All White Kit recently tackled the topic (the only appropriate alliteration for the player in question) of Leslie Osborne’s present absence from and uncertain future with the U.S. national team under Pia Sundhage. After not covering the WNT for a couple of years, I didn’t feel qualified to offer much of an opinion when given the opportunity to put together a feature on Osborne recently (nor would that have been the best venue for one). But even to someone who only recently discovered All White Kit, it’s obvious Jenna has a good feel for Sundhage’s roster machinations.

To me, Osborne is the perfect kind of player for the national team, almost without restriction relative to system (almost, but not completely). To delve into the dangerous language of intangibles, she’s a world-class grinder. As in, she plays like someone who has to rely solely on effort for her soccer survival, but she does with enough natural skill and athleticism to survive on the field against world-class players. As someone put it well recently, she’s going to win the challenge and play a square ball. And then do it again. It’s not fancy; it’s just effective.

Regardless of the sport, you don’t win titles with rosters comprised entirely of those sort of players. You also don’t win titles without a few of them. Lest we forget, this is a player who scored 44 goals in four seasons at Santa Clara and had 17 assists in one season. But as she expressed during the interview process for the feature, she has completely embraced the role of holding midfielder and made it her own.

“I love it,” Osborne said. “Tony [DiCicco], I think, brought me here to play that position. He thought last year that’s what they needed. I love it — but with the national team, [Sundhage] doesn’t play with one holding midfielder. So for the national team, that’s something that doesn’t really fit in with her. But I love playing holding mid. I hope what people would say is I’m a pretty good holding midfielder in this country.”

It’s also worth noting that Osborne said she still has a good relationship with Sundhage, despite her absence from the WNT roster.

All of which is why one paragraph, in particular, in Jenna’s post really caught my eye. Continue reading “Leslie Osborne and the WNT” →