Time in a Bottle

We're locked up. At least, if we're being careful, we should be. So much has changed since I last posted to this blog. The biggest change currently is that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people who are trying to keep everyone safe are staying mostly indoors, wearing masks and social distancing when they do go out in public. 

I had dipped back into the educational field after my ESPN contract expired in 2017, but my contract at the school where I worked ended in June, so I'm job hunting during a pandemic. Fun. 

Lots of things give me hope, however, even during a Trump presidency. The moment for social justice and confronting racial inequality seems more timely than ever and in many ways, the sports world and athletes are leading the way. 

Also, since the untimely death of the Sol, there's a women's soccer team coming to Los Angeles! With a lot of female investors, including Serena Williams and her daughter, Olympia. 

I have to give the NWSL a lot of credit for lasting longer than any previous women's soccer league in the USA. I still wish it had done so without being propped up by the USSF paying the NWSL salaries of the USWNT players. Even more so, I wish the UWSNT players hadn't inserted that infamous clause into their payment contract. To clarify, I'm referring to the contract clause where the USSF had to guarantee the lowest-paid USWNT salary in the NWSL would always be more than the payment of any other player signed to the league. It wouldn't matter if the NWSL Player of the Year was non-USWNT, either (which happened multiple times). There was no bonus option for any non-USWNT NWSL player to ever out-earn the USSF-paid group.  All legal papers pictured here courtesy of Jonathan Tannenwald's posting of the initial filing of the USWNT lawsuit.

Then they sued for equal pay. No, not the NWSL players who weren't part of the USWNT (basically all the foreign players and US players just outside the USWNT top tier), the USWNT players sued the federation for equal pay to the men's contract, ignoring how they had recently signed a separate contract with their own specifications. I'll give them credit for great public relations, because they did an excellent job of promoting their cause as a progressive feminist one. 

It frankly puzzles me how the USWNT can package their pay movement as being on behalf of women when the contract they signed as a group created an NWSL caste system which kept their group (and their group only) as the highest paid. The contract clause was an unbreakable glass ceiling that kept other women from being compensated as well. Many of them looking for "fair pay" for their play either left the league (Kim Little, NWSL MVP 2014) or never signed with it (Deyna Castellanos specified that the inability to be paid as much as the USWNT in the league factored into her signing abroad).

I would love to consider @NWSL but hard to do that when rules do not favor international talent. This article explains some of the reasons in great form. Maybe one day 🤷🏼‍♀️

Me encantaría considerar la @NWSL como opción pero es difícil hacerlo cuando las reglas no nos favorecen https://t.co/dae9JoOBHX

— Deyna Castellanos (@deynac18) November 1, 2019

Think about this, since the NWSL started in 2013 all the way to 2019, a foreign player (Little, Sam Kerr 3x) has won the League Golden Boot the majority of the time. Due at least in part to the "Most-favored Player" clause, none of those players made equal or more than the lowest-paid USWNT player in NWSL salary. 

Back in 2016, I discussed some of these NWSL issues with a national soccer writer. Here's a transcript of our online messages on the topic. 

NSW: I find your candor in the WNT debate -- going back months -- refreshing and remarkably on point. Of course it's 20 women out for themselves. Too bad the woso set is so angry they're not actually reading the words. 

Me: I started out covering women's college soccer & figure the least I can add now and then to the convo is my honest perspective. 

NSW: Deep down, I bet the WNT players would sacrifice the entire NWSL in a NY minute for full-time residency on salary. Preferably in California. 

Me: Some definitely would, and they tend to be the ones with big sponsor compensation as well. You can see the huge difference in the way they play for their club teams versus the national team. Some play NWSL like they're doing the world a favor. 

NSW: Equal play, equal pay, equally M.I.A. 

Me: It's a PR disaster, for sure, for the USSF, and I'm sure they want it all to go away. Problem is, the whole "going away" thing at some point may take NWSL with it. I know it's worst-case scenario, but then again, I've watched two of these leagues go up in smoke. 

NSW: But for the optics of folding your women's league while bidding for a WC, I figured they'd pull the plug this winter. But hard to sustain. My bet is they cut a deal and fold it into MLS. Built-in stadiums, PR megaphone, ticket-sales partners, sponsors -- just makes more sense, financially, to me to have everyone in the same boat, rowing the same direction. Of course, the WNT will hate it, but they may not have a choice. 

Me: Beyond the WNT hating it, there's quite a few in MLS opposed as well. They see the women's league as a huge albatross & have the view that they prefer to follow NFL model, with no supplementary women's league. Even some former women's league supporters, like Anschutz, are in this boat now. My point is, MLS wants to be wooed into taking on a women's league. The WNT controls much of the NWSL structure and they're not going to that altar willingly, let alone wooing. So I'm not optimistic. 

NSW: Garber would be a negotiation genius if he can pull it off. Actually, what it will really take is for the three MLS-affiliated teams to really do well. Nothing convinces people with money like money. He needs Portland's crew to sell it to the others. 

Me: As long as Portland's success is alone, it's an outlier. 

(This part of the convo referred to the starting 11 of an NWSL game about to start)

NSW: As if any NWSL team is allowed to sit a WNT player.

Me: Never even thought about that. Might be unwritten rule, for sure, but how to prove it? 

NSW: Only a fired coach would say so. But then, only a moron would bench a NT-level player for some of the extras and emergency fill-ins that league regularly runs out.

Me: It's a Catch 22 again - why would any NT level players from other top countries ever sign with NWSL if teams can't even match the salary being made by lowest paid USWNT players? That's just a set up to sign mostly scrubs. 

NSW: Exactly. And protect the gravy train from interlopers. Or from getting shown up on the field by better pros. 

Me: Still, I was really surprised to see the venom among some WoSo players for Marta's contract back in WPS. Arguably, she was so good and so well known that she was still worth the profile she brought. But the backlash allowed the USWNT to sorta frame the exclusionary aspect of their contract as a GOOD thing for the NWSL to be so protectionist. But really, it's taking everything bad about Marta's contract and extrapolating it to the entire team, instead of just one person. It's jingoistic, and the opposite of "Fair pay for play" to have a contract that guarantees that the whole team will always make more than any foreign player ever will. 

NSW: That's the biggest bull in the whole argument. It's protectionism, pure and simple. And it makes them all full of crap. Of course, they'd probably just as soon see the league fail. Full time NT residency camp a much easier life. 

Me: Especially for those who prefer to live in Los Angeles anyway. It's just that the league now seems set up on a false premise - geared to players who are in it to try not to win for their clubs, but to earn a call-up and a USWNT contract to play for real money. They hang on to that dream as long as they can, then they let go. 

NSW: Except there is no room at the inn. 

Me: Yep. It ends up like the lottery, or the Hunger Games for those females scrapping so hard with so little, for so long, for just a couple of new USWNT spots that these days are more likely to go to a college phenom anyway, not an NWSL player at all. 

NSW: Truth

What's changed in four years? 

Well, the NWSL has endured and even raised their salary cap a modest amount. The USWNT won another World Cup, which gave them a great bargaining position against the USSF. Also, the infamous NWSL clause disappeared -- or at least, it wasn't specifically present in any of the current documents of the USSF/USWNT lawsuit agreement. The entire 2017 CBA agreement, which expires in 2021, wasn't ever released publicly, so we don't really know. 

 Some other stuff came out, including a horribly sexist and paternalistic argument from the USSF about the USWNT. This led to the resignation of Carlos Cordiero (next time, read your lawyer's papers) and the installation of former WC winner Cindy Parlow Cone. 

Though the latest judge's ruling has focused on how the USWNT as a group signed their contract and it is binding on that basis, it didn't really address the inequality aspect. Frankly, the stupid USSF wording about the women  concerning "certain physical attributes such as speed and strength." made it impossible for the public to focus on more valid differences between the WNT and MNT, like how the qualifying for the World Cup is completely different or how WNT contracts pay salaries differently & offer different benefits (such as to pregnant players) because the women have different situations. Equal pay by the USWNT is always presented without their NWSL pay factored in, although the USSF not only pays that, but through the clause, affected the pay of other league players.  

Media coverage of the USWNT has generally been solidly in their camp, with very few bothering to mention that the 2017 labor contract was voluntarily signed, or that USWNT NWSL salaries are paid by the USSF. Not a single reporter has ever, to the best of my knowledge, even asked any USWNT member about the salary clause that kept all of them on a different earning plane than their club peers, let alone the possible hypocrisy related to their current lawsuit. 

Beau Dure has been one of the few soccer writers even looking at possible USWNT lawsuit ramifications on the next generation of female players.  If you don't want to sign up for Soccer America's free articles or subscribe for unlimited access, I'll spill the tea -- it could be very bad. Even without the worst case scenario, the current lawyer costs have no doubt impacted the USSF finances and therefore, investment in youth development somewhat. 

I'm not changing my name from Canales to "What Happened to the NWSL Salary Clause, USWNT?" yet, though I'd buy a reasonably priced T-shirt of that phrase. It's long been my view that the WNT are deserving of a better contract with the USSF, one that's specific to their needs and desires. The equal pay campaign of USNT being warriors on behalf of all women players, however, that glosses over their past of being decidedly unequal in regards to NWSL seems conveniently revisionist at best and downright deceptive at worst. Pretending there was never a clause about "no non-WNT Player receives compensation greater than a WNT Player," doesn't make it true. The clause was in multiple MOUs that appeared to be in effect from 2013 to 2017, at least.

That matters, even if it's gone now. In this Caitlin Murray article about the new NWSL allocation pay structure, Megan Rapinoe is vociferous in her objection to the possibility that someone on her NWSL squad might possibly get paid more than herself.  Though she specified "we need to find a way to appropriately compensate our best and brightest," that clearly wasn't as big a priority in 2013, when she signed onto the clause that kept all non-USWNT players out of  Most-Favored Player status; that clause isn't mentioned in the article. 

I'm not paid to write on soccer anymore, so who knows if I'll ever get to ask any USWNT member the clause question. Perhaps by the time I do, no one on the current team will know. 

Mike Penner, Bruce Jenner and Me

Years ago, at the great media brouhaha that was the official unveiling of David Beckham, I was walking on the concourse of what is now called Stub Hub Center stadium, when I spotted a tall woman. She, like me, was on her way to the media rooms designated for different groups of reporters. Even though Beckham's move to the Galaxy was a huge story, there weren't that many women covering it, so I noticed her. I stopped for a moment, thinking that she might be an ex-athlete turned reporter, perhaps a former basketball or volleyball player. It even occurred to me that, if so, I should ask her about that, and get a unique perspective that might add some insight into a Beckham event reaction story. She looked somewhat familiar, so I tried to remember where I'd seen her before. Then I realized she was Christine Daniels, the transgender sports writer whose story I'd read about about earlier that year. 

Even before that galvanizing story, I'd read Mike Penner columns/stories in the LA Times for years, but never ran into him in the LA pressbox for Galaxy games, where Grahame Jones had the regular local soccer beat. I'd been keeping up with Christine's blog, and I wondered if it was ok to start with that as a intro comment, "Hi, I've read your blog; I'm a reporter, too, are you going to come to more soccer stuff?" 

But then Christine walked into the suite marked for national media reporters. I went to the one for local media. Maybe I'd see her after the interviews ended, I figured. Or perhaps she'd be out soon again to actually see Beckham play and I could introduce myself in the pressbox before a game. 

Beckham came to the local media interview room last. Christine and most of the other reporters were long gone by the time I stepped out of the suite into the bright sunshine. 

Selfishly, I hoped I would see her again soon. I had friends in the LA pressbox, but sometimes it still felt a little isolating to be the lone female reporter there. I imagined that Christine wouldn't be intimidated, at over six feet, walking into a locker room full of players amped up after a game. I, who was always more comfortable at a keyboard than speaking in person, would sometimes wonder if players refused interviews or ignored my requests for a quote because I was a woman and they didn't take me seriously as a reporter. I figured Christine wouldn't be so easy to brush off. I also thought I could help her if she needed anything translated from Spanish. We could be like a distaff soccer-writing Mutt and Jeff.

Finding Fitness - Pilates

Pilates.....a real man's workout!! Try this exercise out. #coretraining http://t.co/sc2eSOmCbT
— GIUSEPPE ROSSI (@GiuseppeRossi22) March 17, 2015

So, yeah, if Rossi can use Pilates for rehab, I should probably give it a try in my finding fitness series. 

My local Pilates spot is Eagle Rock Pilates, although when I look up the site, they apparently call their place Pilates Eagle Rock.   This gives me the same vague embarrassment/stubborness I sometimes get whenever I pronounce a player's name wrong in an interview, but still prefer my version. (Yeah, it's your name, but have you thought about changing?)

I once took a Pilates class at my local gym and thought that was pretty cake, but it turns out, that was at best what is known as a 'mat Pilates' session. The more intense versions follow closely the teachings of Joseph Pilates and make use of specific Pilates equipment like the Reformer. (Cue my reflex reaction to get Snow's Informer ditty stuck in my head for the rest of the day.)

Me on Reformer - As if!

Pilates focuses a lot on slow controlled movements that seem simple at first, but really give muscles a workout. I'm trembling by the time I have to repeat most any movement. The core muscles especially get exhausted. Just try Rossi's sideplank circle walk - it's not easy.

Fitness: 8/10 It's an amazing way to strengthen muscles and build body control, but I felt it was missing a cardio element. 

Fun: 6/10 Pilates is cool way of getting in touch with what one's body is capable of and the exercises are almost like a body experiment - this looks easy, but damn, it's not! - and a good instructor really makes each session an educational experience. Lose-yourself-in-the-moment fun, though? Not so much. 

Sociability: 4/10 For private sessions, the only socialization is with the Pilates trainer. Group sessions are still quite small, and everyone seems serious about the exercises, so there's not much interaction or conversation.

Convenience: 7/10 Pilates is very popular in California, and there are studios all over the South Bay for retiring and rehabbing soccer players. 

Cost: 3/10 Private sessions are more expensive, of course, but even group sessions are pretty pricey. 

Pilates is an excellent workout, especially ideal for athletes who need precise body control, like dancers and soccer players, but it's not a terribly entertaining exercise. I'll probably do it some, like I try to eat some vegetables because I know they're good for me and I should, but not because I wouldn't rather have something else. 

Finding Fitness Results - Spinning

I feel like I can almost say that SoulCycle, beloved spin studio of David Beckham and family, is for chumps, because what I did for my spin experience was a class at the Sweat Shoppe, which specializes in heated spin sessions. 

Yes, it's like hot yoga but with bikes, more cardio and more suffering! Whee! 

I am hiding in the second row.

I realized as soon as I got to the studio (free class courtesy of Racked Fit Club) that I had severely underestimated the seriousness of this exercise enterprise. For one thing, normal shoes will not do. You have to take part using bike shoes (I think clipping people in helps them continue even on wobbly legs, perhaps) and the studio had to provide me with a pair. Secondly, I realized as soon as I sat down that I should have worn padded bike shorts as well. 

But it turned out that the hardness of the seat didn't matter too much - we spent so much time out of the saddle, following the instructions of Naomi, the superfit (she won an award, seriously) instructor. 

With her cheerful Australian accent, she urged us on through the session. "Nice job, Andrea," she encouraged me at one point. I blinked sweat away, in my addled brain thinking she was saying, "Don't die, Andrea!"  

Finding Fitness

Now that Landon Donovan is retired, it won't be easy for him to stay in shape. There's no more constant running like in practice and for matches. Most soccer players do have an offseason workout set up, though. That helps them as they ease into retirement, to do whatever they usually did in the offseason when they didn't practice and play regularly. 

For some retired players, staying fit means to do freely what they liked anyway. In Frankie Hejduk's case, that was surfing.

Others take up a new athletic pursuit. David Beckham has gotten into SoulCycle. 

Thomas Dooley is a soccer tennis devotee, and he's gotten other former pros into regular matches and competition as well. 

Keeping fit is important for everyone, though, not just former athletes. I'm going to give different fitness programs a try and report here which I personally find most effective and would recommend, not just for soccer players, but anybody. 

First up is capoeira. LD's own teammate, Juninho, practices the Brazilian martial art. 

 One of the capoeiristas featured in the video here is giving a free class in Glendale at Jewel City Yoga tomorrow at noon, so I'm going to check that out.  

DWTS - Second Night

Double elimination jeopardy! 

And Drew and Cheryl are safe right off the bat! Way to vote, Sounders fans! Oh, and they're dancing first this time. Ok, a short night of blogging for me. 

Drew is happy about not being eliminated. Cheryl is also cool with dancing first. Drew actually picks the jive first. Yikes. That's a fast dance for a not-young guy. He's frustrated in the dance rehearsals.

Drew jumps off the stage and tears his jacket off! Faster foot flicks, Drew. He gets off-beat a couple of times, too, but he's smiling and jiving through the dance.
Len congratulates the content, tells Drew to work on footwork and posture. Bruno calls Drew a "stage animal". He doesn't add that he means, "dancing bear". Adds that Drew covered the mistakes well.
Carrie Ann commends Drew's courage in tackling the jive. She's nicely telling him he shouldn't have done it, basically. Anyway, she also says that he might be "surprised" by the scoring. Drew looks slightly worried.
Erin in her interview comments how comfortable Drew is in front of live audiences. The judges score 7-7-7 = 21. Pretty generous, considering the mistakes.
Ok, Drew's done.
Billie Dee and Emma are safe? Really? Crazy. I thought for sure he was gone. Meryl and Max are safe. Good. Danica and Val are safe, too. They're dancing next.
In the practice reel, Val is unhappy with their 8 scores, since Candace got a nine. Danica's not so bent out of shape about it. Val is pushing her, though. She's nervous and upset. First tears. Val apologizes and tries to loosen up a bit.
Now the dance. Danica's all in gold - doesn't have the freewheeling attitude of a samba dancer, but she's trying. The nerves stiffen her up, though. She does show more confidence in certain parts. Tom B. calls her a "sexy mathmetician" Bruno calls out her lack of details on the transition elements. Carrie Ann uses the word "sexy" three times - also "flawless".  Len tells her to keep keeping on. Fantastico. Danica looks happy, but still nervous. Loosen up, lady. Erin uses the word, "sexy" in her commentary, too. 8-8-8 - 24 - Val looks a little miffed, but tries not to show it to Danica, who says she had "fun" with the dance.

Tom is doing his best, but this new trick of calling people out as safe or not throughout the program kind of interrupts stuff. I guess they want to keep the audience members on the edge of their seats.

Billie Dee's not buying Emma's logic of "the last shall be first". Billy is doing the tango and saying he is old. His back hurts. Emma is trying to keep his spirits up. Emma brings in extra ladies to the tango dance. Billy quotes William Earnest Henley "I am the master of my fate".

In the dance, he is playing a tango pimp. That's an original approach. It works, of course, because the original tango dancers were ladies of the night. It also allows Billy to do less dancing and more waving his arms about with style. I guess that's a type of dancing. Carrie Ann gives him pointers, but basically says more content was needed. Len needs less ivy, more attack. Bruno says, "Stylized, minimal approach", but agrees there needs to be more actual dance involved. Erin leans on Billy Dee (bad! he's got back and hip issues) 5-5-5 =15

Meryl and Maks! In the practice clips, Meryl chooses swing and says she isn't nervous. Maks, however, is nervous about the lifts. He isn't used to throwing - and it's taking a toll. He says he's old. Dude, talk to Billy Dee. Meryl is dancing to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy classic - in a bra, basically. The skirt is cute, but really, a bra? She more than keeps up with the speed of the dance, which gets to Maks a little bit. Len, "that swing had wings". Bruno thought the level of difficulty was great, but noticed the timing was off at times. Maks take issue - Maks always gets onery. Carrie points out how hard Maks had to work, commends Meryl's athleticism. Maks grumps at Erin about the score, but 8-9-8 - Maks cheers up at Len's nine, wishes Val a happy birthday.

Amy and Derek are safe. Candace and Mark are, too. Diane and Henry are going home. They don't even get to dance. I didn't see her last week. She is very kind about the elimination, compliments her partner. She still gets to dance, though, and she wants to do so. Cha, cha. She is stiff, but she smiles a lot. Certainly more dancing there than Billy Dee. Tom calls her a "good sport" and she is.

Jeremy Miller politically says that he is rooting for both Candace and Danica. Candace is nervous about the rhumba with Mark - due to her religious beliefs, she wants to be sensual, not sexual. Semantics, Candace.

But they're dancing to "Say Something", which is just a sad song. So yeah, not too sexy. Total breakup song. Lots of back arching. Carrie Ann wanted to see more rhumba steps, less contemporary lifts and stuff. Maybe Candace should have let Mark take his shirt off. 7 -7-7 Fair.

Ok, that's all for me, night folks. Drew will dance another day! Remember to vote, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Live-Blogging - Sorta - DWTS

I know, it's already played on the East Coast, and the soccer connection is tenuous at best - but hey, there's Drew Carey! Part owner of the Seattle Sounders in MLS. And I'm sick, watching on the couch, so might as well. 

Ok, the intros are done! I already have high hopes for Drew, he was lively when he came out, not too stiff, like poor Billy Dee.

NeNe Leakes dances first with Tony Dovolonti. She's game, but awkward. She seems as if she'd rather stand in one place and shake it than do any steps. 
The judges are usually generous with the scoring in the early going. Len likes it, wants more hip action. Bruno wants to see more, commends energy, notes footwork was lacking, Carrie likes her personality - needs to dance bigger. I think she needs to use her core more, rather than just sticking her leg out for the steps.   
Anyway, her score is: 7 7 7 = 21 Pretty generous. 

Drew is next! I wonder if he will wear a Sounders jersey during the practice sessions. 

Friday Fuming

Horrors! The Galaxy bounced from the CCL while the defending champions of MLS? It's so 2006. That was a bad year for the team due partly to scheduling, but also partly due to the lack of coaching foresight to cope with the scheduling and either be creative with the lineup or kick up a bigger fuss to get games moved. The Ghost of Galaxy Coaches Past, Frank Yallop, is visiting Bruce Arena right now to say, "Whatever you do, don't miss the playoffs." Actually, it was MLS Cup-winning coach Steve Sampson who lost the CCL game in Costa Rica, then was fired midway through that debacle of a season, but it was Yallop who got saddled with a crazy Beckham-fueled schedule in 2007 that helped hobble the Galaxy to yet another playoff-missing season. Ah, memories. 

I'm taking a break from grading essay  papers to post here on the revamped Sideline Views, where I will pretty much be cheering Luis on, but probably not posting a lot of original news myself. For those who care to know, I've returned to teaching (morning and evening classes which pretty much wipe out time for reporting anything). I've also bought a fixer-upper property. It turns out that transformations are not as easy as the DIY Channel makes things look, so that's a lot of ongoing work.

I always wanted to write about topics that tended to be overlooked and bring new and different stories to readers, so I haven't taken down my freelance badge. I still write for Futbol Mundial on occasion. I still get a happy thrill when a player I picked out early for stardom has a good game. It's always fun to see a quote from a player I personally know is a great interview, kind and fair to reporters. If I recognize a byline from a writer who was friendly in the pressbox, I'll still feel collegial camaraderie. I'm always proud to see bylines of writers I personally worked with and tried to help. Life goes on though, and my spot on the sideline these days is closer to the couch. 

Of course, that doesn't mean I can't snark from there about how the Galaxy should have done better against TFC.  Luis covered the details of that, already, though. I'll just add that those who thought an MLS Cup win bought Bruce Arena a lifetime appointment as Galaxy coach, think again. Every coach before him who won the Cup (Schmid and Sampson) was fired by the organization. The AEG shakeup of the Galaxy admin staff (where they let Galaxy president Tom Payne go, among others) also reveals an impatience for any results deemed poor. Losing to TFC in the CCL, and starting the season with a losing record at home won't get Arena fired, but those are definitely poor results for the Galaxy.