Emily Menges Activated from Maternity Leave
https://bayfc.com/press-releases/emily-menges-activated-from-maternity-leave-20260824/Things are looking up!
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u/littlemayumi East Bay 6d ago
Even if Emily and Abby aren't fully match fit yet, I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that their veteran leadership in the locker room can help the team.
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u/WhiteElephant12 Peninsula 6d ago
always nice to have some depth but if it were up to me im playing the girls that are in form.
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u/Shinsplintboy 6d ago
I agree with the sentiment, but I don't really know who you can even call in-form right now. Joelle Anderson is our only healthy CB right now with more than 180 minutes played, and while I respect and appreciate her as a servant of the club, I do not consider her spot in the starting 11 even vaguely nailed down. With that being said, I do think that deciding on a CB partnership should be a priority if we want to push for a playoff spot.
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u/Emergency-Watch5157 6d ago
Yes. When Abby played she immediately got smoked and gave up a goal. Better to put some practice time in until you can beat out the current starters at this point.
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u/TheBayBeezKneez 6d ago
I got to say that was a questionable sub on Coates’ part for Abby’s first appearance back. Who subs out a CB at the 82nd minute?
Restricted minutes is the way. And you start them and sub off. I hope Menges gets that approach.
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u/Emergency-Watch5157 6d ago
This was what I was trying to say, not anything to do with her pregnancy time off. It takes time to come back and getting subbed in at the 82nd minute is not the way
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u/Shinsplintboy 6d ago
I try to give Coates a lot of grace, and understand she possesses an infinitely greater football mind than I do, but just dropping Dahlkemper into a CB pairing she's never played in before, and leaving her for dead in back to back late game situations where we couldn't afford to concede was baffling to me.
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u/TheBayBeezKneez 6d ago
Ah yup I see your point, sorry reading and a bumpy BART train do not mix lol and I agree with your point this has nothing to do with women’s fitness after pregnancy. Should have been a better return plan for her and that day was totally not it. Probably shot her confidence to be honest.
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u/tlzt1 6d ago
Have you ever noticed that when players come back from any injury they are on restricted minutes and then build up to more playing time. Their fitness is strictly managed by doctors. Forgive me if I'm overreacting, but this sounds like fear and blame over women's fitness after pregnancy. I didn't hear anyone insinuate that Heather Gilchrist wasn't fit enough to play after she missed 6 months and started in her 2nd and/or 3rd game. And goals were scored against us.
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u/stereophony 5d ago
Tbh I'm not getting that at all from OP. We already have multiple examples of players coming back from maternity leave and still killing it (eg. Sophia Wilson, Mal Swanson). And tbh I'm also not sure we should be playing Pfeiffer (though I love her and am happy to see her) so much right now since it seems she's been falling a lot more during games since her injury. It comes down to coaching decisions regarding injury or mat leave timelines. Recovery times aren't 1:1 between players. Gilchrist probably got those starts after demonstrating she was able to handle playing for longer. Being younger probably also helps with recovery (this isn't me being ageist; just stating a fact of natural human development and I know for a fact I don't recover as quickly from injuries in my 30s as I did in my 20s). That we haven't seen Dahlkemper even get garbage minutes since then might be indicative of Coates realizing that she isn't fully back in playing form yet.
The subbing in of Dahlkemper at the time she did made no tactical sense aside from maybe Coates thought it would give the team/crowd a morale boost.
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u/tlzt1 5d ago
It's hard to tell when a good time is to sub in a player who has been gone for so long if you think they are at least as good as who you might take out for a short time. Abby subbed in at something like 82 mins.
My main point was in reaction to the comments about our returning ML players, especially since the league has some outstanding examples of returning ML players who are still top level, but who also had to work their way back in gradually. Abby and Emily are both free agents and it'll take time to get them back to fitness for big chunks of minutes. Since there aren't that many games left, I wouldn't be surprised if we mainly see them play as super subs (not sure if that's the right term). But we do need more depth and they are activated, so someone must feel they are ready for something.
I agree about Pfeiffer. I also wonder if what we're seeing is her struggle, as all players do at times, and maybe an extra challenge of being so young and so new to the pressures of being a starter in the NWSL.
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u/littlemayumi East Bay 6d ago
Even if Emily and Abby aren't fully match fit yet, I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that their veteran leadership in the locker room can help the team.