St. Louis drafted two Brazilians, Daniela and Renata Costa, in the WPS foreign draft today, and also picked up a Swedish forward and a Canadian forward. All four took part in the Olympics this summer. The team acquired only their rights. While they are free to talk with Daniela and Tancredi, who are out of contract, the team will have to negotiate with a club in Denmark for Renata Costa and with a club in France for Schelin.

St. Louis traded up two spots in the draft to get Daniela, an attacking midfielder. Ahead of her went Formiga, Kelly Smith and Marta as four of the first five picks were Brazilian. (In addition to being supremely talented, I’m guessing Brazilian players will be easier to sign since the Brazilian national team effectively shuts down when there aren’t championships.)

Then after taking central defender Renata Costa in the second round, St. Louis traded up to the third pick in the third round to get Lotta Schelin, a Swedish striker and former teammate of goalie Hope Solo. Schelin presently plays with Olympique Lyon in France. Then with their regular third round pick, they took defender Melissa Tancredi, a Canadian who played college ball at Notre Dame and is currently studying chiropractic medicine here in St. Louis.

With two forwards chosen in the international draft, it’s possible that Tina Ellertson, who has played forward and defender, could be on the backline for St. Louis. Or the team could have three players up top.

 Also, and this is just reading between the lines, but the U.S. women’s soccer team’s post-Olympic tour was originally billed as a three-game tour. Now, it’s described as a 10-game tour, with seven games still to be announced. Now, you may note that there are seven teams in the WPS right now, so I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of the U.S. women swinging through here.

World events meant my story in Thursday’s paper is tight, but here’s some more stuff on each of the players that I couldn’t get in.

Daniela is a three-time Olympian for Brazil.
Daniela won silver medals in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. (both losses in final coming against the United States)
In the Olympic quarterfinal in 2008 Daniela connected on a 30 meter goal in Brazil’s 2-1 win over Norway.
Daniela netted two goals in the 2008 Olympic tournament and has 3 goals overall in 17 Olympic matches.
Daniela played for Brazil in both the 2003 and 2007 Women’s World Cups, scoring in each competition.
In 2007 Daniela was named to the Women’s World Cup all-star team.
In 2007 Daniela was the top scorer in the Copa de Brasil de Futebol Feminio (Women’s Brazilian Cup Tournament) with 14 goals.
Daniela has played professional club soccer in Sweden for Linkopings FC in the same league as Hope Solo and Lotta Schelin.
Daniela has played in 41 tournament finals or qualifiers for Brazil, scoring 14 times in those matches.

Renata won silver medals in the 2004 and 2008 olympics. (both losses in final coming against the United States)
Renata has now played in 10 olympic matches.
Renata was a member of the 2007 and 2003 Brazil Women’s World Cup team where she played in 8 matches.
Renata has appeared 18 times for Brazil in the U-20 Womens World Cup Finals (2002, 2004, 2006) scoring one goal.

Schelin was a member of Sweden’s 2008 and 2004 Olympic teams. She has played in 7 Olympic matches overall scoring 3 goals.
Schelin was also a member of Sweden’s 2007 World Cup squad where she netted two goals.
In Sweden’s World cup Qualifying for 2007 Lotta scored 7 times in just 8 matches.
Schelin’s two goals over Canada in the Olympics helped earn Sweden a berth in the quarterfinals.
In 2006 Schelin was awarded Sweden’s “Diamantbollen” (Diamond Ball) as the best Swedish female soccer player.
Hope Solo considers the Schelins her “2nd family”…both Hope and Schelin played for Kopparbergs in the Swedish League. Schelin and her sister Camilla took Hope under their wing and invited her to their family’s Easter dinner early in the season. Here’s a Youtube video of the two talking about it.

Tancredi was a member of the 2004 Notre Dame National Championship team.
At Notre Dame she majored in anthropology.

Tancredi was a member of the 2008 Canadian Olympic team where she played in 3 matches and scored 1 goal.
Tancredi was also a member of Canada’s 2007 Women’s World Cup squad where she played in two games, scoring once.
Tancredi suffered a broken nose in July of this year in a friendly against Brazil.
Tancredi’s nickname is tank.