni was fired just a couple of hours after leading the USA to an uninspired 2-0 win over a China team that is a pale shadow of its glory days.

The overriding narrative so far, fed by a lot of anonymous comments, is “player revolt.” But what does that mean?

Let’s back up to the days of the beloved Pia Sundhage. After the 2007 World Cup debacle left wounds that haven’t healed to this day, Sundhage was supposed to refocus the team in a new tactical direction. No longer would the team bang the ball to Abby Wambach and hope for the best.

But any tactical changes Pia made were secondary to her expert management of the team. This team has some big personalities, and no matter what side you want to take on the 2007 saga, you can’t deny the friction that existed.

Pia came in strumming a guitar and smiling. But she could also be stern with players, who would sometimes respond by “proving her wrong” when she doubted them. She was willing to be the big bad boss, then hold up her hand and say she was wrong about someone — all the while smiling that the player had come back with such determination. Brilliant.

And yet, Pia was careful not to rock the boat. The player pool was stagnant. From 2010 to 2012, Sundhage put 34 players on the field for the U.S. women, including farewell performances for Kristine Lilly and Kate Markgraf. The U.S. men have used 36 players in three games this year — and it’s a World Cup year.

Someone might connect the dots and say veteran players were unhappy that Sermanni was taking away their playing time. It’s probably not that simple.

The one thing I can tell you from anonymous chatter is nothing shocking: The Algarve Cup disappointment (two straight losses and a seventh-place finish) didn’t sit well with everyone. Why the dismissal came after the China game and not the Algarve Cup is anyone’s guess. But no matter what straws the conspiracy theorists may grasp, it’s probably not some giant explosive incident the day of the China game. Much more plausible (though admittedly also speculative) — the China game was simply the time everyone gathered together again.

One anonymous leak is interesting, not so much for what it says but how and why it was made …

https://twitter.com/SoccerInsider/status/452996323105845248

Why even bother to leak something so flimsy and vague? That’s hardly Watergate or even magicJack. Or widespread player dissatisfaction with Jurgen Klinsmann.  (Note that Sermanni is gone but Klinsmann has since been signed to a four-year extension. Speaks volumes about the balance of power between players and coaches on each team, doesn’t it?)

Besides, what vision would anyone have for this year’s Algarve? Take the experienced players who aren’t hurt or pregnant, take a few less experienced players, then experiment a little? What else would you do?

And it’s not something we can really investigate to the fullest. We can’t really know if Sermanni had a vision or direction without being in team meetings to see how well he articulated such things.

Kate Markgraf has a viable hypothesis:

https://twitter.com/katemarkgraf/status/453213171394699265

In any case, the leak does add fuel to the notion that players drove this change. It doesn’t tell us whether they had a point.

What we do know is that Sermanni had a difficult job. Bringing in new players and new ideas is difficult on a successful team, particularly one that is marketed as the women’s soccer version of the Harlem Globetrotters. See an impressive win, get a few autographs, spend a bunch of money, go home.

That cash cow is awfully difficult to kill. Hard-core fans and journalists would rather see a wide-open player pool and evaluate everyone in sight. But the old guard is the driving force for the casual fans’ money that subsidizes women’s soccer development efforts and the NWSL.

So we can’t deny that the old guard has tremendous power. What we don’t know is whether that power has been abused.

We’ll all line up this afternoon to fire questions at Sunil Gulati. But I doubt we’ll get the answers on what roles players played in Sermanni’s dismissal or why.

And it’s academic, anyway. The next question: Who has the management skills to prepare the team for its necessary evolution while also getting the results and the fan fervor that oils the big machine? For whatever reason, Sermanni failed to convince the team’s power brokers that he was that man.

U.S. fans can only hope that the power brokers grasp this question, including the “necessary evolution” part of it. And that if they’re disappointed in something right now, they’re also looking beyond the coach. Perhaps to the mirror.

4
soccer

Random belated Spirit things

Posted on by Beau Dure

Various items from the Spirit’s win over Virginia and their Friday media day that aren’t outdated yet:

Diana Matheson on the Spirit’s experience upgrade in the offseason

Mark and Bill were so busy over the offseason, and they did an incredible job. I was in Canada, just watching them sign more and more great players. It was fun to watch. I think the new players this year outnumber the old ones. We brought in so many qualify soccer players with a lot of professional experience. It’s been a lot of fun to train so far this year.

And what it means for the locker room

Backstreet Boys, all early 90s stuff. One of the young girls who’s in training with us didn’t know any of the songs we were playing. That was good.

Ashlyn Harris on getting back to action against Virginia

Feels good. It’s good to be back, it’s good to be with the girls, it’s good to start screaming again at people. I really enjoyed it. It’s been a long few months for me and a hard preseason, doing these two-a-days, continuing to work on my strength and my rehab. It’s good to be tested, mentally and physically.

And on the keeper/sweeper role, not that she called it that

I love the ball at my feet. I’ve always loved the ball at my feet. I think it’s good for teammates to see that and feel that they can definitely play me in any situation and I’ll deal with it. I’d glad that they have the confidence to play me, even in pressure situations.

And on Virginia

UVA is quality. The way they play football, the way they move the ball is a great testament to their coach. I think Steve (Swanson)’s doing a great job. It’s good to see the game evolving in college.

Virginia coach Steve Swanson on the Spirit, whom Virginia beat 6-3 last season and tied 1-1 this time

The Spirit’s in a much different place than they were last year.

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