The Beat Goes On!

And now it is time to check in once again on my new hometown football club, the Atlanta Beat. That's the Atlanta Beat of the recently formed league known as 'Women's Pro Soccer' (WPS). Yes, I support a women's team. Got a problem with that? I hope not.

The Beat are what is called an 'expansion' team, meaning that they are currently being created out of whole cloth to compete in the WPS's second season beginning in Spring of 2010. This is being accomplished through a series of special drafts and free agent players. The first draft, a special 'expansion' draft, was reported about in a previous post (see The Beat is Back!). Last week the next stage, something called the 'international draft,' took place.

Although 'drafts' are a regular feature in all American pro sports leagues, even I struggled to figure out just how this one worked. It seems WPS rules allow each club to sign five international players, and the draft would allow the Beat (and fellow expansion club Philadelphia Independence) to fill these slots. As the WPS is the new global force in women's football I figured that it must mean they were to chose from a pool of players from around the world who had put themselves forward to leave their home countries and come and play in the States. Oh how wrong I was.

The Beat and the Independence were allowed, in fact, to select absolutely any international player in the world not already attached to another WPS club. This would not make them Atlanta Beat players automatically, though. The Beat would be in only obtaining the WPS 'rights' to the players. It would still be up to them to approach the player's club and the player themselves to negotiate a transfer just as it happens in the rest of the football world. All the Beat would be gaining, in effect, was a chance to try and sign foreign players without competition from other WPS clubs. Would that be meaningful enough to matter?

Even though it is only one season old, the WPS has already established itself as the premier women's league in the world. Anyone who paid attention to England's steady progression to the European Championships final would have noticed that its best players were registered with WPS clubs. Before last season the Los Angeles Sol were able to tempt away the world's best woman player (a Brazilian named Marta) from one of the world's top women's clubs (two times Champions League winners Umeå IK). It is early days, but the WPS on the road to being what the English Premiership is to the international men's game.

Speaking of Umeå IK, the Atlanta Beat obviously admire their program. Just take at look at the Beat's five picks in order from the international draft: Ramona Bachmann (nationality: Swiss, club: Umeå IK), Johanna Rasumussen (nationality: Danish, club: Umeå IK), Mami Yamaguchi (nationality: Japanese, club: Umeå IK), Maurine Dornelles Goncalves (nationality: Brazilian, club: Santos FC), and Therese Sjögran (nationality: Swedish, club: Malmö FF). So, basically, the Beat are hoping to pick off three of Umeå's top players. Umeå is a world powerhouse in womens' football. I can just imagine how eagerly the Umeå manager awaited a call from Atlanta as soon as he heard the news. It would be sort of like calling up Alex Ferguson and saying, 'I know you haven't heard of us before, but we would like to sign Rooney, Giggs and Ferdinand if you don't mind.' I could be wrong, but somehow I doubt the Beat are going to come away with all three.

I expressed my doubts to Atlanta Beat General Manager Shawn McGee, who (much to my shock) responded: 'We have done our due diligence by talking to players, coaches, and teams to select the players that certainly want to be in Atlanta and who are excited to play in the WPS.' I was very impressed to get an answer at all, but I don't think Mr. McGee was telling me the whole story. Why should he? I'm just some strange blogger living in England.

The reason I have my doubts is that the Beat have yesterday announced the signing of Mexican international Monica Ocampo. According to the press releases she is one of the top women's players in the world. She was a finalist for FIFA women's player of the year in 2006! It appears to be a real coup, and a welcome attacking option to what so far has been a primarily defensive lineup.

What is not clear, though, is why if Ocampo is so fantastic was shy playing the W-League (second division) last year, or why she was not one of the five international players chosen by the Beat last week (to be fair this could be because of some rule I am not aware of as I find some of the WPS regulations to be as Byzantine as anything the FA has ever come up with)? Is this signing to make up for one of the draft picks turning the Beat down? Ramona Bachmann was always going to be tricky as she turned down another WPS club last year.

To be honest, I'm not going to worry about it much. As any Bath City supporter can tell you, the signing of any accomplished striker is reason enough to celebrate. In another unexpected email response I got word from Atlanta Beat head coach Gareth O'Sullivan that he anticipates, 'playing with an attacking style.' Here is the first definite sign that he is going to get what he wants. Is it okay for Umeå IK to relax now? Probably not yet, but I will be letting you know.

And let's hear it for the Atlanta Beat management team, especially Media Relations Manager Christa Mann! Could they be any nicer? Everyone from Atlanta is amazing, actually. Just ask us.