Chris Henderson points out that the potentially bigger problem than Burke alone is that this isn’t kind of an isolated “Spirit FO does fucked-up thing” thing. You’ve got that the management that…
…hired Burke despite serious concerns about his behavior towards players
…agreed to the trip to sportwash the Qatar government
…then finally led with the Not-So-Truthful announcement of Burke’s departure before getting their hands forced from outside.

Dunno but that looks like a problematic pattern to me.

The Burke situation does look like another black eye for the league, which should have been keeping closer watch on him than they did, as well as the Washington organization. Again, between Utah and RISE and now this…not a good look for the league.

All the Horan rumors I’ve heard are still just that. But clearly the chance for a truly fat paycheck is going to be with one of the monster Euro clubs. Does she want that? My guess wold be that she might be ready for a chance of skies soon, so…maybe? Well just have to wait and see.

Dunn is not really a Horan-replacement. Whether that turns out to be Rodriguez? Maybe. So far I haven’t seen it…but so far Horan has had a fairly off-and-on season, so the bar she’s setting isn’t that high, and Rodriguez could conceivably meet that standard.

The Moultrie settlement specified that if the league and the PA reach a CBA and that CBA includes contract rules regarding minimum eligible age that Moultrie will have to meet those rules.

Please do – it would be interesting to learn more about potential candidates. I agree w/what JOHNWADE says & hope Paulson and Wilkenson are working hard to come up with good coaching options (male or female). The fact that there are other teams in the mix looking for coaches makes things even more complex.
btw – I am SPITTING MAD at the Washington Spirit owners. To have brought him on despite reports of his bullying and then ALLOWING IT TO CONTINUE it infuriatingly unforgivable.

Do we think there is a chance that Horan will NOT go to Europe? Is there some hope there? If Dunn turns out to be everything we’d hope she’d be, then I’d say she might be able to carry us through. But is she? (I know, I know, get out the pitchforks)

Regarding Moultrie, am I right in understanding that if the CBA contains an age restriction she will be out again? That would suck.

I’m really unfamiliar with Priestman’s work outside the OG run, where I agree that she had the “grind out a compressed tournament format win” thing down.

The CWNT won gold with a 2-4-0 record overall, going to PKs three times and winning all three – that’s not really a sustainable long-term strategy. And the Canucks profited hugely from entering this tournament when the USWNT 2019 WC squad hit the wall. So while I think Priestman gets credit for the gold, it’s pretty thin c.v. to guess how good she’ll be going forwsrd.

Now…having said all that…why not? She seems competent, at least, and certainly no less so than many of the other options I’ve heard mentioned. I’d say it’s worth handing her an offer and letting her choose.

This is kind of a question worth looking at harder, though, so perhaps next week I will see what I can find out about the potential candidates out there…

What about Bev Priestman to fill in Parson’s job? I know about her only from Olympic chatter, but here’s what I like: 1) Sincy likes her, 2) she was Phil Neville’s asst coach which means she can undergo tremendous hardships & be around true sleaze & come out smiling- so maybe she won’t hand refs dirt, 3) she’s a female coach which I think the NWSL/world could use more of, 4) she absolutely figured out team that – enhanced their strengths & made their weaknesses less of a liability. Imagine what she could do for the Thorns

I mean no disrespect to the Canadian players when I say that luck was a big part of their win (luck is often a big part of a lot of wins), but it also seems that Priestman’s strategy w/the subs was huge. When we see how strategy can work in the NWSL (eg red stars beating the Damned) I wouldn’t mind having a coach who can use it well.

I’m not sure if NWSL and international coaching roles are comparable, or if she has any interest in leaving Canada, but I think Sincy could help leave the team in good hands if/when she ruthlessly abandons us.

I think the centerbacks are easier, because I think Menges has been struggling to find her role without Sauerbrunn as the rock in back, and Hubly is depth, as good as she’s been over July. So it’ll be Brunn and Menges to start and Hubly to come on as fresh legs if we’re up late.

The keepers…yeah. We had this problem before with Betos and Franch, and solved it by moving Betos. I think we may have to do that in the long run. Bixby is a starting-quality NWSL keeper, and should be where she can start. Mind you, the expansion draft may solve THAT problem for us.

I could care less about these friendlies. I loathe OL, anyway, even when they’re at full strength. Respect the skill of their roster, wish them gleefully in hell. I think we do what every club does; give the starters a brief outing then fill the pitch with the reserves. If this was a real Champions League? Different story. But it’s not.

Best wishes, John! Some close relatives have had this replacement done, and while they all ended up just fine, it was rough going for a while there. Good luck to you, and as always, thanks for your fine writing here.

Speaking of leftbehinders, what the heck do we do about goalkeeper? Bixby has been excellent, is in form, and deserves to keep her starting role. But Franch shouldn’t lose her starting spot because she went off in service of the national team. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! Same for centerback with Sauerbrunn, Menges, and Hubly. How do you not start one of them? An injury or two may well make these questions moot, but in the meantime Parsons has to choose starters for Orlando.

Parsons also has to juggle NWSL games and the International Champions Cup. Exactly how much effort do we want to put into this mid-season interruption? I’d sure love to beat the Dash and then Barça or OL to win it, but I’d love winning the Supporters’ Shield, and getting both a bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs, even more.

It’s a slow process. The hips were easy – hell, two weeks after one of them I was a Merlo for one of the Thorns’ preseason matches. I can’t see doing that with this one.

I can’t help but have strong suspicions that the Spirit’s disaster of a season has to be related to these reports of Burke being a stone asshole. He’s always had kind of that rep, purely outside of looking like the heavy in a Guy Richie film, but it sounds like the club has been running away from it as fast as possible. The Athletic has a piece up discussing the story (https://theathletic.com/news/nwsl-washington-spirit-investigating-allegations-against-ex-coach-richie-burke/NHW2R1HsriZt) and here’s the nut graf: “…at least four players have left the Spirit in the last two years because of Burke’s treatment, citing verbal and emotional abuse including threats, personal insults and racially insensitive remarks.”

Sometimes I think the NWSL never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. After the fiasco in Salt Lake you’d think…no, let’s no do that again. Then you have this thing with the League and this RISE organization. And now this. Damn, league. How hard is this?

So there’s one potential topic for some discussion next week.

The return of the internationals? That’s a whole ‘nother story, and it’ll be interesting to see who manages it best. Parsons tanked in 2019, but then Riley did in 2015. I’ll be curious to see how Parsons works the Nats back in while preserving the energy the Leftbehinders were bringing. If we’re lucky..!