U.S. Soccer releases list of players available for NWSL allocation

Ultimately, the list was 55 players long: 16 each from Mexico and Canada; 23 from the United States. They’re the players that will be allocated to the eight teams who’ll start National Women’s Soccer League this spring, with the full player dispersal to be announced by U.S. Soccer on Friday.

These are the 55 players that the three federations are sponsoring in NWSL. In addition to being the league’s best players, they’ll be free to the clubs.

They’ll also be the core around which the new franchises market their teams, the main reason this allocation is so important. Wins and losses always matter, but the league’s teams need players they can build around, on the field and off.

All the big names made the list: Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Abby Wambach – the entire U.S. Olympic team (even Lyon’s Megan Rapinoe). Canada’s Christine Sinclair is also on the list, though the biggest absence may be one of Sinclair’s teammates. Although striker Melissa Trancredi hopes to rejoin the Canadian national team before the 2015 World Cup (being hosted in Canada), the 30-year-old is taking time off to go back to school.

From Wednesday’s announcement:

The allocation process will be conducted with assistance from a panel of experts familiar with the player pool, including individuals from the collegiate level, recent professional and semi-professional clubs, and the youth and senior national team level in North America.

Along with the panel’s collective input on the technical ability of the players, in preparation for the allocation, players have selected their preferred destinations and the clubs have provided their preference with regard to specific players and qualities of players desired. Based on the input from the panel of experts and teams, players will be assigned numerical values on quality and desirability.

“The allocation will provide each club with a foundation of talent to build a competitive roster,” said NWSL Executive Director Cheryl Bailey. “Ultimately, the goal is to pair the teams and players in such a way that we achieve a fair distribution of talent across all eight teams. This is another important step as we continue to build towards the inaugural season of the National Women’s Soccer League. We are looking forward to sharing this news with our fans in the coming days.”

Bailey’s quote is key. Since the NWSL was announced there’s been a small debate about which direction allocation would go. Would they bend to player preferences (leaving the Pacific Northwest teams end up being stacked)? Or would they opt to spread the talent out?

They’re going to spread it out. Player preferences are being considered, so the northwest teams are going to get big names. But “fair distribution of talent” is pretty clear.

Don’t expect to see all of Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, and Christine Sinclair in Portland. And don’t expect Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, and Sydney Leroux in Seattle.

In the interim, have fun with your mock allocations. You have less than two days to try to get it right. Put three Americans, two Canadians, and two Mexicans on each team. Balance the positions and star power, and if you know anything about possible player or team preferences, be sure to take those into account (and if you don’t, just spend the next day searching Twitter).

The following 55 players are going to be spread out among Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Portland, Seattle, Sky Blue, Washington, and Western New York: