rkomar

Delgado has also won me over this year. I think a lot of the negative feeling towards him is based on previous seasons. He has improved over time, and is now dependable and effective, even in attack. He still isn't great at shooting on goal, but that's the only knock I have left against him.

I wasn't sold on DeLeon for quite a while, but he has won me over this season. Very versatile, and never seems to get overawed by the situation. He seems like a "glue guy" that makes the team closer and stronger. Kudos to Vanney for using him so well.

That's a good argument for the owners to make, but as a fan, I don't care if they have to spend a lot more for a better player. The money's not coming out of my pocket. MLSE is swimming in profit, and I'm not crying over them overspending in places. (Last I heard over 10 years ago, the Leafs generated a profit of about $100 million) I'm hoping that decisions about playing only come down to performance. Not about whether a player is too old or too young, or if they cost too much. I'll only care about that stuff when the season is over. Back on to Laryea, he seems to lose his temper and overreact pretty easily. I wonder if that figures into his not starting a lot of games. I'm hoping that he settles down some with age.

We hear the same things about Bradley, but he looks pretty good to me the last while. As Craig Button says, "don't judge a player by the calendar". Wait until you have a better player before replacing someone simply because you expect them to drop off at some point.

I'm not liking how TFC change their style of play when they get a lead. They switch from possession soccer to hoofing it back to their opponents instead. They have lost plenty of leads that way over the last few months. Thankfully, they kept the pedal to the metal in today's extra time and grabbed a big lead before toning it down. I hope they keep that same mindset for the rest of the playoffs.

This should put paid to those claims that Herdman is nothing more than a snake oil salesman. The tactical details made my head spin, and I used to be a nuclear physicist!

I agree about his diving. It looks too fake, with both legs flying up behind him in mid-air. You have to keep fighting to make the play, or you won't get taken seriously. Other than that, I'm well pleased with his play.

It looks like you can't watch the NWSL games at their website anymore from Canada, but have to go through the TSN app instead. Oh well, so much for that.

When TFC was winning a couple of seasons ago, it was said that they had a policy of playing those who showed well in training between games. There was strong competition among the bench for game time. I wonder if that has all changed now. It seems that Vanney's doghouse overrides any of those considerations now. If so, I think it's a step back for the program.

I haven't been following the NWSL too closely this season, but I knew that Rebecca Quinn had departed the Washington Spirit for France early in the year. So, I was mildly shocked to see her playing for the Seattle Reign today. I figured the Spirit would still have her rights, but somehow they lost them because she was transferred overseas. The Reign picked her up even though she wasn't allocated and had to take up an international spot. It all seems quite out of the ordinary.

I hate the way the Europeans qualify their teams early for the Olympics. How do the Germans or the French feel about not going? The French got knocked out of the Olympics by the Americans. How is that fair? At least the CONCACAAF teams get to decide who goes to the Olympics amongst themselves. As far as substituting the women and men goes, it's not the same situtation. Our women's team is favoured, our men's team is one of the minnows that the good teams have to beat. Of course it matters where you are seeded as a minnow, not so much as one of the expected winners.

The top two teams in the region are the USA and Canada. Everyone else is a fair ways back, so I don't see how the seeding for the tournament is going to change the outcome much. It will likely come down to Canada vs Mexico for the second spot, no matter how you lay things out at the beginning. How is it possible to "screw" us in the seeding? If we can't beat the minnows, we have no business going to the Olympics.

That doesn't look like Leon. Is it really her?

You make up your team with the best that you have. As long as replacing Sinclair with another player makes the team worse, she should stay on the roster. I don't care about how she has fallen off with the years; she's not in competition with her past self. She's in competition with our other players, and so far I don't see a lot of them that could replace her and make the team better (and that includes leadership along with playmaking and scoring skills).

A good question to ask is: Is 30 million dollars enough money to go around? National programs are not cheap to operate. I don't think it is enough money. With over 6 billion dollars in revenue, would it kill FIFA to hand over a few tens of million dollars more to the women's programs? It would make a huge difference in many country's programs. It may even be good business sense in that the revenues from the women's side of things could go way up if the quality and viewer numbers keeps going up (a factor of 40 difference in revenues makes it look like there is plenty of room to grow there). With so much cash available to them, I think it's up to FIFA to explain why so little goes to the women.