Off the Post - Women's Soccer news and opinions

Off The Post is a podcast for women's soccer enthusiasts! Media, news, opinions, and fun banter about the USWNT, NWSL, and now the WPSL. Our panelists: DJ RedCap, Courtney, Jen, Jake, Jenn, Danika, Danielle, Jacqui, and Karen.

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Off the Post update!

Friends of Off the Post, As you probably have noticed, things have been pretty quiet on the OTP front most of the season. We were all SO excited for another season of the show and had hopes of making improvements, having awesome guests and continuing the conversation with you all about all things Women's Soccer. Unfortunately, sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to. Sometimes life gets in the way and plans change and ideas just stay as ideas. We all very much enjoyed getting to do the shows we did this season, but it wasn't quite the same, nor the same quality of what we have done in the past. A lot has happened with the show and the amount of time and effort required to maintain the format of Off the Post that helped it gain the support that it did, is something we aren't able to maintain right now. That being said, we are sadly announcing that we will not be making any new episodes of Off the Post. Don't worry, though, you aren't getting rid of us that easily. While it has become difficult for us to continue with Off the Post in its known format, we all still LOVE talking soccer with each other, and with all of you and want to continue doing so. We played with the idea with creating a new format for Off the Post and keeping the name and everything, but after talking with Mr. DJ Red Cap himself, all decided it would be better to start fresh. We also wanted to keep Off the Post, and all the accounts that are associated with it, as sort of an archive that people can go back and re-watch if they want. We very much appreciate all of you who have supported and interacted with us over the last few years, and wanted to keep those memories and records of OTP there for everyone to enjoy if they want while also, (hopefully) checking us out on our new accounts.    New accounts? That's right! Though we are sad to not be continuing with Off the Post, we are very excited to announce our new podcast From the Stands! All of us have become really greats friends from doing Off the Post and we wanted to make a show where we can just hang out as buds and talk soccer! Yes, we did a lot of this on Off the Post and that's ultimately what it ended up as, but Off the Post, at least for most of it's run, focused on having special guests, and interviews and following a specific format and this isn't necessarily going to be like that. That's not to say we will never have special guests on or have more of a formal format, but for the most part, its just going to be a group of friends casually chatting soccer. Some of the feedback we received from Off the Post was that people liked the dynamic between us, and felt like they could be friends with any of us. We are going to be tackling women's soccer from the perspective of fans and we still want fellow fans to interact with us via the chat during the show. Did we mention that our first show is on TUESDAY? That's right. Tuesday October 3, 6:30pm ET the kickoff of From the Stands! 

You can find us here:  Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook We appreciate all of you who have supported Off the Post and hope you'll follow us over to From the Stands. We understand that the more informal format might not be for everyone, but hope you'll check out at least check out a few episodes. Hope to catch you all soon! - Off the Post Crew

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Hi all!

We just wanted to make sure everyone was caught up on the situation from a few days ago with our Twitter account and Backline Soccer.

We have control of the account now. How it is used in the future will be up to the OTP panelists from here on out.

For the time being, we will not be live tweeting matches or updating on NWSL scores from that account. 

Again, we’d like to thank everyone who has expressed concern and support. First and foremost, OTP was/is/will always be a fan-driven enterprise (if you can even call it an enterprise!) and it means a lot to us that people came to our aid so quickly and vehemently.

Thanks, everyone.

Really.

We’re down but we’re definitely not out. 

-OTP panelists

[kriegerfeverlife]

Eni Aluko: ‘The minute you are brave enough to talk about race you are in a difficult situation’

In a revealing interview, the striker opens up on her problems with the Football Association after telling the organisation about what she felt was ‘discrimination, victimisation and bullying’ in the England camp

Race, for some reason, is this taboo subject that everyone avoids talking about. The minute you are brave enough to talk about race, you are in a difficult situation. That in itself is discrimination: the mere fact I am in this position. I probably can’t play for England again. I’ve lost my England career despite being the leading scorer in the league last season.

I believe all these things are happening because it’s a conversation about race and this is a big problem in the world right now. Herman Ouseley [the chairman of Kick It Out] said it. On the pitch there are clear punishments when it comes to issues involving race. Behind closed doors we don’t know the FA processes.

We do know The Player has not been picked since this incident. Lianne Sanderson hasn’t been picked since she complained about why her 50th cap was forgotten on the same trip that the 100th cap of a white player was remembered. Lianne asked: ‘Why me?’ The 50th cap is a customary celebration. It’s standard. There is a presentation in front of the team and you have a special shirt with ‘50th cap’ written on it. It’s a big deal. She asked why she had been forgotten and she hasn’t been picked since.

Anita Asante disappeared without trace despite playing for one of the best teams in Europe. Danielle Carter scored two hat-tricks for England and doesn’t get picked any more – why? There are lots of national teams that are very white, not just England, and I’d hate to say we should be picked because we’re black or mixed race. But are we all bad characters? Are we all terrible players? That’s the question I think people need to be asking because a pattern is emerging here, as clear as day, and my belief is that it’s a culture.

I was under no illusion people didn’t like me and that FA staff and players were almost encouraged not to like me. A perception was created around me that ‘she’s a troublemaker, she’s a know-it-all’ or ‘a pain in the arse’, as was said by Mark Sampson after I’d scored a hat-trick in one game. There are other players who have scored hat-tricks for England and they weren’t addressed as a pain in the arse. So why was I? That, I believe, is the definition of bullying – insults, in derogatory terms, directed at one individual with the intention to undermine them in a group of people. Unfortunately that is one of many examples.

For months one member of staff used to talk to me in a fake Caribbean accent. He thought it was OK to do that, he thought it was funny. I believe he was empowered to do that because of the culture. We pleaded it [in submissions to the FA] but they chose to ignore it.

Yes, in a football environment industrial language is used. I’ve been at Chelsea five years and been the butt of many jokes. And I give it back sometimes. That is the beauty of team spirit in a healthy dressing room. I’m not a sensitive, precious person. I’ve been in the [England] team for 11 years, I’ve been through ups and downs. I’ve played for boys’ teams. I’ve played for Chelsea, at the top level, and I’ve been dropped by Chelsea before but I can recognise something toxic when I see it. This is a culture that has systematically dismissed certain players. There is lots of talk about being the most together team in the world – I’ve truly never felt so isolated as I was in that team between 2014 and 2016.

[ceephattyvibes]

a complete list of unproblematic woso journos:

  thrace

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Message from Off the Post:

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Can't you guys take action with twitter or legally? I mean you guys did invest money. If y'all have a website you need to air these frauds out.

We don’t have a website or anything. We just had our social media accounts and our Youtube account.

She found the OTP twitter account again and gave it back to us. So we have it now. It is ours again. And she’s issuing apologies to us as I type. 

Legal action isn’t necessary. There’s no money tied up in this at all. It was just that we felt like we got backstabbed in the worst way by all of this. And, frankly, hijacked. This isn’t a monetary thing for us, we didn’t do OTP for glory. None of us were doing this to become WoSo famous or anything like that. And we didn’t have making money anywhere near our goals in doing this.

We were just trying to have fun.

So it feels extra hurtful and frustrating that this happened. We’ve all decided to brush our hands of it, however. None of us want to damage Backline Soccer in any way, but people need to know what went on. Full truth. That was our goal. And hopefully any writers who’ve given Backline Soccer their work don’t feel like we mean them any ill will. 

-Kraken

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Announcement to all of our followers:

We’ve been away for a bit, and while we were away one of our members decided, without consulting any of the other members, to steal our twitter account and the followers we amassed, and make it into a Backline offshoot account. Super cool and not backhanded at all, right?

This decision was made without input from DJ who actually created and built Off the Post, so needless to say, the rest of us aren’t pleased right now.

That said, I still have control of this account. 

So buckle up.

[victorianoir]

Update: The Off The Post twitter account is deactivated.

Now nobody has it. And all of those followers we all worked hard to get are gone. Sorry to anyone who followed Off The Post and woke up this morning to find it was something else altogether.

Only one person had a hand in that. Without consulting the rest of us, and without telling Backline Soccer the truth about the matter.

That said, the ethical thing would have been to START YOUR OWN ACCOUNT, Backline Soccer. Start your own account for live tweeting WoSo matches. Don’t take another organization’s domain just because they already have followers. That’s so incredibly unethical and unprofessional, whether you thought OTP panelists/owners were onboard or not.  

Also, DJ RedCap created and built Off The Post. He did the work to get it off the ground, he got our special guests, he did the contests and put his own money into buying gifts for fans of the show. It doesn’t matter if OTP has been silent for a bit … THAT is the person you go to for stuff like this. Not some random OTP panelist who tweets from the account every so often. You go to the original creator and owner. You do some extra digging, you ask more than one person. 

But why y’all couldn’t just make your own account and instead thought it was totally find to use another organization’s twitter account, without alerting OTP followers and fans to this, makes the Backline Soccer organization look pretty bad. I’m officially backing away and unsubscribing from any and all Backline Soccer accounts, and staying out of that entire realm of WoSo fandom from here on out. This was just BADLY DONE.

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Further update:

The account wasn’t just deactivated. It was done so in a way that we can never retrieve it again. The password Backline Soccer used was made through a random generator and it was attached to a dead email account. Now it will be impossible to retrieve.

Here’s what it looks like to me:

Backline Soccer wanted use of our account that seemed like it wasn’t getting much activity, but it still had 1000+ followers, so they thought they’d snag it. Instead of creating their own account. When the OTP panelists found out, we were like “Nuh uh no. Not at all. Excuse me? No.” We received apologies and the assurance that BS thought we were all agreed on it. (Which I believe, but that doesn’t mean the rest of it was ethical.) 

Annoyed that we called everything out, they made OTP’s twitter account disappear in a way that we’d never be able to get it back again. It looks a lot like spite. And we’re pretty angry over here.

Honestly, this is infuriating and seriously unprofessional and unethical. Backline Soccer needs to reevaluate the way they function and interact with other members of the WoSo community. This is just really, really bad. 

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Announcement to all of our followers:

We’ve been away for a bit, and while we were away one of our members decided, without consulting any of the other members, to steal our twitter account and the followers we amassed, and make it into a Backline offshoot account. Super cool and not backhanded at all, right?

This decision was made without input from DJ who actually created and built Off the Post, so needless to say, the rest of us aren’t pleased right now.

That said, I still have control of this account. 

So buckle up.

[victorianoir]

Update: The Off The Post twitter account is deactivated.

Now nobody has it. And all of those followers we all worked hard to get are gone. Sorry to anyone who followed Off The Post and woke up this morning to find it was something else altogether.

Only one person had a hand in that. Without consulting the rest of us, and without telling Backline Soccer the truth about the matter.

That said, the ethical thing would have been to START YOUR OWN ACCOUNT, Backline Soccer. Start your own account for live tweeting WoSo matches. Don’t take another organization’s domain just because they already have followers. That’s so incredibly unethical and unprofessional, whether you thought OTP panelists/owners were onboard or not.  

Also, DJ RedCap created and built Off The Post. He did the work to get it off the ground, he got our special guests, he did the contests and put his own money into buying gifts for fans of the show. It doesn’t matter if OTP has been silent for a bit … THAT is the person you go to for stuff like this. Not some random OTP panelist who tweets from the account every so often. You go to the original creator and owner. You do some extra digging, you ask more than one person. 

But why y’all couldn’t just make your own account and instead thought it was totally find to use another organization’s twitter account, without alerting OTP followers and fans to this, makes the Backline Soccer organization look pretty bad. I’m officially backing away and unsubscribing from any and all Backline Soccer accounts, and staying out of that entire realm of WoSo fandom from here on out. This was just BADLY DONE.

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Announcement to all of our followers:

We’ve been away for a bit, and while we were away one of our members decided, without consulting any of the other members, to steal our twitter account and the followers we amassed, and make it into a Backline offshoot account. Super cool and not backhanded at all, right?

This decision was made without input from DJ who actually created and built Off the Post, so needless to say, the rest of us aren’t pleased right now.

That said, I still have control of this account. 

So buckle up.

[pressquad]

megan rapinoe’s goal vs houston

[nwslfever]

NWSL 2017 - Week 3 Matches.

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Here are our Week 3 predictions!!!!!!

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

We’re talking about Week 2 in NWSL action at 7pm ET/4pm PT! Live! Right here!!

Join us as we dish on all of the matches that occurred and make our predictions for this weekend’s Week 3 action! 

[thewosooffthepost-blog]

Here’s our episode covering Week 1 action in the 5th season of NWSL!!!!

Show starts at 7pm ET/4pm PT!

Hayes and Kraken will be talking about Week 1 matches, about Mal Pugh leaving UCLA to become pro, and anything else they decide to bring up. (Let’s face it; they’re both chatty. :| )

[music899]

[fiftythreecrimes]

good news for international NWSL fans

[kriegerfeverlife]

It started. Informative.