Happy Memorial Day everyone. More after the jump:
It was another full weekend of action in WPS. Sky Blue FC beat the Boston Breakers 2-1 at home, while magicJack defeated the Atlanta Beat 4-0 on Saturday in Florida. Meanwhile, the Western New York Flash stayed unbeaten with a 2-1 road victory over the Philadelphia Independence.
For more on what I was talking about with the odd positivity coming out of Atlanta, check out the audio at the end of this post. Big credit to The Equalizer’s Jess Fainberg for chatting with Atlanta Head Coach James Galanis and magicJack’s Abby Wambach and Sarah Huffman after the match. Galanis does acknowledge that his team is out-matched on paper against magicJack and would need to play a flawless game to win.
Here is a great piece from espnW on how WPS teams utilize host families. I’m glad somebody finally touched on this subject.
Not to be forgotten is Lyon’s 2-0 win over Potsdam in the UEFA Champions League final last week. You might recognize some names on that team, including Sonia Bompastor, Camille Abily and Lotta Schelin. Random thought here: If Dan Borislow really wants to do a big international tournament, I would love to see something like the FIFA Club World Cup on the men’s side take Lyon, Santos, FA Cup winner Arsenal and maybe one more team from Asia and pit them against a couple of WPS teams. It might not be a big money maker, but it would be one seriously awesome tournament.
The three referees representing the United States in this summer’s Women’s World Cup – Kari Seitz, Marlene Duffy and Veronica Perez – have started a blog.
Below is the audio that Jess Fainberg got from the magicJack-Atlanta game. Abby Wambach called Dan Borislow a “pioneer,” among many other praises. Here is a sample of what she said:
“I’m proud to be a magicJack player,” Wambach said. “I know that his methods might seem unlike anybody else’s, but there is a reason for that. And he is a successful business man. And I want – honestly, I follow Dan because what we have been doing hasn’t really been working. Teams have been folding and we need somebody to come in and stir the pot so that we can save this thing, because otherwise what else is there? Teams are just going to keep folding and our league will fold.”
Here is the Audio:
Abby Wambach Audio
Abby Wambach and Sarah Huffman
