For starters I must admit I know very little about women’s professional soccer. I’ve mostly followed men’s international leagues and MLS over the years. When I heard that Atlanta was going to receive an expansion franchise for the new Womens Professional Soccer league I was excited for Soccer in Atlanta. Then the rumors of the Beat playing on my side of town and at the stadium my alma mater was building it peaked my interest.
As a fan of soccer we’re often wishing that the sport we love would get the recognition we feel it deserves from main stream media and other sport fans of America. Yet even within soccer that are these allegiance’s for a lack of a better word. MLS fans hold this grudge against what they’d call Euro snobs, people who could care less about their own top tier domestic league in favor of the highest level of soccer in the world. It doesn’t stop their as in Atlanta we have fans calling for MLS to come to Atlanta, while they never supported the Division II Silverbacks. I think the same can be said for the women’s game. I’m not saying you should support everybody regardless of the product on the pitch. I’ve just moved to an opinion that I can’t really be a good judge of what the product looks like unless I’ve seen it in person. In the same way that I feel if the media and other sport fans would give soccer a chance they’d find they enjoy it. I’ve decided to give women’s soccer that same chance.
So, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest let’s begin. The Atlanta Beat now have enough players to field a team and are making announcements on a pretty regular basis. From my count they have 14 of 18 (+4 development) roster spots filled with the draft just a few days away to help build out this young team. And when I say young I mean young. The average age of players on all WPS rosters is 27. The current average age of the Atlanta Beat prior to the draft is…24 1/2. That’s 2.5 years younger then the average and a full year younger then the next youngest team the St. Louis Athletica. I was about to make a comment about how old Sky Blue FC was until I realized that’s how young I am so I’ll just say instead I’m sure they’re very wise, full of life, and can still compete. Moving on.
Below is what I’d guess the starting lineup would like like if a game was being played today.
–Rasmussen—Bachman—Cinalli–
Larkin————————-Zerboni
———-Bishop—–Yamaguci——-
—Robinson—-Nonen—-Hamm—–
—————-Whitworth—————
Unless you’ve followed women’s soccer those names probably don’t stand out to you. Except for Hamm. It’s not Mia, it’s Tracy Hamm. We’ll the names didn’t mean much to me a few weeks ago either. Then I started to do some research. In the coming weeks leading up to the kickoff I’ll be posting on some of the players to help you familiarize yourself with the new team.
So, are you planning to take in a game this season? Who are you most excited to see join or rejoin the Atlanta Beat?
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