Gotham FC

If there is one thing the Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) has embraced tremendously, it's social media. Its teams, staff, and players have been all over it—especially in the Twitterverse.

No exception to this is Sky Blue FC, who has started a Twitter War between its owner and general manager. Bleacher Report recently interviewed President/CEO Thomas Hofstetter, General Manager Gerry Marrone, and Director of Communications John Archibald to learn more about this campaign...and even instigated some friendly trash talking.

Kat Galsim: Let's start off first with how this all came about. Who thought of this and what's the reason behind it?

John Archibald: Where we came up with it was actually in Philadelphia [at the WPS Draft]. Gerry was already active on Twitter at the time and Thomas started to kind of create an account and started to get involved.

And being a forward-thinking organization, we kinda discussed some things as far as our social media initiative, and that's, you know, Thomas has created his account. But Thomas was talking about getting more followers. He started asking, "Well how many followers does Gerry have?" He started to really want to get to know more about Gerry's account.

So Thomas says to me, "You watch, you give me a little bit of time and I'll have more followers than him." And then just jokingly we all started to be like, "We ought to really see who could get more followers. This would be something kinda fun to do."

Thomas Hofstetter: It was about 2 o'clock at night.

JA: And next thing you know...

Gerry Marrone: And I wasn't there by the way. I was not there. I haven't even returned to the hotel.

TH: At one point John said "You should challenge [Gerry]." And I thought, that's a great idea. So we all went to bed. And the next day was actually the WPS draft day, and I went to Gerry and I said, "I'll challenge you." And he looked at me like, "What are you talking about?"

GM: You know I had nothing else on my mind that day, it's just the day of the draft.

TH: And so I explained to him, and it basically started immediately, more or less. I tried to, right away, capture some of his followers. And it was in the middle of the draft, he was sitting with our coaches at the draft table and had his computer open. And he walked away and his Twitter account was open. So I went to his computer and tweeted on his behalf asking all of his followers to follow me. And that's how it started.

GM: And the funny part is I didn't even know it happened until I saw my Twitter account and I just kinda looked around and he was laughing so hard. Like he couldn't keep it as a secret. So I went, "What are you giggling about?" And I saw it on my Twitter account that he had asked all my followers to become his followers. So I think that's kinda when the gauntlet was dropped in the war. Up to that point I just kinda didn't know what it was gonna be. I was focused on some other things.

TH: But he got even on that. I think it was 2 weeks ago, or 3 weeks ago, when he walked into my office and my computer was open too and he did the same with my computer.

GM: And understand the risk that I ran at that point. It's one thing when your boss is at your computer at the draft table. If I walked back in the room from the bathroom, I would see Thomas sitting in my computer, figured he needed to send an email. What if you walked back in his office, the CEO of the company, and I'm sitting at his desk, on his computer. A lot harder to explain that. So a little more nerves involved. You have to understand which took more guts here.

JA: It's all out there now, Kat. There's no holds barred now. But it's also funny too when Thomas has done that with Gerry's Twitter account. Gerry had literally gone up to one of our draft picks, and Thomas planned it perfectly with scouting out Gerry and learning his moves. And as soon as Gerry went up he figured he had about 45 seconds, so that's when he jumped on.

And I was in the back where you were and where the team reps were, and Thomas came running over to me. And I was typing up something about the pick we just made, and Thomas was just giggling about something. He's like, "You have to see this." And so I went on to Gerry's account and he showed me the tweet. He said something to the effect of "All my followers need to follow Thomas Hofstetter at HofstetterTh." And I was like, "Why in the world would Gerry do that? I thought we were having a legitimate war." And he goes, "No, I did it."

KG: Wait, so this all started at the draft, when you had so many things going on...

GM: Yeah well at least one of us had a lot of things going on, I'll tell you that.

JA: I think a lot of it was, you know we had a big social media plan for the draft. And so many ideas were kind of evolving of what ways can we really utilize social media. And Thomas was getting real involved at the time, and Gerry was already involved, so I think a lot of ideas has kind of evolved into something like this and...

TH: We take social media very seriously. We think it's a very strategic move for us to spend time and effort and money on social media and video too. I have a company in healthcare and even there it's a major strategic move for us to become experts and do a lot with social media. It would seem another major move for us—on the video side—we will crank out weekly soccer or Sky Blue shows coming out of our office. So we think it's very, very important for a sports company to be strong in social media.

GM: Where this all started, Kat, was I went to John and said, "I know my job is the kind of job that for some reason people want to know what I do." Which I find interesting 'cause I'm actually doing it so I don't really think of that as much as other people might think about it. And I went on to Big Soccer one night and I signed on to Big Soccer online and I used "SkyBlueFC_GM" as my sign on. I said "I'm not gonna hide, I'm not gonna stand behind a fake name." So I did that and the response was pretty powerful. I mean everyone was coming on saying, "Hey thanks for coming on here, we really appreciate it."

So I went to John and I said, "Well, if we think people care about it, and Big Soccer has got a limited audience, why not do the same thing on Facebook, and why don't I do the same thing on Twitter?" So I talked to him 'cause he's our expert. I'm a novice at this, I think Thomas and I are just learning the ropes of the hashtags and all the other stuff. But we went to John and talked about it and he said, "Yeah that would be a great idea." The response was positive on Facebook, the response was positive on Big Soccer, and now on Twitter, it's been equally positive.

I think most of us GM's in this league have Twitter accounts and we're all trying to do the same thing to get our audience engaged with us and give them an opportunity to ask us questions and find out kind of the behind the scenes information. And I think we've all found out that more of the announcements that we're hearing, we're hearing on Twitter first, before we even get them from the other teams or league office. So it's been a pretty interesting phenomenon and I think the followers are appreciating it.

JA: And overall we just find it so important to be forward-thinking. We don't want to wait and see the trends of new media marketing. We want to be in the forefront of it. Much similar to how the league is and the other clubs in the league as well. So it's not just enough for us to be on Twitter. You know, what could we do to kind of really utilize Twitter, make it a little bit more interesting? So "Twitter War" is a way to kind of creatively approach using Twitter. It's not just, you know Gerry doesn't just sit in his office and say, "Looking outside, it's snowing today in New Jersey."

GM: If you look at my tweets, most of them don't happen between 8 AM and 5 PM unless they're coming from my phone and I'm out in the field somewhere. Most of my tweeting seems to happen between eight at night and midnight.

TH: Well then again at 5:30 in the morning...

GM: And at 5:30 in the morning. Exactly.

TH: I have a hard time keeping up with him, I have to say.

GM: I just don't sleep very much. That's in my nature.

TH: I hope you read some of my messages yesterday. I was friendly.

GM: Yeah it was a friendly day. We had a friendly environment yesterday. Well I got some good pictures up there this morning. It went out at 5:30 this morning.

TH: Oh yeah?

GM: Pictures from yesterday at the first training session. On TweetDeck. But this is all new to me. I honestly fought John when he first talked about Twitter. I was like, "What Twitter? I don't get it."

And now that I see the exponential nature of it and I really can truly see the huge value to get the word out quickly. And especially when our league picks up what we're doing and now retweets something to a quarter of a million people, it's a pretty powerful system.

TH: It's interesting, what happened actually with the few followers that we have between Gerry and [myself], we open up the opportunity to potentially have summer camps in Canada and even a game up there. An exhibition game. And Gerry and I had a conversation of that with somebody on Twitter.

GM: Yeah she's actually making us a proposal and feels reasonably confident that she could put the framework together to get twenty to thirty thousand people to a game. In Canada. If we can bring teams there and make this thing happen. Never would have happened without Twitter. We would never have found this person.

KG: Gerry I noticed that you have 315 followers, the last time I checked, and Thomas you have 157. So Thomas, do you have any plans on what you could do to catch up with Gerry, and maybe surpass his number?

TH: First of all, I think I have to give him more work. You know it's obvious to everybody that he doesn't work enough. I mean how else would you get 300 followers so quick? It's mind boggling to me. He always complains that he's working round the clock but, you know, we have to define that more.

I have to spend more time on it as well. Put all tricks out of the head. It's very challenging. I'm definitely the underdog. It's clear that I'm the underdog. When we started on all of that I had 37 followers.

GM: And I had 80.

TH: No you had 150.

GM: Look at the Twitter War front page. Go online and pull the video right now. I had 83. 83.

TH: That's how he's getting 300 [followers].

GM: I went from leading by 50 to leading by 150. That's just someone who hasn't been able to keep up to try and blame others, I don't know.

TH: The other thing is he has kids in college age and I'm a poor guy who has just young kids who don't know how to use Twitter yet so...

GM: Yeah that's exactly...

TH: ...I'm clearly handicapped.

GM: Let me ask you a question, Kat. Have you ever been in a situation where you're the employee to the person who owns the company, but the person who owns the company is the underdog to the employee? I have no power. I'm powerless. I could come in tomorrow and he could fire me and I could do nothing about it.

TH: That's why you went to my computer and tweeted. Because you're "powerless."

GM: I'm fighting for my life here. I have kids in college I have to pay for. I have to fight for my life here.

KG: So you're walking on egg shells.

GM: You bet. Every moment of every day.

TH: Yeah you can hear how scared he is. You know, he's [been] whining for the last 3 weeks.

GM: I just spend my time befriending other people. Which one of us—'cause I don't have the numbers in front of me—are following more people?

TH: Umm...I think you do.

GM: Boy, then maybe there's something to that. I'm not really sure.

TH: Well again it takes a lot of time to find them. To follow.

KG: It helps when you follow a lot of people. Here, Gerry is following 179 people and Thomas is following 110.

TH: 110. I would say my ratio is much better than yours. My ratio, I'm at 70%, following versus followers. So you're at a lousy 45%.

GM: I'm following more influential people.

KG: I did notice that Gerry interacts a lot with fans. He sometimes asks them questions on Twitter.

TH: And that's good. We don't want to lose sight on what we want to accomplish. It's not just about Gerry and me. It's also about the fact that we do want to connect with the fans.

I do try to focus on stuff that's related from an owner's perspective and don't want to be too much redundant to what Gerry is doing as a GM. Because at the end it's not just about the fun part but it's also what we want to accomplish in the purpose of all of that.

GM: I asked this very simple question. I honestly asked because I was interested. I asked one of the followers on Twitter, where I just put it out there as a tweet that said, "What makes you a fan of the team?"

'Cause I wanted to know. We have a new team in a relevantly new league, what is it as a fan, makes you a fan of the team? We're trying to put this team together, if I have an overabundance of fans telling me, "I like the team because of X," we need to make sure we have X. So it was really market research for my perspective to go out and say, "What makes you a fan?" And that question really caught on and I got a lot more followers at one simple question than anything else that I have done that I can recall on Twitter.

KG: So you could say that, because you're the GM, you handle the fans and the players, you're the more popular one and maybe Thomas is really the underdog here?

TH: Absolutely. You got that right.

GM: You could try that. That's one way to look at it.

TH: No it's absolutely right. You know I leave you all the good news about the team and everything that everybody wants to hear, and who wants to hear from the owner? All the boring stuff? But you're absolutely right on the money with that Kat.

KG: Well I know this Twitter War is gonna go on until the end of the season. Do you have any individual strategies?

TH: I'm more than happy to talk to you privately but, at the moment, for obvious reasons I can't talk to you about that.

GM: See I think it's a personality thing. So I'm just gonna use my personality and hopefully the rest will take care of itself.

TH: I don't know how a personality could translate to 140 characters but I'm looking forward to [seeing] that.

GM: A lot of smiley faces. Colon-bracket, colon-bracket.

KG: So that's the strategy, a lot of colon-brackets.

TH: You know I'm considering to hire interns for my...

GM: See, there you go. There's the underdog thing again. I personally can't afford to hire anybody to do my tweeting unlike the governor of New Jersey.

TH: But the personal strategy, it is kind of challenging. I think about it everyday, what I have to do. And I'm really, extremely busy and Gerry's very busy. And every night I think, "Oh damn it I haven't done anything on Twitter. I have to do at least something."

GM: I'm very fortunate to have a wife that goes to bed early. My wife's a school teacher and gets up at 5:15 in the morning and by 9:30 at night she's usually either asleep or in bed. So I have the luxury of being the guy who likes to stay up late. I have a couple of hours every night, that's where I get my time to do it.

TH: The fact that we have this Twitter War going on is definitely a pressure point to do something. I'm not sure I would be that active without the Twitter War.

KG: Does this have you lying awake at night, thinking about what you should do on Twitter to get more followers?

TH: I'm not laying awake at night 'cause when I go to bed I'm on a coma usually, but I do think about it constantly. Like ongoing. I don't work on it constantly but I think about it constantly.

JA: I could second that one. Thomas comes running up with ideas pretty often in the office.

GM: I only get worried when I see the two of them huddling in a corner of the office somewhere and I'm not involved.

JA: I'm in a very, very awkward position, Kat. You have two of your bosses pulling you from opposite directions.

TH: And I have to say, John is a very firm person, managing and coordinating that. I tried to convince him to uh...

GM: Oh I know. Trust me, I know.

TH: Did you tell him?

JA: No, no.

GM: Nope. But I know exactly what you're gonna say.

TH: Why?

GM: You're gonna try to convince him to give you strategy...

TH: No, no, no. When we announced the Twitter War, I went to John and I basically demanded—but he didn't follow it—I demanded that on the side of the newsletter where you have "follow me?"

GM: Did he not put you on there and misspell my name?

TH: Yeah, could've put a button in for me.

GM: And have mine not work.

TH: Yeah.

GM: See I'm the underdog. Remember this Kat. Who's the underdog here? This is the guy who has taken the underdog platform...

TH: Let's be realistic...

JA: I think I might be the underdog.

TH: Let's be realistic. He reports to you, and he didn't do it. He didn't care.

GM: Honestly though, Kat, the bigger picture here is for us to drive more awareness of our team, of our league, and get people to our fan page either on Facebook or be part of our mailing list that we can generate sponsorship and ticket sales and drive revenues. So we find this is a tremendously powerful way to reach deep and wide.

The downside challenge to this is, because it's so deep and wide, we'll have to look back at the end of the year and say, "Did it really affect ticket sales?" And maybe that's not the yardstick that we need to use. Maybe it's more of a continued drive of awareness of our sport, of our team, and of our league. I think this could have a rippling effect on the other teams and a rippling effect on the league, which is what also makes it powerful.

But my strategy is simple, I have to ask everybody to help me. 'Cause I found, just in life, people like to help other people. And if you ask them nicely, they'll help you out. If you don't, they won't.

I get personally upset when I've lost a follower. And I want to figure out who that follower is that drops off and I haven't figured out how to do that yet. 'Cause you climb up then all of a sudden you drop down a couple. You're like, "Who dropped me? And why did they drop me?" I wish we could find that out.

TH: It's probably people who are really committed to me. They probably said, "I don't want to hear him anymore, we are committing to The Hoff."

JA: What probably happened was Thomas went to their personal accounts and unfollowed Gerry.

GM: He's hired a security expert to hack into other people's accounts.

KG: Well speaking of unfollowing, I follow you both. But if I were to clean out and try to unfollow people, and I have to unfollow one of you, who should it be and why?

GM: That's easy, just go with your conscience. Who do you think really deserves your follow more? And that's what you have to do, just choose with your conscience. And I'll accept whatever you choose. No pressure from me at all, just choose with your conscience.

TH: What we're doing here, we're in women's soccer. And in women's soccer, we in the league are in start up mode. We're all at the very beginning. And we all have to support women's soccer. We are an underdog sport. If you look at all the other sports, we have to have an underdog mentality. And it has to work, the underdogs should be able to win. And that's why you definitely have to follow me, I'm the underdog here.

GM: Notice I didn't beg or anything. I just said use your conscience.

KG: I know, I like your strategy. So I guess we still haven't agreed on who the real underdog is. Gerry, your argument is that you're the employee...

GM: I'm the employee. I am here at the whim of the owner, who can change at any moment in time, and just toss me aside like yesterday's paper. I am totally at the whim of the owner.

TH: I would be dead without him. So he knows I can't do that as much as I would like to, just to win.

GM: And if you followed back to the comments then, somebody asked what's the prize for me if I win. And on Twitter I said," I get to keep my job." And within seconds Thomas responded, "No you have that wrong. If you win, you lose your job." So, who's the underdog? And it's in print. You can't even dispute it. It's out there.

KG: That was out in public? Oh no.

GM: Oh yeah.

TH: It doesn't change the fact that I'm the underdog.

GM: Who's between a rock and a hard place here? If I win, I lose. And if I lose, I win. So I can't win from losing.

TH: Kat, honestly, does he strike you as an underdog now, with the way he talks? Certainly not, right?

KG: You do have about half of the followers that Gerry has.

TH: Yeah and he's gaining ground. He's accelerating more than I am.

KG: Alright let's talk about the nicknames on the video. So we have "The Hoff," which actually has two F's. And I know your name only has one F. So why are there two F's in your nickname? Are you a fan of David Hasselhoff or something?

TH: You know being a German I guess that should be my answer. My answer should be "I should be" or "I am." But I'm not. He's a big star in Germany, but no, I'm not a big fan of Hasselhoff. Actually I was labeled by John. He gave me that a.ka.

JA: Someone on Twitter actually did.

TH: Oh really?

JA: Someone on Twitter said that you should be "The Hoff."

TH: So it's not a name that I'm carrying for a long time. It was a name that was given to me by somebody on Twitter or John.

GM: Now "Boom-Boom," we got a story for that Kat. "Boom-Boom" comes from two places. When I was 12 years old, at the bottom of the 6th inning, with the bases loaded and 2 outs, I hit a grandslam homerun in little league baseball to tie the game and go to extra innings.

In extra innings, we hit back-to-back-to-back homeruns on my team. And I was the last of those back-to-back-to-back homeruns. So I hit 2 homeruns in a game. The only homeruns I hit in all of little league and the only homeruns I hit as a youth baseball player. But they're all in the same game and the next day I had the headline in the local sports section of the local newspaper that says "Boom-Boom Marrone." So that was a big name for a big thing.

And since that time one of my closest personal friends still to this day, when I go to meet him for lunch, calls me "Boom-Boom." And that was 35 years ago by the way when that happened.

And the secondary part was when I was a senior in high school an article was written on my friend Tommy—who I'm talking about—and myself because he was really fast and played wing and I was his midfielder who had a very hard shot from 25-yard down. And they referred to me as "Boom-Boom" and him as "Lightning" in this newspaper article they wrote about us and about our soccer team. So I've had the nickname "Boom-Boom" since I was 12.

KG: Oh so it was a long time ago. I thought maybe you just thought of it now, or that you were a fan of Welcome Back Kotter or the Black Eyed Peas or something.

GM: Nah. Though I was a fan of Welcome Back Kotter.

KG: So you've got that history with that nickname then.

GM: Yeah no one ever knew about it. Like five people knew about it and that was it. Now obviously a lot more people know about it.

JA: It's been reborn.

TH: And I'm getting compared to David Hasselhoff. I don't know if I like that or not.

GM: He has a lot more hair so maybe that'll help you out there.

TH: That's fake.

JA: He's had some run-ins with the law.

TH: That's why I didn't mind the change in hashtags now to "#TeamHoff" versus "#TheHoff."

KG: But you're still sticking with the two F's.

TH: Sure. Why not?

GM: And also you can tie that in to Follow Friday, so the two F's has a nice Twitter vibe.

KG: That's true.

JA: Good thinking.

KG: Maybe "TeamHo#FF."

TH: Wait what are you saying?

GM: On Fridays you're supposed to go to all your friends who followed you recently and do "#FF" and then put all their names in. It's one way to spread the wealth. I just learned that last Friday.

JA: It's one way to get followers.

GM: You literally have to type them all in. There's no easy way to do it from what I can tell. I mean there's one person last week that did it, and I think she even said on Twitter that it took her 3 hours to do it all.

TH: You can just type it in Word then cut and paste every week.

JA: Well you don't necessarily have to do them all. But your most active supporters, the Team Hoff people probably is what you want to put out. Like a "Team Hoff Follow Friday." We did something, Kat, which I'm sure you saw a few weeks ago where, from the Sky Blue FC account, we did a Follow Friday thing and everybody who mentioned us on Follow Friday, we returned the favor.

KG: Oh yeah, I remember that.

JA: Picked us up some followers. Along with the Twitter War and everything else, rather than just having an account, we always try to have the wheels going and think of new ways to utilize it.

GM: And honestly, from my perspective, I try not—very hard—try not to go on there and put random stuff like "Driving to the beach." No one cares about me that much to care what I'm doing every minute of the day.

TH: It's the same with me. I definitely would not put stuff up like that. That doesn't make sense as far as what we are trying to accomplish.

GM: My whole purpose of doing it, which is why I have this sign on name, is hopefully give people some type of insight. And obviously I can't do all the stuff. I wish I could do all the stuff. But some type of insight as to what my job is like and the things I actually have to work on and get done and certainly there's player personnel issues and things like that that will never be on Twitter, but it would be really cool if you could do more of like that to give people a really good view.

TH: Seriously I would have a lot of stuff that would be interesting but it's too confidential.

GM: Too confidential. You can't talk about it.

TH: I can't talk about it. People would be interested in that but you can't put it out.

GM: Well the bigger issue for me, over the last 24 hours I've probably spent a total of 4 hours with a couple of different player agents, just kinda going back and forth. Those player agents are on Twitter. So it's not like I could go on Twitter and say "Just spent 2 hours on the phone with an agent." So that's where you have to be really careful, on what you put out there.

JA: Didn't take that much to get them educated about them Kat, as you can tell. It's one of the things that definitely makes it a lot easier for me is that, how many sports teams can say that they have their GM and their owner both active with their own account? To the point that they would do a Twitter War.

It's definitely something that's great for me 'cause what it all comes back to is the team account and more acknowledgement for the team as well and just more awareness. And to have weapons like that is unbelievable for me and the team.

KG: Yeah it's really great how much you're using social media to raise brand awareness.

JA: Absolutely. And we don't neglect our Facebook account just because we're more active on Twitter now. If anything, they kind of assist one another. One can get more followers, the other can get more fans.

GM: Even with what we're doing with the [Twitter War] prizes, we have no vehicle on Twitter to be able to explain the prizes. We will probably use Facebook and our web page to explain the prizes for the Twitter War, which I find pretty interesting.

JA: And one of the ways we will do the announcements is through our weekly newsletter, which obviously you have to be signed up to receive. And we have a tab directly from our Facebook page for you to sign up on our newsletter. And that gives you all the inside info that doesn't necessarily go out to the public. You know insider deals and all those kind of things as well.

KG: Lastly, can I ask for your closing arguments as to why somebody should follow you?

TH: Well I think I give a lot of insights to the people from an owner's perspective. I would be able to give them information from a team's perspective that they can't get from Gerry. At the end, if people follow both of us, I'm happy at the end of the day. I'm more happy if they only follow me and they still get the same information.

GM: Well they'll get the same information 'cause Thomas will just forward my tweets. I'm the one living in the valley everyday and fighting all the battles. Thomas gets to sit up on the perch as the king of the castle. Where I'm actually down in the mope. So I think if followers follow me they'll get the real deal of what's happening on a daily basis. Not the filtered out one that comes from the high end.

KG: So that's your official closing argument then.

GM: That would be my official closing argument.

TH: At least officially. We will have another one as soon as we hang up.

KG: This is the nicer closing argument, in addition to the "go with your conscience."

GM: Just vote with your conscience, go wherever your heart tells you to go.

JA: And make sure you follow Sky Blue.

It's not easy being a champ.

Heather O'Reilly, a.k.a. HAO, scored the game-winning goal at the Women's Professional Soccer championship match last year and won Sky Blue FC the title. She's also a member of the U.S. Women's National Team, the No. 1 team in the world, where she won two Olympic gold medals.

In college, she played for UNC, the winningest team in college soccer, and she helped the Tar Heels capture two NCAA College Cup titles. She also led the New Jersey Wildcats to the W-League Championship in 2005.

Yet O'Reilly, a WPS all-star and MVP of the league's championship match, believes being a champion means having a target on your back. Other teams will be out to get you and try to snatch the title from your hands.

As she lounges in a New Jersey airport, safe from any soccer player trying to steal her championship ring, O'Reilly catches up with Bleacher Report to talk about Sky Blue FC, what she's been doing during the league's offseason, and how she's gearing up for the Algarve Cup.

Kat Galsim: First of all, congratulations on making it on the Algarve Cup roster.

Heather O'Reilly: Oh, thank you! It's obviously an honor to be in the U.S. team, so I'm excited about it.

KG: I heard it's also one of the national team's favorite tournaments.

HAO: Yeah! We like going there and playing; it's good competition. Some of the best teams in the world go to play. So we always get some good matches, and usually, it's a fun trip—just the area that we're in in Portugal. And we're not too far from Spain, so the last couple of years, we've gone on a day trip to Spain. So we enjoy going there, and hopefully, it will be a little bit warmer than it is in New Jersey right now.

KG: How was the recent national team camp?

HAO: The camp a couple of weeks ago was three weeks long, and it was to get good training and to ultimately pick the roster for the Algarve Cup. It went well. We got some good training out there in L.A., and we're not together as the national team as much as we used to be, so we see the importance of every single time that we're together as a team.

And it's always great to play with so many of my Sky Blue teammates. I think going to the Algarve Cup, there'll be four of us from Sky Blue FC, so that's obviously exciting. But I think that the national team is just, you know, we're excited to start Season Two [of WPS]. You could tell people are already getting a little competitive and are looking forward to getting with their club teams and starting the weekend battles.

KG: How has your training been, preparing for the Algarve Cup, with Dawn Scott's training program?

HAO: Oh, yup. Our coach, Pia Sundhage, has hired a new coach for the national team, and she'll be in charge of tracking our fitness and our diet and our weight and all that kind of stuff. Getting us all working our best, putting us in our best shape. So that's new; but yeah, it's pretty intense, I would say. Just intense training sessions, and they wanted to push us quite a bit. Especially at the end because they know that we're all kind of in cold weather climate, [so] they tried to get the most out of us at that time that we had together there in that warm weather in Southern California so that obviously we'll be ready for the Algarve Cup.

We had two scrimmages against South Korea and that one scrimmage against a boys' team. I think a boys' U-16 team. We usually do that every weekend of camp, have a big scrimmage. And then again, of course, all the training sessions and intersquad scrimmages.

KG: So how has the offseason been treating you?

HAO: It was great. I had a really good offseason. I went back to school at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and I finished my degree this fall, so that was a good thing to wrap up. Because of the national team schedule and the league, it was hard for me to finish up my final semester, so I was happy to kinda get that wrapped up. And I finished my education degree, so I spent about four months in the classroom with seventh- graders. So that was a new challenge for me.

You know, it's always been "soccer, soccer, soccer." and for me to have kind of a new challenge ahead of me of working with a bunch of 12 year-olds, it pushed me in different ways, I guess.

And then after that was done, in November I went on a nice vacation to Australia with my boyfriend and some friends. And then fun's over; it's back to work now.

KG: And you also went to Germany?

HAO: Oh, yeah! The Germany trip fit in there, as well. Yeah, turned out to be quite the busy fall. I didn't think it would be quite as busy with the national team, but it turned out that we had two camps and the Germany trip in the fall. So I guess we've been going pretty much year-round, but we had a bit of time off in November. That was basically our only month off through the whole year.

KG: How do you think Sky Blue fared at the college draft and the dispersal draft?

HAO: I think that [Head Coach] Pauliina [Miettinen] definitely did her research, and I think that she's very excited to start. And up to this point, it's just been about watching players and kind of doing the behind-the-scenes stuff. And I think that even though she'd rather be up on the field, I'm sure, getting practices in, I think that she's done a great job assembling a team.

I think that we're fortunate to have a good core of our team from last year, and now with the additions of Carli Lloyd, and then Brittany Taylor, who we picked up in the college draft, to solidify our back line. And then, of course, a fellow Tar Heel of mine, Nikki Washington, to get picked up in the dispersal draft, was huge. I think that that just adds incredible depth for us. So I'm definitely liking where our team's at and our strength. I think we have a really excellent team.

But, on the other hand, you look at a lot of these other rosters throughout the league, and you say the same things about them. Obviously for Marta to be going to the Bay Area strengthens their program, and St. Louis is another team that you just look at and think, wow, there's some serious collection of really world-class players on that team. And across the board.

And I just think that that speaks a lot for the league, the improvement that the league made in just one season. I mean, it was a great level last year, but I think that we really improved the strength of each and every team this season. So that'll only just make the games and the competition more competitive.

KG: How do you think the team will keep the chemistry that helped make you win the championship last season, especially with Christie Rampone out?

HAO: I think that we definitely have to hold on to a lot of the principles that we had last year and some of the standards that we held our team to—and that was to be always the most hardworking and maybe gritty team out there. And I think that's what led us to the championship in the end, as we had been through quite a bit of adversity throughout the season. And that only kind of made us a harder and tougher team to crack.

So I think that we need to sort of grab on to what worked for us last year and just grow as a team. I mean, we are gonna be a different team in Season Two—I know that—but at the same time, I think we need to just build on the foundation that we laid at Sky Blue FC.

KG: What should Sky Blue fans look forward to this coming season?

HAO: That's a great question. I think that there's only one league champion out there, and that's us. I think that we're gonna have a target on our back. People are gonna be out to get us; I mean, we won the whole thing last year. So I think that we will be the team to beat.

I think that we're hopefully gonna score a lot of world-class goals. We have some of the best goal scorers out there with Natasha Kai and Carli Lloyd and Rosanna firing our attack. So hopefully, there'll be some great goals scored, but mostly, I just think that the fans are gonna see exciting soccer and incredible growth in the level from last season—which is a lot to say.

And just like the other Q&A's, here's Round Two, where O'Reilly answers some random questions.

KG: What does the "A" stand for in HAO? Awesome? Heather "Awesome" O'Reilly?

HAO: Ha! Good question. It's not officially in my birth certificate, "awesome," but I'm very flattered that you think that might stick. I may have to go by that now. But it's officially "Ann."

KG: If you were to choose between spending the weekend in a Dharma station or in the Schrute Beet Farm, which would you choose?

HAO: (Laughs) Oh, man. I definitely would have to say the Schrute Beet Farm because the Dharma Station definitely creeps me out. Gotta love The Office . And I feel like I could relate to Dwight [Schrute]'s weirdness a little bit.

KG: So I guess you're not a big fan of polar bears and smoke monsters then?

HAO: Yeah, that kinda creeps me a little bit. I was a huge fan of Lost in Season One, and even Two. And, like most Lost fans, I got lost and got over it quickly.

KG: When you were making your tour videos for U.S. soccer, did you get a lot of curious looks from other people?

HAO: Actually, surprisingly not. I don't know if people just thought we were like maybe a news station or something, but nobody bothered us, so that made for some funny, candid moments.

KG: If I were to visit Chapel Hill, N.C., for the first time, which place should I go first?

HAO: I would definitely say to check out the soccer field, just because it's pretty legendary what the [UNC] program has accomplished. Restaurant-wise, I'd say to check out 411. That's my favorite restaurant in town. And if it's a warm, sunny day, and you're over the age of 21, I would say to check out a bar called He's Not Here, which is one of the best ways to spend your Sunday afternoon.

KG: Judging from the U.S. soccer videos, it looks like your teammates love pulling pranks on you. Why is that?

HAO: (Laughs) Good question. I guess I'm one of those people that's a little bit naive, and I wear my heart on my sleeve. What you see is what you get. I'm very much out there. So I think that people, first of all, know that they can play a joke on me, and that they'll hopefully get a good laugh out of it in the end. And also, they probably know that I'm a bit gullible.

KG: Is the glass half empty or half full?

HAO: I mean, I'd of course want to say I look at the world in a positive light, and I always at least try to. That's the only way that you can do it. But I think that I fight a lot of testaments, but I always try to see the light in everything.

KG: Being a Jersey girl, could you give me your thoughts on the show Jersey Shore ?

HAO: Umm yeah, I mean, I think I'm proud of the state of New Jersey in terms of a lot of things. I loved growing up there, I have a lot of great friends, a lot of great memories, a lot of great soccer played in New Jersey. Not as proud of the show Jersey Shore . But at the same time, I lived the Jersey Shore. That was me in high school down there, rockin' out at the beach. So I don't have to watch it on television, that's for sure.

KG: You played for UNC, the winningest team in college soccer. Now you play for Sky Blue FC, the reigning WPS champion, and the United States, the No. 1 team in the world. Do you think these teams have a winning track record because of you?  Ha!

HAO: (Laughs) Absolutely not! I'm just a small, small, small piece in this huge puzzle. But I definitely consider myself fortunate that I've been on all those winning teams. I don't know; I guess hopefully just try my best and hope that it's contagious. But I've been fortunate to just been with really great teammates and very competitive people, so I'm definitely lucky on that side.

KG: Don't you ever get tired of winning championships? (I kid!)

HAO: Oh, never. Never gets old. Absolutely never gets old. And the best thing about winning championships, your opponents are always out for you. You know, in Carolina, we used to say that every team would basically circle our name on their schedule and get up for our games. So when you think about it, you're basically getting every team's best performance. So you definitely take that as a compliment.

Watch Heather O'Reilly and Sky Blue FC as they try to defend their title this season. The team's home opener will be on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Visit their Web site for more information.

Part two of Yael Averbuch's blog for the NY Times.  Enjoy!

Midfielder Yael Averbuch helped lead Sky Blue F.C. to the championship of Women’s Professional Soccer in the league’s first season. Now, the Montclair, NJ, product by way of the University of North Carolina, is on the roster of the United States women’s national team as it prepares for the Algarve Cup tournament in Portugal .

She was named to the team last week by Coach Pia Sundhage after a January training camp at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. Averbuch will be filing to the Goal blog before, during, and after her trip to Portugal.

I remember being in preseason with Sky Blue F.C. one year ago when the national team players came back from the Algarve Cup. Since I was nine it has been my dream to play for the national team, but last March it didn’t seem to be close on my horizon, and I was nervous when my new teammates flew in from Portugal to join us.  Heather O’Reilly, Natasha Kai, Christie Rampone, and Kacey White seemed to be coming from another world, another level of fútbol (I prefer “fútbol” over soccer) that I was not privy to.

That feeling was on my mind as I sat in the locker room at the Home Depot Center a few days ago when Pia read us the roster. Luckily, my last name starts with an A, so I didn’t have to wait long to find out that I had been picked. To be honest, I had no idea if I was going to make it or not, which is strange because usually, as a player, you have a gut feeling either way.

Pia isn’t the type to have organized individual meetings each camp. If she has something to talk to you about, she’ll pull you aside in the hallway or keep you after a meal to chat, and you are always welcome to take the initiative and ask her for feedback, but it is certainly not mandatory.

During the 20 days of this past training camp, my confidence experienced some ups and downs, but I decided not to go meet with Pia to ask for advice or assistance in helping to boost it. I took it as a challenge to do it on my own. I know what I need to do to be successful on the field, so it was just about getting back to the basics and doing the simple things consistently (easier said than done at times!).

It’s funny, because when I met with Pia in September during my first national team call-up in a couple years, she shared with me that I actually wasn’t supposed to be invited into the camp until my Sky Blue F.C. teammate, Christie Rampone, had to back out because she is pregnant. Thanks Christie!

But all along I’ve felt that what I really need is that opportunity, and for someone to invest in me and show me they believe in me. So each camp, it is my goal to secure myself one more opportunity…to be invited back to add to my experience and comfort level with the national team. So, to hear my name on the Algarve Cup roster, my fifth consecutive call-up, was a big deal to me—beyond just the honor of being selected.

I’m excited to go to Portugal. Not only is it someplace I’ve never been, but I’m enjoying being part of this group. I’ve always loved the fútbol, but getting to know the players and staff on the national team is valuable too. And maybe I’ll even pick up cap No. 4!

It’s funny, because as much as I seem to have this all put in perspective, I know that when I’m in Portugal and see the starting lineup and I’m not in it (which will likely be the case as a newer player), I will still feel that pang of disappointment. Although my aim is to get more opportunities and playing experience, my expectations seem to rise more quickly every camp. I guess that’s the feeling that allows me never to be satisfied. More to come from Portugal.

The following was posted on the NY Times Soccer blog by Yael Averbuch and is reposted by Lauren Green. Green is a free lance writer who covers Sky Blue FC for Bleacher Report and Sports Then and Now. She can be contacted for comment or hire at lgreensoccer20@yahoo.com .

“”With the fifth pick, the LA Sol select Nikki Washington!”

One of the top midfielders in the country, Washington’s collegiate season was cut short when she suffered an ACL injury just eight games in. It was a mere four months before the 2010 WPS draft would take place. Media experts predicted that she would go late in the first round or early in the second. However, having been sidelined with the injury, Washington had no expectations for her placement in the draft. So when the call came, the Mesquite, Texas native was ecstatic.

“When they called I was pumped,” Washington recalled a few days after the draft. “It’s great to have someone believe in me.”

Leading up to the draft, she spent time visiting former UNC teammates Tobin Heath (Atlanta Beat) and Casey Nogueira (Chicago Red Stars) up in Rhode Island, as well as Portland goalkeeper Kelsey Davis (Chicago Red Stars) and former UNC teammate Melissa Hayes. She also spent some time in Chapel Hill “still grinding it” in rehab for her ACL injury. For the record, her knee is doing “awesome” and better than expected.

The hype leading up to the draft was tremendous and the players weren’t immune to the whispers of predictions. It may not have been intentional, but like several other players, she heard some of the draft predictions. And while the top four selections of Heath, Cheney, O'Hara, and Engen weren’t surprising, the selection of Washington was one that surprised a lot of people.

“People weren’t expecting it,” said Washington.

Like her former UNC teammate Whitney Engen, Washington doesn’t feel any added pressure to perform being a top five pick. There’s always going to be natural pressure that a player puts on herself and because of that, the outside pressure doesn’t affect her.

“I’m happy to play again and play with the best,” Washington added.

With the talent across the league, there is no denying that Washington will get the opportunity to play with and against some of the best players in the world. Most of all, she’s looking forward to getting back out on the field again, winning, and simply playing soccer. 

Usually, this is where the story ends. But upon the WPS suspending operations in LA, a new twist was thrown in Washington’s story. The rights to the 19 LA Sol players would be dispersed throughout the league. Ultimately, it meant that the dreams of 19 players were up in question. The league held a dispersal draft on Thursday February 4, 2010.

“I was a little upset at first,” said Washington of finding out about the Sol suspending operations. “But there are other great teams in the league. It didn’t mean my dream was over, it just meant that [it] would have to continue somewhere else.”

Washington was selected sixth overall in the dispersal draft by Sky Blue FC where she joins four North Carolina Tar Heels on the roster in Yael Averbuch, Heather O’Reilly, Jenni Branam, and Kacey White. Washington was ecstatic about moving to Sky Blue.

“Yael [Averbuch] and I are really good friends and I’ve played with HAO [Heather O’Reilly],” Washington stated. “Kacey White and I grew up in the same area and I’ve heard a lot about Jenni [Branam]."

Being drafted to the reigning WPS champions and knowing so many people on the team only adds to the excitement.

“I’m really excited!” Washington exclaimed of the move. 

Photo courtsey of NC-Soccer, 2009

Let’s see, by my recollection the state of New Jersey has six major professional sport franchises. The Giants and Jets of the NFL, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, Red Bull of Major League Soccer and last year’s darlings of Women’s Pro Soccer(WPS), Sky Blue FC.

Well gentleman, thanks for your participation but please step aside, because thanks to their surprise victory in this past season's WPS Championship game, Sky Blue is now the reigning Team of the Year in the Garden State.

The honor was bestowed on the defending champs Monday night, by the New Jersey Sports Writers Association (NJSWA).

Sky Blue FC actually reached the 2009 postseason after clinching the fourth and final playoff spot, and then had to win three games on the road in 10 days. Each of its three matches were against teams they had not beaten during the regular season. With all odds stacked against them, the team allowed only a single goal in those three games combined to eventually emerge as league champs.

In addition to Team of The Year honors, the NJSWA also tabbed team captain/coach Christie Rampone as its Sportswoman of the Year.

"I am very honored to be recognized and treated so wonderfully by the New Jersey Sports Writers," Rampone said of being recognized by the NJSWA. "I have worked really hard since I left Monmouth University in 1997, and to see all my effort and dedication be recognized feels great. New Jersey is packed with so many professional sports teams and great college programs, and that makes this acknowledgment mean so much more."

Congratulations to Christie and Sky Blue FC.  By the way, I love the new bullseye the team has added for the upcoming season.

Sky Blue FC is the New Jersey/New York franchise in Women's Professional and plays its home matches at Yurcak Field on the campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the team will play its 2010 WPS home opener on Sunday, April 11th, against the Chicago Red Stars. For season ticket information, visit www.SkyBlueFC.com 

Note: Christie Rampone quote courtesy NJSWA

So, I know this happened over a week ago.  But with just getting back to classes and getting situated, it took a tad bit longer to finish the actual write-up.  However, the long awaited recap of the uniform unveil is FINALLY here.  Sorry it took so long everyone!

Following the 2010 WPS draft, PUMA and the WPS partnered to unveil the newly designed WPS uniforms.  It was a fantastic event, giving these players, especially the newest members of the WPS an opportunity to unwind and have a little bit of fun as well.

The veterans stepped out first with the home jerseys on, each of the players sporting their respective team’s home kit with LA Sol goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc announcing each player. 

The entrances ranged from a runway walk by Atlanta’s Leigh Ann Robinson, to the Sol’s Manya Makowski’s “two step” dance, to the Athletica’s Kendall Fletcher doing her trademark back handspring, to Washington’s Cat Whitehill’s dancing down the catwalk to “Sweet Home Alabama.” 

The rest of the models included Amy Rodriguez (Philadelphia Independence), Leslie Osborne (Boston Breakers), Ella Masar (Chicago Red Stars), Tiffeny Milbrett (FC Gold Pride), and Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC).

Then it was time to unveil the away uniforms.  The newest draftees, a top international signee, and one of last year’s top picks provided some great entertainment on their entrances, while showing off the newest away kits. 

The Atlanta Beat’s No. 1 overall pick, Tobin Heath kicked things off with Le Blanc introducing her as a player who was “just ok”, which definitely got some laughs from the crowd.  Boston’s Lauren Cheney was up next walking out to Miley Cyrus’s "Party in the USA," having stated before that she wanted to be on the cover of a magazine. 

So with the cameras flashing, she finally had the chance (or so said Karina Le Blanc).  She was followed by FC Gold Pride’s Kelley O’Hara, who pretended to shoot the crowd after slapping hands with former U-20 teammates Tobin Heath and Lauren Cheney.  Heath’s former UNC teammate, Whitney Engen stepped out in the Chicago Red Stars away kit, posing in front of Heath who pretended to snap a picture.

The LA Sol’s Casey Nogueira came up, pushing aside Cheney and Heath (as both players laughed) before continuing her walk up the runway.  Philadelphia’s Caroline Seger danced with Kelley O’Hara upon entering the catwalk in the Independence’s bright yellow away kit.

Brittany Taylor was lightly pushed down the line of models, showing off the reigning WPS champions Sky Blue FC’s uniform.  Angie Kerr (formerly Woznuk) gave fans a look at the new St. Louis Athletica away kit.  The Freedom’s newest player, Nikki Marshall ran through a tunnel made by the rest of the models on stage, stopping at the end to pose several times.

The unveiling itself was a fun, loose environment, and after a long day of waiting to hear who would play where, it was definitely needed.

“Well it’s a much needed event I think, for all of us because it’s so fun to see the draft but it’s a little bit stressful.  And today, we didn’t know who we were going to get, we were anticipating it, so finally we just get to let loose and we get to look at these great new uniforms.”  Washington Freedom defender Cat Whitehill said.  “I’m loving the pinstripes that we have going on and you know, PUMA just did a really good job. And I’m excited about them.”

Several of the other models applauded the WPS and PUMA for putting on such an outstanding event.

“Oh it’s awesome.”  Kelley O’Hara, the third overall pick said of the event.  “I mean, it’s been a great day, more than I could have hoped for.  The WPS has done an excellent job doing the draft and PUMA has done an amazing job of putting on this event with unveiling the new uniforms.”

First round picks and former teammates Whitney Engen (Chicago Red Stars) and Casey Noguiera (LA Sol) echoed O’Hara’s sentiments. 

“Yeah, it’s been a really busy day and kind of tiring, but it’s been really fun and exciting.  And this kind of event that the WPS and PUMA put on is just really special.  I’m really happy to be here and it’s just fun.”  said Noguiera

Engen agreed.  “You know, it’s great.  This whole day has been a lot of fun for me.  A lot of new people, a lot of new things and PUMA is awesome for putting on this incredible event and they really went all out this year.  It’s really exciting – I get to try on my new uniform and I’m having so much fun.  It’s a great end to a great day.”

The uniforms are a bit different than last year’s kits and the players absolutely love them.  The biggest difference, was the comfort level in the uniforms this year.

“The comfort.   It’s tremendous, like it’s night and day from last year the comfort level of this.”  said Whitehill.

Boston Breakers midfielder Leslie Osborne gave an excellent comparison between this year’s uniforms as opposed to last year’s.

“Personally, I love them.  The shorts have a huge difference in them.  Last year they were really skinny and narrow and tight and this year they’re wider and looser and more comfortable.  And the long sleeves are great.  The collars are different and looser so we all feel stylish but more comfortable.”

Overall, the event was incredible.  Seeing the players on the runway was both entertaining and fun to watch and PUMA did an absolutely amazing job putting it together.  The players finally got to let loose a little bit and have fun.  For the veteran players, it was just another fun day in their careers. 

For those rookies who were drafted mere hours before, it was just the start of the newest chapters in their soccer careers.

Special thanks to the WPS and PUMA for putting on such an amazing event and allowing us at Bleacher Report to cover it!

Photo Courtsey of Laine Schmid.

There were many speeches and lectures given at last week’s NSCAA convention, held in Philadelphia.  But one of the most inspiring addresses came just after 8AM on Saturday morning at the women’s soccer breakfast.  The speaker?  A midfielder from the reigning WPS champions, Sky Blue FC, Yael Averbuch.

 

Averbuch’s speech focused on soccer, but could have been applied to a variety of subjects.  Soccer.  Sports.  Academics.  Life.  She reminds everyone to “love the process”, and that happiness isn’t just found in the final step, but in all the steps it took to get there.

 

Below is the official transcript of Averbuch’s speech.  It is a must-read for coaches, for players, for parents, for athletes in general, and for anyone who needs that little reminder to always, always love what you do.

Reprinted by beat writer Lauren Green with John Archibald's permission.  Green is a free lance writer who writes for Bleacher Report and Sports Then and Now.  She can be contacted for comment or hire at lgreensoccer20@yahoo.com .

PHOTO:  NSCAA

With the WPS draft less than 12 hours away, Sky Blue FC has their plan.  They know what they need and whom they would like to get.  But the reigning champs have a pretty full roster already and only really need to fill a couple of spots.  Let’s check out where they stand.

What they have:

• US Women’s National team midfielders Kacey White, Heather O’Reilly, and Yael Averbuch.  Averbuch was Sky Blue FC’s first round pick in last year’s College draft, White was the third pick in the general draft while O’Reilly was allocated to Sky Blue in 2008.
• US Women’s National team forward Natasha Kai.  Kai was also allocated to Sky Blue in 2008.
• US Women’s National team defender, Sky Blue and US Women’s National team captain and soccer mom, Christie Rampone.
• English National team defender Anita Asante.
• US Women’s National team pool goalkeeper Jenni Branam and defender Keeley Downing
• US Youth National team member Kerri Hanks.
• US U-23 defenders Megan Schnur.
• Brazilian midfielder Rosana

What they have lost:

• Midfielder Jen Buczkowski and forward Noelle Keselica in the Expansion draft. Keselica was picked up by the Atlanta Beat, while Buczkowski was added to the Philadelphia Independence's roster.
• Canadian forward/midfielder Kelly Parker and Australian midfielder Collette McCollum due to their options expiring.
• Brazilian midfielder Rosana, who opted to stay in Brazil.
• Developmental players goalkeeper Cori Alexander, and forwards Katie Hooker, Mele French, and Lauren Sesselmann.
• Midfielder/defender Julianne Stitch due to free agency.

Who they’ve acquired:

• US Women’s National team midfielder Carli Lloyd through free agency.
• Ashleigh Gunning, a defender from Sky Blue FC’s W-League affiliate the Hudson Valley Quickstrike.
• Finish forward Laura Kalamari.
• Daphne Koster, a defender who plays for the Dutch National team.
• Swedish forward Jessica Landstrom. 

Potential Additions:

Having won last season’s WPS crown, all eyes will be on the reigning champs this season as they look to repeat.  However, they will begin the league with two key defenders on the injured list in Christie Rampone due to her pregnancy and Anita Asante who is rehabbing a knee injury.  With that said, they definitely will be looking to temporarily fill that spot. 

Daphne Koster will bring international experience to the team as well as being able to fill that spot.  By the sixth overall pick in tomorrow’s draft, several top notch defenders should still be available in Stanford’s Ali Riley, Uconn’s Brittany Taylor, and Boston College’s Kelly Henderson.

The key for Sky Blue is versatility and they will be looking to draft players who can play multiple positions and add depth to an already strong roster.

We have under 12 hours until the reigning champs choose who they will add to this year’s roster before their 2010 WPS season kicks off at FC Gold Pride on April 17, 2010.

To follow the WPS draft LIVE, visit www.twitter.com/womensprosoccer on Friday, January 15, 2010 at 10 AM ET / 7 AM PT.

The first in my new series ironically enough involves first touch.  I spoke with Sky Blue FC midfielder Yael Averbuch to see what she suggested for any player — youth to college, club to national team.

First touch is an extremely difficult skill to master, no matter what the level of the player.

“You never just have it,” said Averbuch.  “The ball can always come at a different angle, speed, or velocity.  It can never be too good.”

You can always improve first touch.  Juggling is a great way to improve this skill as all body surfaces are used — head, chest, shoulders, thigh, the instep, inside, and outside of each foot and the heel. 

Just working with the ball helps as well.  For those of you who don’t necessarily have someone there to kick or throw the ball to you, there’s always the wall.  The wall of a school, a racquetball court, or being in a gym is an excellent way to just work alone and still benefit from doing it.

Overall, repetition is key.  Yael couldn’t emphasize that enough when I talked to her.  “Number one is time with the ball.  Just repetition [helps].”

As you climb the soccer ladder going from youth player, to high school, then at the collegiate, professional, and national team levels, your first touch has to be quicker and cleaner.  The speed of play increases and with it, the decision making process must be quicker as well.

“You have to take one touch to control and move in the direction you want to move in rather than two, three, or four touches.” she said.  “Knowing what you want to do and the technique has to be faster.”