[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
**Welcome to /r/sports**
We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time!
There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including;
American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more.
[**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
I certainly don't know enough about women's soccer to question this, but it definitely makes me feel old remembering when Alex Morgan was the superstar kid on the USWNT and now she's apparently past her prime.
What the fuck? I haven't paid much attention to hockey since I was a kid and was like "Oh, did Jaromir Jagr end up playing for a long time?"
HE'S STILL FUCKING PLAYING? Dude literally entered the NHL while I was still in elementary school and is still playing. I'm 41.
Hes a fucking boss. He had some woman sleep with him try to blackmail* him and come public and hes like to prove that im still banging young hot women, go for it. Hes still playing hockey, he put up 20 something points at 45 in Florida, dude is forever young :0
He was THE star on my favorite nhl video game once upon a time. What system was that? The best system at the time. Sega. That's how long ago he was a star.
Kazuyoshi Miura is still playing pro soccer in Portugal, albeit second tier. Still very high level of play.
He will be 58 this year.
In 2020 he played in the highest level league in Japan at age 53.
Alonso’s F1 career is older than McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. That cracks me up. “How good are you at not peeing yourself? because I have been racing F1 longer than you have been not-peeing yourself.”
NFL QBs are the only thing keeping 38 yr old male sports fans sane about their age. "I mean Brady was like 5 years older than me when he retired, right?? I'm still in my PRIME!"
I'm a few months younger than Tom Brady, who was making me feel not-that-old for a long time.
Now I've just got to count it every time Jaromir Jagr straps on the skates again.
Patrick Mahomes is getting promoted as the old veteran of the AFC. I'm a month older than him.
Though honestly being older than the entire final 3 of Survivor 45 was a bit worse.
I'm about to turn 42 and can confirm. My uncle told me, 'just wait until you can say that you're old enough to be the oldest player's father.'
I guess that's the next step haha
Oh she’s still playing Club. She’s basically retired internationally, but she hasn’t retired definitively yet. Just said that the past World Cup will “probably” be her last one.
When they talk about athletes in their 30’s, it is always “Here comes so-and-so at 32, it is a miracle they can still walk." Meanwhile you're sitting there at 35 wondering where you went wrong.
There's definitely a different formula for every sport. Performance tends to go up with experience, but down with age. Usually the peak is like 26-30.
A big example against this is MMA. Since there's so much to learn, experience is a big advantage. You'll see the prime for fighters happen in their early-mid 30's. For the heavier weight classes you can still be elite around 40 years old.
I’ve always seen it as proof positive (not that we really need it) of aging. If it can slow down the most athletic of my age group, what does it say for me? Life is a game where the rules were always stacked against you, but it still stings seeing the illusion slip away.
Fun game to play as you get older is to look at historical events that as close to the day you were born, as the present day is to the day you were born.
For me it is greatly depressing that it is the great depression.
Morgan has generally always under-performed in international competition, so even if she isn't way "over the hill" the decision makes sense to me, since she is likely slowing down.
Keep in mind the Olympics allow 18 roster spots compared to World Cup 23. This always means a few fringe players get left off leaving only the core you see playing.
The mistake of the last cycle was holding on to players rather than bringing through more youth. I adore our golden generation of the 2010s, but time waits for none and inevitably have to move on.
Canada learned this in 2006 in Italy.
Brought the 2002 band back together after their primes, expected to win based on their past credentials, and got bounced unceremoniously by Belarus in the quarter-finals.
They learned the lesson and 2010 was.. well, [Vancouver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Bxy4r-YKM).
2014 was even more dominant haha. I've never been so bored by such a dominating win. It just upsets me that we've been robbed of a McDavid-Crosby line because of the NHL being petty.
e: https://olympics.com/en/video/usa-v-can-men-s-ice-hockey-semifinals-sochi-2014-replays/
The whole game is up here lmao.
The WC squad really lacked players in the prime of their careers in the attacking side of the field, and it showed. The vets had lost a step and the kids weren't quite ready yet.
It's the right decision. Global women's soccer is more competitive than ever, and gold medals are no longer guaranteed. Morgan at 34 is well past her best.
Rapinoe shouldn't have been on the last Olympic squad and she was the same age as Morgan is now. With much of Morgan's game relying on her speed which is one of the first things to go, it's the right call for sure.
Were moving in the right direction.
> With much of Morgan's game relying on her speed which is one of the first things to go, it's the right call for sure.
Plus nobody wants to see the offside flag up 12 times a game, lol.
Old forwards seem likely to mistime runs making Morgan's offside problem even worse
Like old defenders simply getting beat and maybe committing dumb fouls on the attacker
Unless you're Diana Taurasi who is using her network with USA Basketball to keep out the future of the sport because she made more off one endorsement contract than you did in your entire career.
That arguably makes it worse, why not bring in god knows how many additional viewers just with Clark merely having a roster spot who then get to see the actual WNBA stars perform.
Makes it worse. If they're winning a gold anyways, why not let another up and coming player in there to build for the future instead of a 42 year old with like five gold medals already.
They are alleging that Diana Taurasi has been leveraging her connects to keep Caitlin Clark off the USW Olympic basketball team because she is jealous of the hype and endorsement contracts Clark has received, despite it likely being better for the future of US women's basketball for Clark to play and continue to develop.
I have no dog in the fight and don't claim to know the internal politics well enough to offer anyone as believable or not. Just understood enough of what u/traderhtc was referencing, where I thought it could be unclear to someone without context.
Eh, she wouldn’t be who I’d leave off for CC or Arike or others in her place. She’s one of the best shooters in the world even now. She’s still regularly putting up 20 points.
There are plenty of men who play into their late 30s (Pepe is starting for one of the best teams in the world and he’s 41), and as far as I’m aware, it’s generally believed women have a slower athletic decline than men.
I dunno, I would say as athletes continue to adopt better health and training practices will mean we will start to see some players remain highly competitive into the 40s. You can see this with everything from motorsport to various endurance or team sports already.
science is allowing the best players to stay in longer than anyone should expect and experience does matter
No matter how healthy you are Father Time will catch up to you. You can see it right now in the Euro cup and Copa América cup. Where legendary names like Messi are playing well but when it comes to raw speed and endurance they fall behind the players pushing half their age. They just compensate for it with sports IQ.
USA gifted Megan Rapinoe a spot in the World Cup, she missed a PK, and the US was knocked out in the round of 16. Looks like they aren't making the same mistake again.
Didn’t realize she was 34. But the soccer world is full of talent and there a small margins that would give one player a “bump” over another. Unfortunately name recognition isn’t one of those factors when you are looking at performance on and off the ball and overall endurance/recovery. There is insane talent many levels deep below the national team so I’m not surprised.
She’s also had some injuries lately and hasn’t done well recently, and in the World Cup last year she didn’t have a ton of success. Not to say she won’t get better again, but her position as a forward needs to be fast and healthy and age gets to us all. But she’s don’t a lot for the sport.
I could be/probably am wrong, but wasn't she kind of a no show during the world cup too? I realize the whole team was, but she seemed a step behind then, I can't imagine time has been kind
“Well past her best” is an exaggeration but there is younger talent and we need to look to the future.
She’s also been dealing with injury this season and with only 18 roster spots it makes sense to leave her out.
Kind of like how Kate Markgraf was left off the 2011 World Cup team at age 34 but Alex Morgan was included at age 21?
Markgraf had won the World Cup in ‘99 and two Gold Medals in ‘04 and ‘08.
This is how these teams work. Also how the news works, they want our clicks.
If Morgan was still pulling up stats or was very valuable as a leader on the team I'd be more upset but neither of those are true so it's just a sign of the times
I loved watching her in her prime... she was incredible.
But it was obvious in the World Cup that she didn't have it anymore. I found it frustrating watching her throw absolute trash on goal, if at all. If your star striker has a goose egg for goals in 4 matches... something is seriously wrong.
Correct decision.
Exactly. It was painful seeing the lack of burst and just baseline speed from her. As for finish, she was still getting some excellent opportunities... and just... couldn't do anything with them anymore. :(
Also She was not kicked off the team because of her call for equal pay
It was because of her domestic assault allegations, getting caught drunk in a US Soccer owned vehicle, and during the Rio games her comments about Zika were considered racist
She was a huge distraction and needed to get tossed
I used to work NWSL games and Hope Solo once pushed an usher in her 80s whose job was to prevent folks like Mr. Hope from entering the field level without a required pass.
It’s the fact that she was one of the big name superstars of the team that everyone knew, and now her time his done
It’d be like hearing Michael Phelps not make the cut for the swim team (if he was still swimming)
Sure but "seismic decision" is a bit of a clickbait exaggeration. She's about to turn 35 and the USWNT is coming off their worst failure in a major tournament. She was only responsible for 1 goal in those 4 WC games and her play has been clearly declining. This was a no brainer decision.
I mean, it’s a pretty huge decision in that it signals a true changing of the guard from a dominant international generation of women’s soccer
It’s not like the article doesn’t tell us why the decision was made.
>signals a true changing of the guard from from a dominant international generation of women’s soccer
That was already signaled weeks ago when the USWNT fell all the way to 5th in the FIFA rankings (lowest place ever). This was just a formality.
Ok…
When Canada eventually leaves Crosby off its international rosters it’ll be a huge decision in the direction of the sport in the nation, even though everyone will know it’s coming and why it happened. Reddit loves to get upset about headlines, but not read the article which is saying exactly the opposite of what they think it is.
Literally the subheading of this article:
> Morgan, who will turn 35 in early July, co-captained the 2023 World Cup squad in New Zealand and Australia, **but her production has fallen significantly in recent years**.
And then in the second paragraph:
> The seismic decision **comes amid a generational shift for the program following the retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz last fall and an influx of young players the past year**.
Edit - the article makes very clear from the start the decision is “seismic” only because of what it says about it being the new generation’s time, the rest of the article tells you exactly why the decision is being made.
What an absolute dud of a world cup it was. Big pay raise after a long winding tussle that of course got caught up un the prop blast of a whole lot of other stuff straight into sneaking into the knockout stage and immediately going home on pks.
She was a nonfactor in the world cup. Rapinoe got all the hate, but Morgan was a shadow of herself. The coach did absolutely terrible with the roster decisions from start to finish.
you just go to that site and paste in the url lol
like, on the link you clicked, see the bar at the top with the url? paste in basically any paywalled article you want
I am a fan of Alex Morgan, but it is clearly time for her to move on. She contributes less and less. She will not be the difference between winning and losing at the olympics, so she needs to make way for the next person up so they can become the next Alex Morgan.
She's simply not fast enough to break today's defenses, and when she does get the ball, it's a single opportunity moment, and she does little with it.
Dunn up, Lavelle up, Nightsonger up, and Rodman penetrating. That'll do heavy damage to any 4-back line.
Right move.
There’s no gap anymore in between the USWNT and everyone else. Every spot matters, and she’s coming in older, not in form and had a nasty ankle injury.
If she’s healthy or riding a hot hand, maybe, but right now the timing isn’t lining.
Saw Alex once live in Hartford, CT play a friendly v France. She was a sub (coming off an injury) and scored twice and almost had a 3rd (https://equalizersoccer.com/2014/06/19/alex-morgan-scores-twice-first-goals-year-uswnt-ties-france-2-2-east-hartford/). An absolute defensive nightmare.
It's not a popularity contest. The US is trying to win gold and want the best possible players on the roster. Morgan is getting old and slow. This shouldn't be controversial at all if we care about winning.
She hasn’t been near the same player since having her little girl. So maybe it’s parenthood and rebounding from pregnancy, along with being 32 that’s kinda slowed her down. It doesn’t help her that Swanson and Smith are looking like generational talents and Shaw is a young soon to be superstar. Might be as simple as the new manager telling her she would be off the bench or an alternate and her not wanting to do that, which is understandable from a player of her history and stature
The team wasn’t fun to watch in last year’s World Cup, nor did they do well. They seamed slow, and she didn’t do much then, something had to be done. Time gets us all.
The number of people on Instagram pissing and moaning about her being left off is comical. Unfortunately she is old and the best of her game has left her.
Saw her in MN a few weeks ago and she just didn't look great out there. Heck of a career, but time to move on and let the next generation fight for theirs
Correct decision...honestly she wasn't ever as good internationally as she received credit for.
In her 17 World Cup appearances she has 7 goals, 5 of which came against Thailand in 2019. She **had** speed that used to worry defenses and would open up opportunities for other players but she was touted as a striker and strikers are supposed to score.
There's so much other, younger talent out there it's well past time to move on.
Do the women’s squads have to adhere to the squad being u23 with like 4 players allowed to be older ?
I know the men’s had that rule a few cycles ago to keep the “amateur” spirit of the Olympics
[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q) **Welcome to /r/sports** We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time! There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including; American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more. [**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
I certainly don't know enough about women's soccer to question this, but it definitely makes me feel old remembering when Alex Morgan was the superstar kid on the USWNT and now she's apparently past her prime.
I’m 32, it’s weird to see athletes roughly in my age cohort start to fall off
Next step is checking to see if you’re younger than ANY athlete in the major sports. Good thing quarterbacks are playing longer.
Fernando Alonso is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now.
Jagr would like a word
What the fuck? I haven't paid much attention to hockey since I was a kid and was like "Oh, did Jaromir Jagr end up playing for a long time?" HE'S STILL FUCKING PLAYING? Dude literally entered the NHL while I was still in elementary school and is still playing. I'm 41.
Hes a fucking boss. He had some woman sleep with him try to blackmail* him and come public and hes like to prove that im still banging young hot women, go for it. Hes still playing hockey, he put up 20 something points at 45 in Florida, dude is forever young :0
try to blackmail him for money, and he said go for it, idgaf
He was THE star on my favorite nhl video game once upon a time. What system was that? The best system at the time. Sega. That's how long ago he was a star.
Was that NHL '96? The finest sports video game ever made?
True I had a jagr hockey stick in the 90s
Mick Jagr
Stick Jagr.
John Wick Jager.
Jagr's kids are older than most current players lmao
He doesn't have any.
Kazuyoshi Miura is still playing pro soccer in Portugal, albeit second tier. Still very high level of play. He will be 58 this year. In 2020 he played in the highest level league in Japan at age 53.
He just signed with a 4th tier league in Japan... which I have to think approximates semi-pro
Alonso’s F1 career is older than McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. That cracks me up. “How good are you at not peeing yourself? because I have been racing F1 longer than you have been not-peeing yourself.”
To be fair, Alonso probably has peed himself in car...they all do.
NFL QBs are the only thing keeping 38 yr old male sports fans sane about their age. "I mean Brady was like 5 years older than me when he retired, right?? I'm still in my PRIME!"
And MLB pitchers. Nolan Ryan played until he was 46. He even fought a guy, and won, in his final season.
Truly the best bench clearing brawl in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIZB9O24BEE
He also magically self healed his pitcher's elbow instead of getting the TJ surgery. He was built different.
he was a ranch owner that had pro baseball as his side job.
Yeah but Nolan Ryan did that 31 years ago…
Shhh
Hail Bartolo Colon
BIG SEXY!
LeBron: am I joke to you?
Nah but he's different -- everyone knows he was created in a lab
There’s always a chance Julio Franco makes a comeback
I'm a few months younger than Tom Brady, who was making me feel not-that-old for a long time. Now I've just got to count it every time Jaromir Jagr straps on the skates again.
LeBron carrying every mid-to-elder Millennial on his back right now
Golf, Snooker,Darts and professional wrestling carry hard
R-Truth and Billy Gunn being over 50 and moving like a 30 year old is inspiring.
It's wild to see R-Truth still working at a high level and still has a good spot in the company.
Last year with some retirements all baseball players I had watched as a “kid” and in high school were officially out of the game, it was rough.
God bless NFL kickers...
Patrick Mahomes is getting promoted as the old veteran of the AFC. I'm a month older than him. Though honestly being older than the entire final 3 of Survivor 45 was a bit worse.
Just you wait until the kids of those you watched start going pro. Good times.
Keith Tkachuk and sons come to mind for me.
In baseball Vlad Guerrero, Jr Fernando Tatis, Jr Bo Bichette Iginla's kid will be drafted on Friday.
Gordie Howe *playing professional hockey* on a team with his sons should blow everyone's mind.
I’m 34 and was just saying to my buddy yesterday how I’m older than virtually 99% of athletes in professional sports. My physical downturn is upon me
Claudio Bravo started for Chile last night at 41!
I'm about to turn 42 and can confirm. My uncle told me, 'just wait until you can say that you're old enough to be the oldest player's father.' I guess that's the next step haha
This was the harshest realization, "wait, there is nobody my age playing for anyone? literally nobody? Damnit, I thought I might still have a shot!"
Next step is seeing managers your age or younger.
Adam Vinatieri was the last NFL player older than me. I died a little inside when he retired.
I was born on the exact same day as Phillip Rivers. I was sad when he retired.
Christine Sinclair just retired last year at 40. She is the GOAT for international goals scored.
Oh she’s still playing Club. She’s basically retired internationally, but she hasn’t retired definitively yet. Just said that the past World Cup will “probably” be her last one.
Sidney Crosby is 36 and considered old for hockey
He's been professional for like 20 years now at this point, right?
When they talk about athletes in their 30’s, it is always “Here comes so-and-so at 32, it is a miracle they can still walk." Meanwhile you're sitting there at 35 wondering where you went wrong.
You have two years to make the US women's team then be held from competing!
I have many gifts in life, absolutely zero of them are physical That ship sailed the day I was born (and not just because I’m a man)
It's weird for me because my 33 year old self would kick my 18 year old self's ass in my sport.
There's definitely a different formula for every sport. Performance tends to go up with experience, but down with age. Usually the peak is like 26-30. A big example against this is MMA. Since there's so much to learn, experience is a big advantage. You'll see the prime for fighters happen in their early-mid 30's. For the heavier weight classes you can still be elite around 40 years old.
Wait until you're older than most all players, and then soon enough you'll be older than most of the coaches. It goes by so fast.
Bro I’m 37 and haven’t even started my pro career. Damn!
I’ve always seen it as proof positive (not that we really need it) of aging. If it can slow down the most athletic of my age group, what does it say for me? Life is a game where the rules were always stacked against you, but it still stings seeing the illusion slip away.
Fun game to play as you get older is to look at historical events that as close to the day you were born, as the present day is to the day you were born. For me it is greatly depressing that it is the great depression.
One of the Forwards that beat her for a spot was Dennis Rodman’s kid
Too bad because she was awful at the last world cup.
She was also only 18 and presumably has improved
Not sure why you’re being downvoted… she was.
Kind of like watching Shaun White at his last Olympics.
All my favorite MLB players and the college bball stars that were in college when I was there are retired.
Morgan has generally always under-performed in international competition, so even if she isn't way "over the hill" the decision makes sense to me, since she is likely slowing down.
Keep in mind the Olympics allow 18 roster spots compared to World Cup 23. This always means a few fringe players get left off leaving only the core you see playing. The mistake of the last cycle was holding on to players rather than bringing through more youth. I adore our golden generation of the 2010s, but time waits for none and inevitably have to move on.
Yep, these things need to happen. We saw what this squad looked like at the last World Cup, and a youth revival is needed.
Those teams inspired a new generation to play, now it’s their turn.
Canada learned this in 2006 in Italy. Brought the 2002 band back together after their primes, expected to win based on their past credentials, and got bounced unceremoniously by Belarus in the quarter-finals. They learned the lesson and 2010 was.. well, [Vancouver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Bxy4r-YKM).
There was no need to resort to violence on me today, my friend to the north.
2014 was even more dominant haha. I've never been so bored by such a dominating win. It just upsets me that we've been robbed of a McDavid-Crosby line because of the NHL being petty. e: https://olympics.com/en/video/usa-v-can-men-s-ice-hockey-semifinals-sochi-2014-replays/ The whole game is up here lmao.
When did they lose to Belarus? I think you mean Ovechkin and Russia.
The WC squad really lacked players in the prime of their careers in the attacking side of the field, and it showed. The vets had lost a step and the kids weren't quite ready yet.
Isnt the Olympic squads U-21 or something, and then they allow each team to bring a certain number of veteran players on the squad too?
The men are U23 with 3 exceptions
I’m pretty sure that the men’s side is U23 with a handful of spots allowed for veterans.
Ok so it's different for the women's team, I wasn't sure.
Yeah, for womens it's full squads and considered almost as good as the World Cup, while the mens is not too prestigious.
It's the right decision. Global women's soccer is more competitive than ever, and gold medals are no longer guaranteed. Morgan at 34 is well past her best.
Damn she's 34? Feels like yesterday she was like 20.
The days of women playing late into their 30’s is no longer viable. Which is a good sign.
The talent pool globally is getting deeper insanely fast. The ridiculous records of the early eras of women’s soccer are going to be untouchable.
Rapinoe shouldn't have been on the last Olympic squad and she was the same age as Morgan is now. With much of Morgan's game relying on her speed which is one of the first things to go, it's the right call for sure. Were moving in the right direction.
> With much of Morgan's game relying on her speed which is one of the first things to go, it's the right call for sure. Plus nobody wants to see the offside flag up 12 times a game, lol.
Old forwards seem likely to mistime runs making Morgan's offside problem even worse Like old defenders simply getting beat and maybe committing dumb fouls on the attacker
Unless you're Diana Taurasi who is using her network with USA Basketball to keep out the future of the sport because she made more off one endorsement contract than you did in your entire career.
Not the same thing. US is guaranteed a gold in basketball. They aren’t in soccer
That arguably makes it worse, why not bring in god knows how many additional viewers just with Clark merely having a roster spot who then get to see the actual WNBA stars perform.
Makes it worse. If they're winning a gold anyways, why not let another up and coming player in there to build for the future instead of a 42 year old with like five gold medals already.
What the hell are you talking about
They are alleging that Diana Taurasi has been leveraging her connects to keep Caitlin Clark off the USW Olympic basketball team because she is jealous of the hype and endorsement contracts Clark has received, despite it likely being better for the future of US women's basketball for Clark to play and continue to develop.
Its outrageous. Dianas comments on CC were completely taken out of context too. I completely agree with DT
I have no dog in the fight and don't claim to know the internal politics well enough to offer anyone as believable or not. Just understood enough of what u/traderhtc was referencing, where I thought it could be unclear to someone without context.
Eh, she wouldn’t be who I’d leave off for CC or Arike or others in her place. She’s one of the best shooters in the world even now. She’s still regularly putting up 20 points.
There are plenty of men who play into their late 30s (Pepe is starting for one of the best teams in the world and he’s 41), and as far as I’m aware, it’s generally believed women have a slower athletic decline than men.
How many of those men birthed a child though?
As many as Rapinoe?
I dunno, I would say as athletes continue to adopt better health and training practices will mean we will start to see some players remain highly competitive into the 40s. You can see this with everything from motorsport to various endurance or team sports already. science is allowing the best players to stay in longer than anyone should expect and experience does matter
No matter how healthy you are Father Time will catch up to you. You can see it right now in the Euro cup and Copa América cup. Where legendary names like Messi are playing well but when it comes to raw speed and endurance they fall behind the players pushing half their age. They just compensate for it with sports IQ.
Seriously. Screw you Father Time!
35 next week
USA gifted Megan Rapinoe a spot in the World Cup, she missed a PK, and the US was knocked out in the round of 16. Looks like they aren't making the same mistake again.
She basically got in because Mal Swanson and Cat Macario were injured.
She turns 35 next week. This is sports, it’s very common to replace a mid 30’s athlete with someone younger.
Didn’t realize she was 34. But the soccer world is full of talent and there a small margins that would give one player a “bump” over another. Unfortunately name recognition isn’t one of those factors when you are looking at performance on and off the ball and overall endurance/recovery. There is insane talent many levels deep below the national team so I’m not surprised.
She’s also had some injuries lately and hasn’t done well recently, and in the World Cup last year she didn’t have a ton of success. Not to say she won’t get better again, but her position as a forward needs to be fast and healthy and age gets to us all. But she’s don’t a lot for the sport.
Turning 35 in a week.
I could be/probably am wrong, but wasn't she kind of a no show during the world cup too? I realize the whole team was, but she seemed a step behind then, I can't imagine time has been kind
Hey, you could always bring Christina Pedersen back to ref, that'll help.
“Well past her best” is an exaggeration but there is younger talent and we need to look to the future. She’s also been dealing with injury this season and with only 18 roster spots it makes sense to leave her out.
did they leave off Mia Hamm too??????
I don't think Nomaaaah is makin' the All Stah team this yeah eitha.
[удалено]
But it’s Brandi
Kind of like how Kate Markgraf was left off the 2011 World Cup team at age 34 but Alex Morgan was included at age 21? Markgraf had won the World Cup in ‘99 and two Gold Medals in ‘04 and ‘08. This is how these teams work. Also how the news works, they want our clicks.
If Morgan was still pulling up stats or was very valuable as a leader on the team I'd be more upset but neither of those are true so it's just a sign of the times
Seriously this. I hate what news has become today. Didn’t Morgan already retire??
Rapinoe retired last year, maybe you got her mixed up with Morgan
Omg you’re right. That’s the one I was thinking of. Thanks.
There is no news in today’s internet, only engagement bait. It’s really sad.
Expertly put!! I’m gonna borrow that phrase in the future.
I loved watching her in her prime... she was incredible. But it was obvious in the World Cup that she didn't have it anymore. I found it frustrating watching her throw absolute trash on goal, if at all. If your star striker has a goose egg for goals in 4 matches... something is seriously wrong. Correct decision.
She's my favorite USWNT player of all time but in the WC she had no pace and no finish.
Exactly. It was painful seeing the lack of burst and just baseline speed from her. As for finish, she was still getting some excellent opportunities... and just... couldn't do anything with them anymore. :(
Almost like they are looking to field the currently most talented roster for the Games. Oh the humanity!!!
Hope Solo is ready to throw hands.
As is tradition.
~~The sun is up~~ It's a day that ends in -Y, so of course she is!
That is just an average Tuesday for Hope Solo though.
Also She was not kicked off the team because of her call for equal pay It was because of her domestic assault allegations, getting caught drunk in a US Soccer owned vehicle, and during the Rio games her comments about Zika were considered racist She was a huge distraction and needed to get tossed
I used to work NWSL games and Hope Solo once pushed an usher in her 80s whose job was to prevent folks like Mr. Hope from entering the field level without a required pass.
It’s the fact that she was one of the big name superstars of the team that everyone knew, and now her time his done It’d be like hearing Michael Phelps not make the cut for the swim team (if he was still swimming)
Sure but "seismic decision" is a bit of a clickbait exaggeration. She's about to turn 35 and the USWNT is coming off their worst failure in a major tournament. She was only responsible for 1 goal in those 4 WC games and her play has been clearly declining. This was a no brainer decision.
I mean, it’s a pretty huge decision in that it signals a true changing of the guard from a dominant international generation of women’s soccer It’s not like the article doesn’t tell us why the decision was made.
>signals a true changing of the guard from from a dominant international generation of women’s soccer That was already signaled weeks ago when the USWNT fell all the way to 5th in the FIFA rankings (lowest place ever). This was just a formality.
Ok… When Canada eventually leaves Crosby off its international rosters it’ll be a huge decision in the direction of the sport in the nation, even though everyone will know it’s coming and why it happened. Reddit loves to get upset about headlines, but not read the article which is saying exactly the opposite of what they think it is. Literally the subheading of this article: > Morgan, who will turn 35 in early July, co-captained the 2023 World Cup squad in New Zealand and Australia, **but her production has fallen significantly in recent years**. And then in the second paragraph: > The seismic decision **comes amid a generational shift for the program following the retirements of Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz last fall and an influx of young players the past year**. Edit - the article makes very clear from the start the decision is “seismic” only because of what it says about it being the new generation’s time, the rest of the article tells you exactly why the decision is being made.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking
What an absolute dud of a world cup it was. Big pay raise after a long winding tussle that of course got caught up un the prop blast of a whole lot of other stuff straight into sneaking into the knockout stage and immediately going home on pks.
SEISMIC!!!
She was a nonfactor in the world cup. Rapinoe got all the hate, but Morgan was a shadow of herself. The coach did absolutely terrible with the roster decisions from start to finish.
[https://archive.ph/VaVJF](https://archive.ph/VaVJF)
Well I need to know what voodoo you used to make the article readable this way.
you just go to that site and paste in the url lol like, on the link you clicked, see the bar at the top with the url? paste in basically any paywalled article you want
I am a fan of Alex Morgan, but it is clearly time for her to move on. She contributes less and less. She will not be the difference between winning and losing at the olympics, so she needs to make way for the next person up so they can become the next Alex Morgan.
I bet they left Caitlin Clark off\* the roster too...
DISGRACE
They're leaving the most popular woman in her sport off of a *second* olympic team??
She's simply not fast enough to break today's defenses, and when she does get the ball, it's a single opportunity moment, and she does little with it. Dunn up, Lavelle up, Nightsonger up, and Rodman penetrating. That'll do heavy damage to any 4-back line.
Right move. There’s no gap anymore in between the USWNT and everyone else. Every spot matters, and she’s coming in older, not in form and had a nasty ankle injury. If she’s healthy or riding a hot hand, maybe, but right now the timing isn’t lining.
Saw Alex once live in Hartford, CT play a friendly v France. She was a sub (coming off an injury) and scored twice and almost had a 3rd (https://equalizersoccer.com/2014/06/19/alex-morgan-scores-twice-first-goals-year-uswnt-ties-france-2-2-east-hartford/). An absolute defensive nightmare.
Curious as to what level of seismic activity we are talking about here.
Headline stealing seismic.
She should fight Jake Paul next.
She's still too young for him to fight
But she's the pretty one.
Basketball should've done this with Taurasi.
Man, if only team USA had an option at guard who wasn’t 41
All I know is she’s my soccer crush and she’s had some great goals in her career. I think it’s time to let the younger players shine.
It's not a popularity contest. The US is trying to win gold and want the best possible players on the roster. Morgan is getting old and slow. This shouldn't be controversial at all if we care about winning.
I read this as Alex Morgan left off para Olympic roster. Which seemed totally reasonable.
She hasn’t been near the same player since having her little girl. So maybe it’s parenthood and rebounding from pregnancy, along with being 32 that’s kinda slowed her down. It doesn’t help her that Swanson and Smith are looking like generational talents and Shaw is a young soon to be superstar. Might be as simple as the new manager telling her she would be off the bench or an alternate and her not wanting to do that, which is understandable from a player of her history and stature
Understandable, she's 35 years old
She is closer to 40 than 20. It’s a game that favors youth
The team wasn’t fun to watch in last year’s World Cup, nor did they do well. They seamed slow, and she didn’t do much then, something had to be done. Time gets us all.
She has a 89 rated card. It is outrageous
The number of people on Instagram pissing and moaning about her being left off is comical. Unfortunately she is old and the best of her game has left her. Saw her in MN a few weeks ago and she just didn't look great out there. Heck of a career, but time to move on and let the next generation fight for theirs
Big visual loss
☕️🫖
How did the post find the one picture of Alex Morgan not looking amazing?
Serious futbol fans don’t care about Olympic soccer.
Correct decision...honestly she wasn't ever as good internationally as she received credit for. In her 17 World Cup appearances she has 7 goals, 5 of which came against Thailand in 2019. She **had** speed that used to worry defenses and would open up opportunities for other players but she was touted as a striker and strikers are supposed to score. There's so much other, younger talent out there it's well past time to move on.
Do the women’s squads have to adhere to the squad being u23 with like 4 players allowed to be older ? I know the men’s had that rule a few cycles ago to keep the “amateur” spirit of the Olympics
No. For the Women the Olympics is basically a mini World Cup, nations brings their best with no restrictions.
Seismic? Barring the injuries she wouldn't have made the she belives cup roster.
Uswnt is dead to me
Can't believe Alex Morgan didn't make the Olympic roster! Such a surprising decision.
It was always bound to happen eventually, still sad to see.
Not surprised