When we signed Roord I honestly thought she would be the missing link that took us to another level. Then came her injury! I am still sad by this because there is no doubt when she is 100% fit she is one of the best goal scoring midfielders in the women's game. I did notice in her last few appearances she was checking out of contact tackles - I assumed it to be a hang over from her ACL injury but perhaps she knew she was off to new pastures. I do remember when we signed her she had a reputation of only staying at a club for a short time.
Moving forward I have to hope that Theresa has a bigger plan and that a new coach is already aware of squad building. Last season we lacked a strong presence in the middle and just relied on Yui to do everything. Park and Coombs are nowhere near being the answer in the middle and we were so exposed to transitions and pace. I live in hope that we move forward and have identified signings already - in midfield Oyama for example looks a decent prospect but again doesn't look powerful enough to build around Yui. Even this 7's tournament showed that the best teams are powerful and play aggressively - we didn't and were exposed, ultimately losing games with similar errors that have plagued the season just gone.
If the club stick with Cushing or similar and continue to play the same way - that is possession first backwards orientated with the keeper being the out ball all the time I think we may as well give up. On the other hand if letting go a player who clearly sees a future elsewhere is part of a plan to sign some really top talent with a dynamic thinking coach then I'm all in.
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