Kelly Smith: FIFA Player of the Year 2009
No one in the world will have a chance to beat out "England's Golden Girl" (props to Ian Hector for the nickname). This is how she will win (if I omit anything, especially from the Ladies' EPL, please fill it in!):
-- The 2008/2009 Arsenal Ladies were undefeated when she left to join Boston. She scored a hat trick in the 5-0 demolition of Doncaster for the FA League Cup, Kelly's farewell performance for Arsenal fans. In 65 appearances for Arsenal from 2005-2009, she scored 71 goals.
-- As England's most prolific and iconic womens' player, Kelly Smith doesn't disappoint. In qualifying for Euro '09, she helped the Three Lionesses to 6 wins, 2 draws and no losses, which put them to the top of the table. The summer tournament will be held in Finland, and England have become a favorite with their championship at the Cyprus Cup in March. A third-place finish, at the least, will be England's best finish in the Euro tournament since it's inception in 1984. (As I am one to speculate, England and Sweden will join Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and France in the knock-out stages. To further speculate, the final will be a group rematch of England and Sweden. Germany has proven itself vunerable since the last WWC, with a "poor" showing at the Beijing Olympics for only the bronze medal, Birgit Prinz's recent injuries and Renate Lingor's retirement, Silvia Neid has her work cut out for her.)
-- Since arriving in Boston to join the Breakers organization, Kelly Smith has unleashed a beast. No, not anything from an RPG like Final Fantasy, but the beast within herself. Many of her Arsenal fans speak of her kindness, shyness and selflessness, but in her first WPS game against FC Gold Pride, her new Breakers and American fans have seen something else Arsenal fans have known for years: hunger, flair, craftiness and a short temper on the field. Her equalizing goal at Buck Shaw Stadium showed her penchant for disturbing defenders and her left foot put away a goal worthy of comparison by no one. Kelly also had spats with a Gold Pride player (maybe spat is the wrong word; tussle might be better) and an assistant referee, the latter resulting in Kelly punching the corner flag. With her first goal put away that day, she hasn't stopped scoring. Kelly leads the league with four goals, one in every game she's played in, including the first converted penalty kick against Washington, and the fastest goal scored, two minutes into the game against the previously undefeated LA Sol last weekend.
-- Kelly's playing has not gone unnoticed by the league, the fans or by reporters from Goal.com, ESPN, USA Today, Fox Sports or the Daily Mail. She was voted Player of the Week for week three in April after scoring a goal and providing an assist against St. Louis, resulting in a 2-0 win for Boston. Her absence was thoroughly felt in Boston's 4-0 loss to Chicago Red Stars, when she was rested after helping England thrash Norway in a pre-Euro '09 friendly contest. At the end of April, Kelly Smith was named Player of the Month by an overwhelming vote over LA and Brazil star Marta, and has vaulted her into the favorite and front-runner for WPS Player of the Year.
-- Kelly has a weekly column for the UK's Daily Mail Online, and if you haven't read any of them, you are missing out! She gives herself zero credit for any of her on-field triumphs, whole-heartedly plays up team work for Boston and England's winning ways and she never talks bad about opponents. She plays down any East Coast-West Coast rivalry with Marta, and is quick to point out that Marta is the best player in the world.
This brings me to my conclusion. Marta may be the best player in the world, but come December 2009, Kelly Smith might, for once, give credit where credit is due: to herself.
-- The 2008/2009 Arsenal Ladies were undefeated when she left to join Boston. She scored a hat trick in the 5-0 demolition of Doncaster for the FA League Cup, Kelly's farewell performance for Arsenal fans. In 65 appearances for Arsenal from 2005-2009, she scored 71 goals.
-- As England's most prolific and iconic womens' player, Kelly Smith doesn't disappoint. In qualifying for Euro '09, she helped the Three Lionesses to 6 wins, 2 draws and no losses, which put them to the top of the table. The summer tournament will be held in Finland, and England have become a favorite with their championship at the Cyprus Cup in March. A third-place finish, at the least, will be England's best finish in the Euro tournament since it's inception in 1984. (As I am one to speculate, England and Sweden will join Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and France in the knock-out stages. To further speculate, the final will be a group rematch of England and Sweden. Germany has proven itself vunerable since the last WWC, with a "poor" showing at the Beijing Olympics for only the bronze medal, Birgit Prinz's recent injuries and Renate Lingor's retirement, Silvia Neid has her work cut out for her.)
-- Since arriving in Boston to join the Breakers organization, Kelly Smith has unleashed a beast. No, not anything from an RPG like Final Fantasy, but the beast within herself. Many of her Arsenal fans speak of her kindness, shyness and selflessness, but in her first WPS game against FC Gold Pride, her new Breakers and American fans have seen something else Arsenal fans have known for years: hunger, flair, craftiness and a short temper on the field. Her equalizing goal at Buck Shaw Stadium showed her penchant for disturbing defenders and her left foot put away a goal worthy of comparison by no one. Kelly also had spats with a Gold Pride player (maybe spat is the wrong word; tussle might be better) and an assistant referee, the latter resulting in Kelly punching the corner flag. With her first goal put away that day, she hasn't stopped scoring. Kelly leads the league with four goals, one in every game she's played in, including the first converted penalty kick against Washington, and the fastest goal scored, two minutes into the game against the previously undefeated LA Sol last weekend.
-- Kelly's playing has not gone unnoticed by the league, the fans or by reporters from Goal.com, ESPN, USA Today, Fox Sports or the Daily Mail. She was voted Player of the Week for week three in April after scoring a goal and providing an assist against St. Louis, resulting in a 2-0 win for Boston. Her absence was thoroughly felt in Boston's 4-0 loss to Chicago Red Stars, when she was rested after helping England thrash Norway in a pre-Euro '09 friendly contest. At the end of April, Kelly Smith was named Player of the Month by an overwhelming vote over LA and Brazil star Marta, and has vaulted her into the favorite and front-runner for WPS Player of the Year.
-- Kelly has a weekly column for the UK's Daily Mail Online, and if you haven't read any of them, you are missing out! She gives herself zero credit for any of her on-field triumphs, whole-heartedly plays up team work for Boston and England's winning ways and she never talks bad about opponents. She plays down any East Coast-West Coast rivalry with Marta, and is quick to point out that Marta is the best player in the world.
This brings me to my conclusion. Marta may be the best player in the world, but come December 2009, Kelly Smith might, for once, give credit where credit is due: to herself.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by ian on -
Hi Kristi..well I guess you knew I had to comment! lol! To be honest there is nothing to add really... when I said about her shyness etc I did mean off pitch, remember she has been booked, red carded and suspended over here too!..You are right in everything else though and her Daily Mail online is brilliant. Thanks for putting finger to keyboard...I suspect Kelly will read it as she follows WPS on her Twitter page. The 3 of them on Twitter are a laugh to follow. you Rock Kristi !
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Permalink Reply by Sally H on -
Hi Kristi, I had to comment as well. With all the goals she has this year for Arsenal Ladies as well as whatever she does for the Breakers and the national team, she may finally get the credit she deserves. If she can do really well in the Euro's she may just finally break through. I don't think England need to win the Euro's in order for her to win player of the year, but if she does really well herself, she should get it. I already think she deserves it. Let's hope Fifa finally recognize just how good she is. And you're right about her always, always giving the entire team the credit. She's a class act!
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Permalink Reply by Carmen Wales on -
Hi Kristi.... I absolutely agree with you..! Hopefully the FIFA also remembers all the good plays and the development Kelly has made since she went to the WPS Bostons Team. I was wondering all the past years 'cos everybody was still talking about the big comparison of Marta and BP (Birgit Prinz) _well I am from Germany and I do know Birgit since she was on the girls soccer team ( under 17) the time when I still played football myself.. and she was a good player since she was a little girl but I do not see the huge developments as Kelly made. So we all hope that the EURO 2009 in Finland will be as good as the whole season at Boston has been.. and the english girls have all made a huge step forward- as already seen at the last world championship!! I suppose that the england team could get into the final round ( semi-final at least!) ..and my personal wish is that in 2011 -when the world championship will be here in Germany the england team will make the final break through!!! So lets look forward to tonights re-match Breakers against Sol - hopefully without the rude tackling some of the girls made last time on Kelly !! and than England on there way to the EUROPEAN title 2009 :-) as Sally H said, if they win the EURO and Kelly is playing as good as the in the past month the FIFA has to recognize that there are more players than from brazil,USA and Germany ;-)
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Permalink Reply by ian on
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Hi ..even though the girls (ALFC girls) have only been gone a short time, I have seen during the recent friendly against Norway how they have moved forward, now I am hoping this will encourage the other girls to step up to the mark and make the England National Team a force to reckon with, and to also instill that in their own league teams and make our own FA wake up and spend some money in the Ladies game from bottom to top..our recent FA CUP FINAL at Derby County FC was a huge success and bless Derby for making it special. Looking at their own website they 100% encourage the female players, the weekend leaing to the final was centered around that fact. Football is a beautiful game and it should be embraced by all who enjoy football. Those who don't want to follow the laies game is fair enough, but they shouldn't down something they don't appreciate/enjoy. It makes me very cross when I read others dumb down the female game in very derogrogative way...fortunately not here on this site...football is for all. hould be an exciting days football all round ..here in the UK final game of the season and over there in the USA ..a big re-match..Enjoy.
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Permalink Reply by Carmen Wales on
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Hi IAN... i Agree with you ( as usual ;-) )
not only in england at the FA the have to wake up.. back here in GErmany the interest are grown a lot and it depends on the new President of the germand football association ( DFB ) who is a huge fan of womens soccer!! (football).. he insited in developing a new german frist division, new support for the young girls wanting to play football, more money for the girls teams.. and finally getting more media interests via TV eports, live viewing of german national womens team matches ( even they are only friendly matches ) and getting my old friend steffi Jones on the boat to Worldchampionship 2011!! He shows respect and tribute to the efforts the womens are making every week at there games! hopefully other (male) people and the rest of all soccer fans will recognize the qualitiy of Womens football, too!
IAN HECTOR said:Hi ..even though the girls (ALFC girls) have only been gone a short time, I have seen during the recent friendly against Norway how they have moved forward, now I am hoping this will encourage the other girls to step up to the mark and make the England National Team a force to reckon with, and to also instill that in their own league teams and make our own FA wake up and spend some money in the Ladies game from bottom to top..our recent FA CUP FINAL at Derby County FC was a huge success and bless Derby for making it special. Looking at their own website they 100% encourage the female players, the weekend leaing to the final was centered around that fact. Football is a beautiful game and it should be embraced by all who enjoy football. Those who don't want to follow the laies game is fair enough, but they shouldn't down something they don't appreciate/enjoy. It makes me very cross when I read others dumb down the female game in very derogrogative way...fortunately not here on this site...football is for all. hould be an exciting days football all round ..here in the UK final game of the season and over there in the USA ..a big re-match..Enjoy.
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Permalink Reply by Kristi Lincourt on -
Thanks for all the comments. I sort of know what you are talking about with the womens' game. When our guys play, people are interested, but when the women play, EVERYONE pays attention. They are a hot topic, and hopefully our new league will put the spotlight on those who deserve it. Another player who could get a nod for the top five world players could be Sonia Bompastor. Like Kelly, she's been lighting up WPS when she plays, and has been fun to watch.
The English and German leagues don't get much media attention, as you both have said, but people here are mad that we only get one game a week. It shows the differences between the perception of women in sports in our respected countries.
Our womens' teams, whether it's soccer, basketball, softball or gymnastics, are/have been World and Olympic champions, and when they play or perform, America knows. We support them, but have been critical towards them, as well (i.e. the last WWC, FIBA basketball world championships, and Olympics). They are each a jewel in our sports-crazy crown, and we expect them to win. When our softball team, for example, didn't win the gold at the Beijing Olympics, people were scratching their heads. It was a huge shock, and honestly, it still is. The same with our Olympic gymnastics team. They had the gold team medal around their necks, but faltered in the last round. Silver medals are wonderful, but our country expects gold. I don't even have to talk about(or even like to think about) the last Womens' World Cup...it was considered a scandal.
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