Carter is reportedly the favorite heading into Saturday with support from both MLS and NWSLGETTY IMAGES
U.S. Soccer will elect its next president on Saturday, and the NWSL has "decided that all three of its voting delegates" (4.8% of the total vote) will "go to Kathy Carter," according to Grant Wahl of SI.com. There had been "questions over whether the NWSL vote would be split." MLS is also "supporting Carter," so adding that vote to the NWSL vote means Carter now has 19.3% of the "total vote sealed up." The winner of the election will "need to have a majority of the total weighted vote" (SI.com, 2/8). Meanwhile, ESPN.com's Jeff Carlisle notes Carter and USSF VP Carlos Cordeiro on Thursday were "on the verge of turning the contest into a two-candidate race." The remaining six "change" candidates -- Paul Caligiuri, Steve Gans, Kyle Martino, Hope Solo, Mike Winograd, and Eric Wynalda -- "sought to combat the growing likelihood that an establishment candidate would prevail in Saturday's vote." There was also a sense that Cordeiro was "being viewed by some delegates as a 'change' candidate." But the six "change" candidates met to "plot a strategy that involved joining forces." A draft statement was "crafted in which the 'Gang of Six' opted to join forces against Cordeiro and Carter in a bid to make sure that a true reform-minded candidate would prevail." But sources said that the attempt to craft a statement "fell apart, and tensions almost boiled over" in the meeting. Sources said that Wynalda was the one "struggling to come to an agreement with others," though it later emerged that a "new framework had been drawn up and it is expected to be agreed upon by the six candidates early on Friday" (ESPN.com, 2/9).
PICKING UP THE PIECES: Wahl noted the "historic campaign for U.S. Soccer president has had a bit of everything." It has also had "far too many Twitter conspiracy theories and mud-slinging allegations." There have "actually been some productive proposals and discussions," but whoever wins on Saturday will "have to mend a fractured soccer landscape." Nobody who has "followed this campaign closely knows" who will win. It is "that close." But in recent days, it "appears the top three candidates are Carter, Cordeiro and Martino" (SI.com, 2/8). In N.Y., Kevin Draper writes the next USSF President will "have to put the country’s feuding soccer family back together." They will "face an immediate backlog of work, as the unruly election has taken up much of the federation’s time and energy." But the biggest priority for the new president is "ensuring the joint American-Canadian-Mexican bid to host" the '26 FIFA World Cup is "up to snuff" (NYTIMES.com, 2/9).
THINK OF THE FANS? Sports Fan Coalition acting Exec Dir Brian Hess in a special to the K.C. STAR writes under the header, "U.S. Soccer Needs A Fan-Centric Choice As President." Wynalda and Solo "represent the vision necessary to take U.S. Soccer, and its national training facility in Kansas City, to the place where we need it to be." Carter and Cordeiro are "not interested in growing the pie for everyone" (K.C. STAR, 2/9). ESPN The Magazine's Bruce Schoenfeld wrote under the header, "Behind The Scenes Of The U.S. Soccer Election" (ESPN.com, 2/8).
