Rapinoe raring to go

If it weren't for the weather, Megan Rapinoe might be tempted to put on a Chicago Red Stars uniform and hit the Toyota Park turf today.

Instead the Red Stars' first-round pick in the Women's Professional Soccer Draft on Friday, No. 2 overall, will have to wait for the club's inaugural game April 5 at St. Louis Athletica.

"I'm the newest member of the Red Stars, I couldn't be better," Rapinoe said from St. Louis, where the draft was held.

Rapinoe and her fellow draftees are the latest in a group of players that should be fun to watch. The team expects to sign five of its international players, including Brazilian striker Cristiane.

"She's building a really exciting brand of soccer," Rapinoe said of Red Stars coach Emma Hayes. "Not only exciting to play but exciting for the fans to watch."

That's the fit Rapinoe was hoping for.

"I'm a very free-flowing player," said Rapinoe, a midfielder/forward who graduated in December from the University of Portland, where she scored 5 goals and had 13 assists in 22 games last fall. "I like to be creative. I like to be exciting. I like for the fans to be excited when they watch me play.

"To back that up I like to play hard. I look for a good tackle to get into."

To get Rapinoe, Hayes passed over a local favorite, Notre Dame midfielder Brittany Bock from Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. Bock went fifth overall to the Los Angeles Sol.

Among other local players selected were: St. Viator product Elise Weber, drafted in the third round, 21st overall, by St. Louis; Julianne Sitch, from Oswego, in the fifth round to Sky Blue FC; and Jen Buczkowski of Elk Grove, also to New Jersey-based Sky Blue, in the sixth round.

The Red Stars made a move before the draft started, sending the rights to English defender Alex Scott and a couple of late-round picks to the Boston Breakers for their second- and fourth-round picks.

The Red Stars drafted Nikki Krzysik and Brittany Klein in the second round, then took Natalie Spilger in the third. They drafted 10 women overall to fill out their roster.