Feeling Blues - Relegation Time

MWN said:
If we are going to have a valid thought experiment ... if SoCal fielded a National Team, would it beat the US (minus SoCal national team), then we have to look at this slightly differently.

SoCal is 25 million souls. The USA minus SoCal is about 305 million souls. So purely on a population basis, we should find more "unicorns" in the 305 million population. However, we know that many of the players in the 305 million population will never have an opportunity to fully develop into a unicorn because population density in their states make it near impossible (Alaska, Montana, Main, etc.).

Rather than weeding though what States and population densities are adequate, let's make it easy and ask is 25 million enough to find 24 unicorns (i.e. elite players that can make a national team) ... and if we are being honest we really only need 15 to 16 that will actually play and get minutes.

With a population of 25 million, are there 24 "unicorns" to be found in SoCal? We can infer that countries that are perennial competitors at the Women's World Cup will give us the "floor" to the question. Therefore, all we need to do is look at countries like England (66 Million), Norway (5.3 Million) , Germany (83 Million), Sweden (10 Million) and Japan (126 Million), which over the last few World Cup cycles are perennial top teams.

We have floor ... Norway with a population of 5.3 million - Champions in 1995, runner up in 1991, 4th place in 2007 and 1999. In fact, Norway is ranked 3rd behind German and the US as most final 4 finishes in the Women's world cup.

Is is reasonable to conclude that SoCal could field a team that would beat a similarly aged girls/women's youth team from any other country, including the US? Yes, because Norway tells us that 5.3 Million people is enough. But, its also reasonable to conclude that the SoCal National Team would get beaten more frequently than it wins because there are more unicorns to be found in the 303 million population.
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Statistics are always interesting. The population band should be - how many athletes are there between the ages of 11-18 (or 5-18 if you prefer). How many sports do they play, what is the gender, what are the number of players in each of those sports. That will give you a better comparison. I doubt southern California produces many female alpine skiers. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few :). Obviously some areas promote different sports just because of where they are located. Would be interesting to know how many Olympic skiers come from Colorado versus southern California. Too many people get offended so easily. We should all celebrate our amazing athletes where ever they come from. It truly is ok to have a concentration of terrific athletes for a sport concentrated in certain population areas. Darn, now I know why I wasn't an Olympic alpine skier.
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outside! said:
I think many have missed my original point. It was not that SoCal somehow magically has better players. It was that the shear number of high level players in close proximity would enable the formation of a high level league of say 8-12 teams that could play each other regularly. Like any league, there would be teams that dominate and teams that don't. If there were such a league, and the all-stars were pulled together to practice frequently it would produce a team that would be better than the current youth national teams due to the ability to play as a team. I am sure there are other areas of the country that could do the same.
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Isn’t that what DA is supposed to be...10-12 great teams in SoCal? All the best players are not playing DA or in one league, it is still a bit fragmented.
 
oh canada said:
Lost all credibility with me, mentioning those 3 players as "best" players. That's a popularity list, not a skill assessment ranking. Unless, of course, heading the ball is all you care about. I can easily name 10 current college players better than all three of those women. Cat Macario to start (who played in SoCal since 12). (And those lists rarely include defenders, btw, who are just as important but don't score the goals.)
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Any list without Michelle Akers and Shannon Boxx are instantly ignored by me.
 
espola said:
Money has everything to do with money. Is Rodman suddenly poor?
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You are either dense, don't have a kid who was recruited and got money, never played a D1 sport yourself, have no connections to the team in question, you are just a contrarian, or all of the above.

I am sharing with you what I know. You can deny it or question it or whatever. It doesn't make it any less true...
 
MakeAPlay said:
You are either dense, don't have a kid who was recruited and got money, never played a D1 sport yourself, have no connections to the team in question, you are just a contrarian, or all of the above.

I am sharing with you what I know. You can deny it or question it or whatever. It doesn't make it any less true...
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My second kid got 5 offers, only one of which was insufficient for us to afford the school. As it turned out, we went with the second-biggest offer (and perhaps best net) so he could go to the school he wanted. I know for a fact (because I know the parents) that two of the recruited players in his Freshman class got no money because the parents put it into their application appeal. My older son was also recruited at a California D2 school with no money, but a promise of guaranteed admission and roster spot.

Soccer is not a headcount sport where a player gets either all or nothing - it's an equivalent sport where the coach can (and usually must to have a decent roster) split the allowed 10.9 scholarships (that's the boys' number, I know the girls' is bigger) any way he wants.

So how do you know about the "money" she is getting?
 
MakeAPlay said:
Umm she is getting money.... Money has nothing to do with need and everything to do with ability.
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Rodman's daughter is athletic and a YNT player (I am being redundant). She would get plenty of money from many schools, and even more offers if she is a decent student (which she likely is -- her father may seem increasingly crazy, but he was demonstrably smart in his basketball marketing and play, and way ahead of his time). She has earned whatever offer UCLA made her.

As for your later statement, I disagree. I think many top colleges try to balance talent and need when it comes to allocating scholarship money. And some parents/players in more favorable financial positions, even very talented players, make it clear that money is not the deciding factor when it comes to marketing themselves to their child's first choice school.
 
Dos Equis said:
Rodman's daughter is athletic and a YNT player (I am being redundant). She would get plenty of money from many schools, and even more offers if she is a decent student (which she likely is -- her father may seem increasingly crazy, but he was demonstrably smart in his basketball marketing and play, and way ahead of his time). She has earned whatever offer UCLA made her.

As for your later statement, I disagree. I think many top colleges try to balance talent and need when it comes to allocating scholarship money. And some parents/players in more favorable financial positions, even very talented players, make it clear that money is not the deciding factor when it comes to marketing themselves to their child's first choice school.
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US Soccer has her listed as U14 National Development Program, which I assume she has aged out of. No YNT appearance listed.

https://www.ussoccer.com/players/r/trinity-rodman#tab-1

Smells like PR.
 
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