Allocation Eve

By: Billy | September 15th, 2008

I don’t know about you, but I feel a little bit like an 8 year old on Christmas Eve. I just can’t wait to see what Tonya Clause and her elves/the coaches are gonna bring to DC. Ok, that was a little corny, but allocation is finally almost here! The allocation results will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th, at 12:30 p.m. You can follow the allocation on the WPS website.

For those of you who don’t know, the allocation process proceeded like this: the players in the national team pool submitted their top three choices and the teams each submitted their top three player wishes. A committee will look at the lists and take into account the marketing concerns before submitting a proposed list of three players to each team. The team can then reject one player, who will go back onto the allocation board for another team to select. After that another board will meet to finalize the picks and Tonya Antonucchi will give her approval. After the allocation the Board of Governors will weigh the teams and decide the order for the international draft, which will take place next week.

I really wish I could be a fly on the wall in those meetings; it is going to be interesting to see how the different coaches’ styles and philosophies affect their selections. Fortunately for us, Jim Gabarra has been through this before, as he was the coach of the Freedom during the WUSA’s infant stages. He’s been waiting for this for years, I have no doubt that he’ll be more than adequately prepared for the allocation. Of course, I’m also glad we have an actual coach. Teams like Bay Area are going to have to hope that when they do find a coach he or she will mesh well with the players he or she did not have a hand in picking.

Also, I haven’t heard a lot about players putting DC on their wishlist, but Carli Lloyd has us as her second choice behind Chicago.

So cross your fingers that we’ll do well and tune in for more info