#nwsl 2021 draft
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The Essential USWNT Friendship Series: Kelley and Sonnett
Who you are: a person who has stumbled across this post because you are gay, and/or someone who wants to get into the women's world cup and the USWNT but whose fandom experience requires knowledge of the Narratives And Friendships
What this isn’t: an endorsement of being weird to players in public spaces (in real life or comment sections, or on unlocked Twitter accounts)
What this is: a (hopefully) comprehensive collection and explanation of the (public!) friendship between two fan-favorite members of the 2023 WC squad
I know I’m missing stuff and it’s likely I’ll come back to add to this! Every time I try to add anything to this post the draft editor throws me an error message so consider this a part one. Please note this is a sideblog 🫶🏼
EMILY SONNETT
29 (as of the beginning of the 2023 Women’s World Cup)
Born in Virginia, but raised in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia
Attended the University of Virginia, graduated with a degree in Sociology
Was originally a midfielder, later converted to defense. Primarily plays centerback, but can play fullback on either side, and defensive mid
She is a Sagittarius (this is important)
KELLEY O’HARA
34 (as of the beginning of the 2023 Women’s World Cup)
Born and raised in the southern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia
Attended Stanford University, graduated with a degree in science, technology and society with a focus in environmental engineering
Was originally a forward (and in fact won the Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s top player, as a forward) but converted to play fullback on either side
She is a Leo (I told you it was important. Twin fire signs 🔥)
THE BASICS
Sonnett’s first cap was against Brazil on October 25, 2015–she started and played all 90 minutes as a centerback (beside Becky). Kelley was on the bench.
On Feb 15, 2016 they played together for the first time! They both started against Puerto Rico and Kelley scored!
Kelley was a good mentor to Sonny immediately, her little Georgia peach padawan
They didn’t appear to really get close until winter 2016-2017, when they trained together in Atlanta during the offseason and started to hang out in a smaller group and one on one
Eventually they played on the same team (Washington Spirit in the 2021 and 2022 seasons) and won a championship together! (2021)
It was Kelley's first NWSL playoff run and her first championship, but Sonny's second championship (she won with the Thorns a few years before)
Kelley scored the game-winner in the championship final, in overtime, as a header. She does not typically score, much less with her head (she is like 5'4'' on a good day). It was insane.
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PRE-SPIRIT
Once they were friends they were BEST FRIENDS. Kelley loves to annoy Sonnett and has since day one. Couples massage!!, training together with Moe Brian
Typical rookie/vet prank but cuter because they're besties: BOO!
They drink coffee together: Sonnett Sunday, theee Kelley O'Hara,
Sonny is secretly an artist (seriously, she can draw): Lactose Tolerant Cow
They dance together so much. Seriously, so much (bonus Rose). In the car, anywhere.
They hype each other up: Snacks at the beach, blue on navy, flexin, cutest sports girl ever, Sonnett is an undercover singer,
Even their friends have pointed out their similarities. Are they the same or are they the same?
The 2019 World Cup parade was deeply chaotic: please beer and god they drank nonstop idk how they survived, they also napped on the plane back from france with pinoe and ashlyn
they help each other out: cold towel, guest coach kelley,
They threw out the first pitch for the Braves after the World Cup (with Mal, whose husband Dansby played for the Braves at the time)
They also made an appearance at an Atlanta United game together
They were chaotic in every team picture, X,
they took on the Tokyo olympics together (feat many teammates)
they were extremely annoying in the BFF quiz while Kelley and Alex tried to win (link to the BFF quiz episode below in required viewing section)
THE SPIRITS
Sonny's e-bike is their bike, not her bike, but sometimes they biked together too
More coffee adventures, in DC this time, X + X
Mentoring rookies, but this time together
When half the Spirit got COVID in 2021 and had to quarantine at a hotel in Portland, somehow they did not get tired of each other
Exploring restaurants together
Taking pictures of each other (they called each other Rick and Morty for a while which I try to forget), & with their bikes, & with matching orange beanies, more matching orange beanies
more dancing and celebrating, even celebrating carli as a duo, celebrating moving onto the nwsl final
getting jumpscared by their own rookies...together this time
being stinky and sweaty together and generally chaotic
cheering on the braves together on kelley's couch, being very loud and annoying
celebrating the spirit championship together, X + X + schwasted dancing with Kelley's girl together, doing a tiktok with Trinity and the trophy, making memes out of their championship cellies
showing off their championship rings together and celebrating the CBA signing at Audi together
they went to DC pride with the spirits
they developed this weird euopean cheek kissing thing
clowning in huddles together and doing tiktoks with the kids
Being annoying on the player's pod they recorded with Trinity and Andi (link to the pod below in the required watching section)
Still hyping each other up, of course: nice kick!, sonny's soft spirit fingers
POST-SPIRIT
Kelley took a pic of her abs when she got cleated at the CONCACAF tournament in 2022 and in solidarity, Sonny nearly took her shirt off
still taking lots of pictures and videos of each other, mostly Kelley. (I'm putting this in post-Spirit because although we didn't know it yet, Kelley already knew she was leaving DC)
Kelley literally left the Atlanta airport during her layover to hang out with Sonny on her birthday
loving on their Spirit rookies together, even after Kelley was off to NJ, +1 (Trinity's first goal in the 2023 WWC Send-off game)
celebrating Mal's wedding together with Andi and Rose
bringing each other up in every conversation
Being annoying about Taylor Swift
Sonnett almost killed Kelley within the first 30 seconds of them playing against each other for Gotham and the Reign and Kelley thought it was hilarious
OTHER PHOTO DUMPS / COLLECTIONS
Georgia girls
Glued together in Tokyo
More Spirits shenanigans
NT Camp besties
Kelley's visit to Portland in 2019
Hyping each other up in Instagram comments
General camp/NT shenanigans including the infamous "you're so wiggly" video
2019 WC Parade ridiciulousness
More coffee! Plus a cookie (and a "cookie")
MISC PHOTOGRAPHS THAT I JUST HAVE LYING AROUND
more of Kelley mentoring rookie Sonny on the NT
Kelley and Sonny in Atlanta in 2016 or 2017 (I don't remember exactly, I also cropped Moe Brian out of this but it was 800 years ago, sorry Moe)
A moment caught in the background of a post-2019-final celebration picture
Pre-2021 NWSL championship moments: not impressed with someone's pregame speech, Sonny wore 6 for the Spirit so they were neighbors, something Sonny was saying with her mouth full was very interesting to Kelley ,
Some more Spirit NWSL championship moments: they can't believe it, Kelley was beside herself, tongues out for the gals, I would pay to know what Kelley said here, another moment where I would love a transcript,
REQUIRED VIEWING
Kelley's episode of Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy, where a few of her best friends surprise her with an appearance, including Sonny, Allie Long and Alex Morgan
The BFF Quiz Championship, moderated by Sonnett
The Player's Pod with Sonnett, Andi Sullivan, and Trinity Rodman
1v1 with Kelley O'Hara (pre-camp 2023 WWC)
Throwing the first pitch out with Sonnett, Kelley and Mal
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Speaking of teams that are having trouble scoring, Angel City was shut out for the third time in six matches and saw its scoreless streak grow to 200 consecutive minutes in Friday night’s 3-0 road loss to the Portland Thorns.
But there might be a simple answer to the team’s scoring woes: Tobin Heath.
The two-time World Cup and Olympic champion is in Southern California and out of contract after her season with Arsenal ended early because of a hamstring injury. Her 2021 season with Manchester City also ended early because of knee and ankle injuries.
But if Heath, 34, can get healthy, Angel City would do well to sign her because she could provide the offensive spark the team has been missing six games into a season in which it has scored just four times. Heath, who has been visible around Banc of California Stadium since returning from England, also could provide the key to unlocking Christen Press, her teammate with the Pali Blues, the U.S. women’s national team and Manchester United. Press has scored just once despite taking a team-high 16 shots, including seven on goal.
To get Heath, Angel City (3-3-0) first would have to outbid the OL Reign to obtain her NWSL rights from Racing Louisville, which traded away its claim to Press last August in exchange for Angel City’s first-round pick in the 2022 draft, $75,000 in allocation money and full roster protection in the expansion draft.
When Angel City first expressed an interest in Press, it was believed it would be a package deal, but team executives at the time said they were interested only in Press and gave her a three-year deal worth just less than $700,000, at the time the richest contract in NWSL history. Heath signed with Arsenal 11 days later.
Racing Louisville President James O’Connor said he has had “dialogue” with Heath’s agent about the player’s future. The Reign also have expressed interest.
“I think they’re trying to figure out what the next step is for them. I think they maybe have their own idea what they want to do,” said O’Connor, who added that when his team originally acquired the rights to Press and Heath, it partly was in the hopes they might be worth something in trade one day.
One rival NWSL club executive said a Heath-Press reunion in Los Angeles makes too much sense for it not to happen.
“Likely only going to one place,” the executive said of Heath.
#yall can stop sending me trolling messages about them not wanting her#it was literally never a package deal#only Kev said that#and they had to focus on acquiring Christen first#which was already not made easy by Louisville#and now there is bad blood because of it
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Nothing we didn’t already know, but here you go.
#ask#nwsl#tobin heath#basically LV is getting it's 75k back but nothing more#the clowns could have traded her for much more last season#can't wait until they fold
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Im very new to preath. What did Louisville do to them? Like they weren't waiving them to play for other teams or something. And why didn't they (tc) wanna play in that team. (Aside from the fact that its a sucky team)
To make a very long saga shorter, Louisville took both t/c in the 2020 (COVID lock down year) expansion draft. At the time both we’re playing for Man U. Lou 1st games were gonna be in 2021. Lou’s coach had coached in the US women’s league before and had a terrible reputation amongst the players of the teams he previously coached. He had even married one of his players causing a toxic environment at that club. By the time he was at Lou he made it clear that t/c didn’t want to play there and that entire fan base were vicious in their social media posts about how awful and conceited and assholes t/c were and just hated on these 2 women for not wanting to come there. Then out of nowhere this asshole coach got fired. Well turns out we learn that he sexually harassed and ultimately even assaulted one of the Lou players. This all came out in the report of US Soccer and the NWSL report about abuses in the league over a 10 year period. So all this time that fan base just crapped all over t/c when it turns out they knew that coach was a piece of shit and had no intention of playing there with this guy. The other issue is that Lou still held their rights and were just assholes to ACFC who were trying to buy CP’s rights so she could play for ACFC in their first year. They ended up paying so much for her rights and gave up draft picks that it really hurt their forming of the roster last year. Then…Lou still held Tobin’s rights hostage and would not negotiate freeing Tobin. They would not negotiate with ACFC. So that's when OL Reign came in and negotiated Tobin’s rights and that’s how she was finally able to play in the NWSL again. Of course it was at Louisville where CP tore her ACL so fuck them forever… (this is the short version)
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La constante en el gran año de Sam Coffey con los Thorns, USWNT
La constante en el gran año de Sam Coffey con los Thorns, USWNT
Sam Coffey estaba sentada frente a una pared blanca en blanco en la pequeña casa a la que se mudó en Portland el mes pasado después de mudarse de la residencia de los Thorn. Estaba reflexionando sobre enero, cuando no tenía idea de qué esperar para su temporada de novato en la NWSL con el club.
El draft n.º 12 de 2021 establece que si se le dijera a principios de 2022 que los próximos 11 meses…
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Elexa van fossen
The off the pitch environment could still impact what the team will try to do on the field, with their legacy as a playoff contending team on the line. Now with Petrucelli in place, the club is trying to step into a new era still plagued with shadows. The club navigated their preseason with an acting head coach, Rade Tanaskovic, who was the club's goalkeeper coach for three seasons, along with assistant coaches Julianne Sitch and Fabrice Gautrat. Biggest burning question entering 2022 Season The Red Stars also re-signed several USWNT players to club contracts with Alyssa Naeher, Tierna Davidson, Mallory Pugh, and Casey Krueger returning. Amy Holovaty, Elizabeth Davidson, Paula Van Fossen, Angelika Forndran. The franchise welcomed back the return of fan favorite - Japanese international Yuki Nagasato - in a move that was spearheaded by Racing Louisville FC to reunite Nagasato in Chicago with family and her fiancé. 2022, Kaylyn Swartz, Kaitlyn Koch, Gabrielle Schantz, Alexa Rooney, Audrey Wood. Defender Zoey Goralski announced her retirement.īiggest acquisitions: Outside of new players acquired with late round picks in the 2022 NWSL Draft, the team made no major player acquisitions during the offseason. Goalkeeper Cassie Miller, who led the team in net during their playoff run, was traded to Kansas City Current. Nearly three weeks into their preseason, on February 18, the club announced NCAA Division I coach Chris Petrucelli out of Southern Methodist University as new head coach. Dames managed the club through the entirety of their NWSL existence, and his sudden resignation seemed shocking until hours later a national story broke detailing allegations from former players of verbal abuse and harassment by Dames.Īs the Red Stars were in the process of selecting a new head coach, a second story also reported disturbing allegations of sexual misconduct by the former Red Stars head coach at the youth level during his time with Eclipse Soccer.Īs preseason began the Red Stars still had not hired a coach, despite having pledged to do so in January. Jennifer Harrison, Andrew Vanornum, Betty Waters, Robert Adams and Seth Bryant, and many others are family members and associates of Elexa. Elexa Van Ornum are some of the alias or nicknames that Elexa has used. Right now, Elexa Vanornum lives in Red Lodge, MT. Hours after a 2021 NWSL Championship loss the late night resignation of their head coach Rory Dames. Elexa Vanornum's birthday is and is 29 years old. To sat the Chicago Red Stars offseason got off to a rocky start doesn't even begin to cover it. Fans can watch Challenge Cup matches across CBS platforms live and on demand with Paramount+. The 2022 Challenge Cup will kick off on March 18 with the Cup final closing on May 7. The National Women's Soccer League preseason is underway and the Chicago Red Stars are among 12 clubs beginning their journeys to the 2022 season.
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Let's just appreciate the fact that an Emily has gone #1 top pick in NWSL collegde draft 😌💅🏼
AND
Sonny and the other first picks were there to see it! Let's appreciate hype man Sonnett hyping up the newest #1 overall draft pick, Emily Fox!
#the Emily power? unmatched bro#emily sonnett#emily fox#nwsl draft pick#first overall pick boi#first overall nwsl pick#nwsl draft#nwsl 2021 draft#woso#p: emily sonnett#p: emily fox#l: nwsl#my gif#racing louisville#t: racing louisville#anon asks#thanks anon#answering asks#sonnett side up answers
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Us rn:
https://twitter.com/kryptobanana/status/1466859880887701505?t=I6hYxdxSilQ6hdCDw5F-Lg&s=19
God that's true.
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7 out of the first 10 draft picks are women of color!
Let's shake the league up!
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U.S. SOCCER is RACIST and so is Kelley, Lindsey, Julie and Carli.
Everyone had a fucking aneurysm when Jaelene Hinkle said wearing a pride kit went against her religious beliefs. US Soccer had no choice but to denounce her, USWNT fans through a fit at all of her NWSL games, bullying her, calling her names. But when Kelley, Julie, Carli and Horan refuse to kneel in support of BLM, it’s fucking quiet. You can’t have it both ways, people. You can’t cry homophobia because someone refuses to wear a pride jersey and not cry racism because someone refuses to kneel for black lives.
#crystal dunn#uswnt#kelley o'hara#megan rapinoe#julie ertz#jill ellis#lindsey horan#carli lloyd#nwsl#nwsl college draft 2021#tobin heath#christen press#alex morgan#us soccer#women's soccer#ussf#jaeline hinkle#lgbt#lgbtq+#racism#homophobia#women's rights#blm movement#blm#blacklivesmatter#black lives are more important than a fucking song you cunts#amerikkka#america is racist and the national anthem is to#fuck those veterans#they didn't do shit for black people anyways
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Houston seems bored thus far...
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Sky blue really said fuck the draft I want money lol
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Las estrellas del Draft Universitario en la NWSL
Las estrellas del Draft Universitario en la NWSL
El Covid- 19 no nos privará de presenciar una vez más un Draft Universitario que llegará cargado de talento rumbo a la NWSL.
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#Brianna Pinto#Catarina Macario#Draft Universitario NWSL#Draft Universitario NWSL 2021#Fútbol Femenino#Fútbol femenino estadounidense#Jaelin Howell#Kaylie Collins#Kiara Pickett#Mia-Irene Gyau#NCAA#NWSL#NWSL 2021#NWSL Collage Draft#NWSL Draft#Samara Lino#USWNT
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LOVE seeing the female presence in the Sky Blue war room, we need this for more teams in the league
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Hi! Draft anon here! I would love to better understand how the draft works, and also what the new draft rule is where you don’t have to declare? I really just want to know everything!
Anon? You're my new best friend, these are the BEST words to read.
OKAY I'm going to assume a base level knowledge about the draft, aka it's teams picking people, and work from there. BUCKLE UP BRO, IT'LL BE A RIDE. I'm gonna hide this under a break too because it's a long one and it includes a moment where I raged against the league. Have fun!
Okay so, let's do the basics. College athletes, for the most part, are under the NCAA umbrella, which gives athletes opportunities for scholarships, aid and support and sets up championships between schools. Colleges are divided in 3 divisions (conveniently named the D1, D2 and D3), with the first division being the top schools in their sports, players in those teams are the ones that usually turn professional in their sport just because their schools have more money and therefore better resources for their athletes.
Every athlete in a D1 school has 5 years to play 4 seasons of their sport, and most of them are expected to run their eligibility by the time they graduate (the eligibility rules are a little different for D2 and D3 schools but more or less aims for the same thing) SOME of those players forfeit their remaining eligibility before graduation to turn "pro", and enter their sport's draft, although it's not necessary and players who've run their eligibility usually enter the draft before they graduate so they can start playing for their team right after college. The draft is when whatever national league they expect to play for (the MLB, NHL, NFL, NWSL, etc) pick from a pool of players leaving their college teams to play professionally, these are "prospects".
For the NWSL, the teams are assigned a pick number. The worst team in the league picks first, and so on until the top team selects their pick and that signals the end of the round, for expansion years the expansion team picks first, then the worst team in the league, and so on. The league creates a pool of 40 players that can sign up to be drafted, and the draftees are set up in 4 rounds of 10 players each.
The players aren't put in any particular order in the draft pool of picks but they are "prospected" to be picked by a certain numbered team based on their skill and acollades. For this upcoming draft pool, Catarina Macario is expected to be the first pick of the first round. It's not a great vibe to go to the worst team of a league but draft picks are the future of a team, and coaches that pick first are, usually, desperate and will begin to build their team formations around their draftee.
In other leagues draft pick trading is, I think, way funnier. Because the team that originally had the picks, let's say for example Sky Blue trades up for the 4th pick in the first round from Washington. If it were another league, let's say the NHL, Washington gets a little note from Sky Blue saying "we want Jane Doe for the 4th pick", Washington would have to pick her with all the fanfare that goes with it, and then watch her go to sky blue because they traded the pick away. In the NWSL the team that gets a pick in a trade does the picking themselves. Which is less "lol" and more "business as usual".
NOW THE NEW RULE: the NWSL obtained a waiver from the NCAA to draft D1 players who, in any other year might not have an option between entering the draft and forfeiting their last college season, which would suck for people who've put their hearts and souls into their teams, or skipping the draft for one more year and have to be out of the game for nearly a year once their season is over. Which, like, is awesome on the NCAA's part! These players get a last chance at college sports and can report to the teams that drafted them once the season is over.
The part where the NWSL went and took a wonderful thing and fucked it all up is with the rule that anyone who has exhausted their 3yr eligibility is draft eligible, REGARDLESS of them signing up for the draft. The logic is that it will expand the talent pool and give teams more talent to work with.
Let me tell you what this does in NOT PG13 words—children cover your eyes. This just about fuuuucks player rights up their hindquarters with no warning and no lube.
Players that are eligible, even if they don't enter the draft (read as: don't want to be drafted yet or maybe ever) can be picked by teams and their rights will be held until the 2022 season. It means that drafted players can have their rights traded away and, if they ever expect to enter the league, will be sent to whatever fucking team their rights were drafted by or traded to without their input. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE, AND HERE'S THE CATCH 22, THE NCAA WAIVER MEANS PLAYERS CANT SIGN AGENTS TO QUALIFY FOR IT.
What does that mean for my point, you may ask? It means that, let's say:
Jane Doe is a player in a D1 school. She doesn't want to be drafted to the league so she doesn't sign up. However, she is a college senior with 3 years of NCAA eligibility behind her, and is therefore draft eligible. She doesn't want her rights to be held by whomever the hell to do with as they please before she's ready so she thinks about hiring an agent. However, if she hires an agent she, as far as I know, would have to forfeit her remaining college eligibility and "go pro". If she does, she won't be eligible for the draft according to these rules, but she also can't play for her college team, AND she won't have a team once the college season is over because she wasn't picked up in the draft. So now, she's out of game shape, she has to find a team to sign her and maybe her best odd was going to be being drafted in the 3rd or 4th round of the nwsl draft, now she has to look for a team to sign her. Or have to not play professionally. But she will want to play professionally. So, her only option is to be picked up by some team in this draft, even though let's say she expected to have better odds for a higher pick in the next draft, and have her rights done away with for a whole season and have to report to a random team after maybe having had her rights used as a bargaining chip for trades.
Now, obviously, this is hella fatalistic. And looking at it in the worst possible light. But we know that the NWSL is not a stranger to doing all kinds of willy nilly shit with players who are not federation allocated, and this is just one more open door into fucking with players rights, this time with prospects.
It was such a good idea to begin with, to take up this Waiver and give their prospects one more year of college soccer where they can push for their last championship, before coming in fired up to the league, knowing for an entire year what team they would play for, probably having off season training with their new teammates. This was, in no uncertain words, a good thing. But then the league had to stomp on it.
It's trial and error and the NWSL is a newish league, and hopefully no one will get their playing rights messed with. But in case they do, I'm gonna hate to have to say I told you so.
I hope that answers your questions?
I WELCOME ANY OPINIONS ON MY VIEW OF THIS. I'M VERY FATALISTIC ABOUT IT BUT I KNOW SOME OF Y'ALL HAVE BETTER VIBES!
#nwsl draft#nwsl rules#nwsl draft rules#nwsl 2021 draft#college draft#nwsl college draft#NCAA woso#NCAA eligibility#woso#nwsl#thanks anon#anon asks#answering asks#sonnett side up answers
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Remember last years expansion draft and all of the rights to retired players on the lists of unprotected players. Are they still unprotected? Can you draft Hope Solo from Reign?
God last year was chaos. NWSL is truly the Chaos League. I suppose someone could take Hope’s rights but would you want to? Pretty sure both SD and AC have gks on roster and she’s 40. Also Jill Ellis being the president of SD makes that very unlikely.
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