Ryan on rules

Greg Ryan looks back on the World Cup.

I wonder what team meal Hope missed? Breakfast? Dinner? Is every meal one that is accounted for by the team - no eating any meals with family, etc? I mean, pro teams have rules all the time that if you miss practice, or a team meeting, or are late, you get benched. If the same applies to a team meal, then Hope shouldn't have been surprised to be benched. On the other hand, Ryan himself says that one incident like that wouldn't get a player benched. Later on, though, he seems to imply that Hope stayed out late more than once. He doesn't mention curfew violations, though, so perhaps the team didn't have a curfew at all, or Ryan was told later by some players that Hope violated it without getting caught. Or perhaps her late nights were simple insomnia?

Just from watching the goalkeepers perform in practice for Pia, I am pretty astounded to read that Hope was ever letting in three times as many shots as Briana.

I find it a bit curious that Ryan mentions the youth of the team when one of my criticisms of his coaching would be that he underused many of the young players on the World Cup team. Wagner, I can understand perhaps, because of her injury, but to hardly play Tarpley, for example, seemed a poor choice.

Ryan does make a great point about his team's record, but I do think he overlooks how badly the World Cup made him look. I'm not sure this article improves that.