Awards and Honors: The Ballon d’Or Shortlist Is Out

Its that time of year ladies and gentlemen. FIFA has released the Ballon d’Or shortlist. It will be cut down to just three finalists in December but until then we have this list of 10 players to keep us occupied. Also announced was the shortlist for Coach of the Year. Here’s some of the things I found most interesting from the lists.

Is There A Defender In The House?

FIFA once again didn’t select a single defender to the shortlist for this year.  At this point it’s not even surprising.  The closest player to playing defense is German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer is a finalist this year after her incredible play at this summer’s EUROs in Sweden, which Germany won for the eighth time in a row.  This is the third year in a row a keeper has been named to the list, Fukumoto last year and Solo the year before, which is nice to see.  But I think we can all agree that defenders deserve much more credit than FIFA is willing to give.

The American Contigent

After having four USWNT players on last year’s list the US only has two this year.  The dynamic forward duo, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan.  Another American made the coach of the year shortlist, and it was Cindy Parlow-Cone of the NWSL champions the Portland Thorns. Honestly, I’m shocked that Parlow-Cone is on this list.  Interesting that the NWSL named a coach other than Parlow-Cone as coach of the year only for FIFA to say she’s one of the best in the world.

The EURO Effect

This was a EURO year for women’s soccer, and as expected the coach of the year category is flooded with international coaches that made an impact with their squad this summer.  In the player shortlist however, its not as EURO player heavy as I expected.  Of the 10, only four of them played for a team that was in this summer’s EUROs.  Thats definitely the minority.  Between the four players only two different teams are represented, the champions Germany, and host Sweden.

Big Names But Not The Best Names

In a move so “FIFA” that it hurts, it seems that the committee went for the names with recognition value as opposed to the names that deserve recognition. This is especially apparent in the shortlist for coach of the year. Two names that really shouldn’t be on the list include Cindy Parlow-Cone, as I hit on earlier, and Arsenal Ladies head coach Shelley Kerr. After coming in to replace Laura Harvey, who left for the Seattle Reign, Kerr lead Arsenal to a rather unremarkable season in the FAWSL, finishing third and putting their UWCL lives on the line. Perhaps a better replacement would be Liverpool ladies head coach Matt Beard who lead the club to the FAWSL title this year.

And The Winner Is…

First things first let’s cut down the shortlist of 10 players down to the three finalists. I have to go with German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, Swedish forward Lotta Schelin, and American Abby Wambach. Angerer had an amazing EUROs, keeping an injury riddled Germany in many games, and helping them secure their 8th straight title. Schelin had a solid EUROs, winning the silver boot. But she’s also been incredibly good with her dominant club squad Olympique Lyonnais. Finally, Wambach broke Hamm’s record for most goals and is continuing to add onto the total.

Of those three the winner is hard to pick but I think it comes down to Angerer vs Wambach. In the end I have to give the award to Angerer simply because I feel that in a EURO year a EURO player should win. Not to knock on Abby’s year thus far, but she’s played on a far less competitive level internationally than Angerer has.

Awards and Honors: Wambach Named FIFA Women’s Player Of The Year

All the drama and anticipation of the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala is finally over.  Despite the ridiculous shunning of Christine Sinclair from an award that was arguably hers, a still deserving candidate was selected today in Abby Wambach.  Now all that Wambach is missing from her trophy case is a WWC title.  Wambach will have the opportunity for an amazing narrative heading into Canada in 2015.  Should the USWNT add another star to the jersey in Canada, Wambach could end her career having done it all, just as her mentor, Mia Hamm, did with her career.

An Elite Club: Wambach is only the second American to win the award, and is the first non-consecutive winner.

The final standings for the women’s Ballon d’Or were: 1. Abby Wambach (USA)  2. Marta (BRA) 3. Alex Morgan (USA) 4. Homare Sawa (JPN) 5. Christine Sinclair (CAN) 6. Carli Lloyd (USA) 7. Camille Abily (FRA) 8. Aya Miyama (JPN) 9. Miho Fukumoto (JPN) 10. Megan Rapinoe (USA)

Of course, to win the award Wambach had to receive the highest percent of total votes.  Votes come from three main groups: national team captains, national team coaches, and media members.  Each country with a FIFA team gets one vote per group.  An interesting note is that many of these teams know little of the players they are voting for, except for name recognition.  This leads to an astonishing breakdown* of votes within the groups and overall.

Captains’ Votes:

Abby Wambach lead the captain’s votes, as well as all other groups, with a total of 5.68 percent.  Second place here went to Marta. This may seem surprising as Alex Morgan was considered the favorite to win the award.  Even more surprising is that Morgan didn’t even finish third in the Captains votes.  That place went to last year’s winner Homare Sawa.

To explain this its important to look at the countries Marta and Sawa are receiving votes from.  Among others, Marta recieved votes from Albania, Comoros, Suriname, and Tajikistan. Sawa recieved votes from countries such as Vanuatu, Kyrgyzstan, and Mauritius.  To say that those votes were not recieved simply because of name recognition, or in the case of Sawa, carry over from the last year, would be insane.

Also interesting are the ballots of each candidates’ home country captain.  US captain Christie Rampone voted Alex Morgan number one, and filled out the rest of her ballot with US team members Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe.  Japan captain and candidate Aya Miyama did the same, voting for team members Homare Sawa and Miho Fukumoto.  In the case of Christine Sinclair and Marta, they were both their country’s captain and lone candidate, neither one voted for their self.

Coaches’ Votes:

When comparing the coaches’ votes to the captains’ votes I expected to find a decent amount of continuity in vote percentages.  However, while 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were the same combination of Wambach, Marta, and Sawa, Alex Morgan drops to 5th in the coaches percent totals.  4th astonishingly goes to Japanese goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto, who placed no better than 7th in the other two polls.

Coaches also didn’t vote for their players which was seen in the captain’s polls.  With the exception of Canada’s John Herdman and USA’s Jill Ellis, no other coach gave one of their players a first place vote.

Another drop in the coaches polls was Christine Sinclair.  While she placed 5th in the captains’ vote, Sinclair fell to 7th in the coaches, the lowest she placed in any of the polls.

Media Votes:

The media poll is where thing really get interesting.  Abby Wambach totaled her highest vote percentage in this category with 8.06 percent, but the second place finished in the group was not Marta or Sawa.  Second place went to the USA’s Carli Lloyd, who had 4.63 percent of the votes.  Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair tied for 3rd in the group with 4.17 percent.

Looking at all the vote totals it seems that there is really no consistency within the countries when it comes to their votes, or even consistency within the groups themselves.  This relates back to the issue of name recognition.  I question whether Christine Sinclair would have won even if FIFA hadn’t snuffed her out of a chance.

Overall, the Ballon d’Or went to a more than deserving candidate.  However, I do hope that in the future, voters for the award are more knowledgable of the candidates.  I’m not sure this job falls to FIFA, but rather to the voters themselves.  I think the issue of basing the vote off of name recognition has contributed to the repetitive nature of the award.  As I stated earlier, this year marks the first time there has not been a repeat winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or.  Perhaps Wambach can put up another impressive performance and get the streak back on track, but until then there is lots of soccer to be played.

*Vote percentage breakdown can be found here: http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/live/index.html?intcmp=newsreader_news_box_1

Awards and Honors: Women’s Ballon d’Or Finalists Named

Well, well, well, this is interesting isn’t it.  FIFA announced the three finalists for the women’s Ballon d’Or today and the results were not totally unexpected, but disappointing.  The final three for the award are Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, and Marta.

What’s wrong with this picture?  The absence of Christine Sinclair.  Its clear that she was far and away the best player in the world this year.  Six goals in the Olympics with three alone coming against the greatest women’s keeper in the game right now, Hope Solo.  The only reason she was left off this list is because of her post Olympic semifinal comments.  I know we haven’t come to expect the best from FIFA, but this is utterly ridiculous.

Now that my rant is out of the way, lets take a look at the actual finalists.

Abby Wambach, USA – 22 goals* (5 in 2012 Olympics)

Abby Wambach is back in the final three, a spot she was in last year after her spectacular Women’s World Cup performance.  Wambach is more than deserving to be included here and I think she is going to be battling with Alex Morgan to take home the award.  Should Wamback, or Morgan, win the award she would be the first American to win the award since Mia Hamm’s repeat in 2002.  Something else that could be taken into account is that Wambach is clearly on her way out of the sport.  I see her making the next World Cup and then calling it quits.  This is going to be one of the best years she has left, and it was an impressive one, so that could definitely factor into wether or not she wins.

A True Legend: Wambach will be remembered long after she leaves the sport, and the Ballon d’Or only adds to her legacy.

Alex Morgan, USA – 27 goals* (3 in 2012 Olympics)

As I said earlier, I think Alex Morgan is going to be battling Abby Wambach for this award.  Just look at the year she has had: 27 goals and 18 assists right now.  Its worth nothing that she is only 2 assists away from joining Mia Hamm as the only USWNT players to have 20 goals and 20 assists in one year.  Add in her game winning header (goals like that always carry more weight) and it seems like she is the clear favorite for the award.  In my opinion, what may hold her back is the fact that Wambach had more goals in the Olympics, and while Morgan did win the game, Wambach tied it up at one point.  However I think its safe to say that even if Morgan doesn’t win it this year, she will most definitely be winning at least one in the future.

Rising Star: Alex Morgan will win at least one Ballon d’Or in her career.

Marta, Brazil – 2 2012 Olympic Goals

To be honest, finding the stats for Marta this year is hard.  Essentially because there are none.  Brazil essentially plays no friendles, the state of their organization is another post entirely, so Marta’s only chance to shine are major international competitions.  Which she did not.  She had 2 goals in this summer’s Olympic games, and her team exited the tournament far earlier than expected by Brazil standards.  Really, the only reason she’s been included is because of FIFA’s ridiculous vendetta against Sinclair.  However, lets not blame this on Marta.  She didn’t nominate herself for this, and in a recent interview she stated that she believes Sinclair should win the award.  I couldn’t agree more, Marta.

Looking For Number 6: Marta has won this award 5 times, but I don’t see it happening again.

What’s interesting here is that no matter who wins the award, it will be the first time in the awards 11 year existence that there has not been a repeat winner (Hamm twice, Prinz three times, Marta five times, Sawa once).  I also think we will see the first American winner of the award since 2002.  Who’s my winner?  It has to be Abby Wambach.  Serious leader, serious legend.  If she leaves the game without a Ballon d’Or award it will be a sad day in women’s soccer.

*Goals as of November 28th, 2012.

Awards and Honors: Women’s Ballon d’Or Short List Announced

The short list of 10 nominees for FIFA’s coveted Women’s Player of the Year award was announced today, as well as the short list for Women’s Coach of the Year. I’m just going to hit on the Player of the Year list in this post, as there are several interesting talking points.

USA! USA! USA! – I should probably add another USA onto the end of that, as four US players were nominated for the award. Unsurprisingly, Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan got the nod, but so did a deserving Megan Rapinoe, and lets face it, a Carli Lloyd coming off some of the best games of her life. Making things more interesting from a US perspective is the absence of Hope Solo from the list. One has to wonder if her Twitter rants and outspoken personality in this summers Olympics hurt her chances with FIFA.

Back-To-Back? – Homare Sawa won last year’s award after a spectacular Women’s World Cup. Sawa made the list again this year, making a back to back winner once again possible, which would certainly fit considering the history of the award has a long line of repeat winners (Mia Hamm twice, Birget Prinz 3 times, and Marta an impressive 5 times). This year though Sawa is joined by teammates Aya Miyami and Miho Fukumoto (who is the only keeper nominated).

Possible repeat? Sawa won last year’s award, breaking Marta’s 5 time win streak.

Best Defense Is A Good Offense – Or so FIFA seems to think as no defenders made the list this year, and I’m calling bs. An argument could be made for several ladies of the back line, but in particular I think Steph Houghton should have been a lock on this list.  Houghton had an amazing Olympics for Team GB, and her play for Arsenal LFC has been nothing short of solid.  When you look at the mediocre year Marta and last year’s winner Sawa had, and even France’s own Camile Abily (who was used as a sub for most of the Olympics) think there is without a dobut a spot for Houghton on this list.

Narrowing It Down – The three finalists will be announced on November 29th, and I would wager that someone is going to get snubbed. Its a very deep field, as it always is, so picking three will no doubt be hard.  However in my mind the three finalists should be Christine Sinclair, Alex Morgan and Aya Miyama. Who can forget Sinclair’s game against the US, which helped her earn the honor of leading goal scorer and, of course, flagbearer at the closing ceremonies. The American Sportswoman of the Year Alex Morgan has come into her own this year and is easily a top 3 player in the world.  Finally Aya Miyama may not have had the most impressive stats at the Olympics but she no doubt ran the show for the silver medalists Japan.

And The Winner Is… – In a perfect world, or at least my world, Christine Sinclair is your FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year.  The captain lead all scorers in the Olympics with six goals, three of them part of an amazing hat trick against the US in the semifinals.  What hurts her is the ridiculous four game ban and fine that FIFA gave her for her comments after the aforementioned semifinals.

You winner? Christine Sinclair has been punished by FIFA, but she still deserves the POTY award.

Obviously I don’t have a vote in this contest, and what I think should happen probably won’t.  I would predict that FIFA selects the final three as Abby Wambach, Marta and Christine Sinclair. Who’s their winner? I put my money on Abby Wambach getting the FIFA votes, and becoming the second American to win the award.