With just days until the WPSL Elite League and USL W-League seasons kick-off, women’s soccer action is only going to pick-up in the summer months. Bring it on.
In the spirit of kicking things off, Dan Lauletta previewed the newly created WPSL Elite League and spoke with folks from across the league. One thing is for sure, the teams in the new league will all look vastly different.
We’ll have a W-League preview (along with some team-by-team previews) out over the next few days. W-League officials are certainly very excited to have increased visibility thanks to U.S. women’s players joining the fray on teams like Seattle Sounders Women and DC United Women. Don’t forget there is a large core of Canadians gathering on the Vancouver Whitecaps Women’s roster.
More big signings came this week with Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson finally officially being announced for D.C. United Women and the Colorado Rapids Women signing Danish international Katrine Korsgaard.
The Chicago Red Stars made big news of their own, bringing back forward Ella Masar. She played with the team in 2009 and 2010, Chicago’s only two years in WPS.
In U-17 CONCACAF Women’s Championship action, the United States has already qualified for the semifinal round with two convincing wins: 10-0 over the Bahamas on Thursday and 5-0 over Trinidad & Tobago on Saturday. Emily Bruder’s opening goal in the 20th minute against T&T was an absolute golazo. Check it out:
Speaking of the U.S. U-17’s, U.S. Soccer has a good video profile of Equalizer blogger Morgan Andrews, who looks sharp thus far in the tournament. Her latest blog was another great one, too (check it out here).
Mexico and the U.S. face each other on Monday at 6:30 p.m. ET for the right to win Group B and avoid Canada in the semifinal. Canada (3-0-0, 9 pts.) won Group A. Panama (1-1-1, 4 pts.) also advanced from Group B. Three teams from CONCACAF advance to the U-17 Women’s World Cup in September, so a semifinal victory guarantees a berth.
In Canada, the host cities for the 2015 Women’s World Cup were announced and, as we’ve known for some time, Toronto will not be involved with the tournament since the city will also host the Pan American Games that summer. No disrespect to the Pan American Games, but this is ridiculous on multiple levels as Toronto is absolutely a site that should be involved in the World Cup. Perhaps the two events could have better coordinated with each other ahead of time. Instead, Moncton, NB steps in to join five other cities you have actually heard of. Moncton is actually a very convenient location if you live in Maine.
On a lighter note, former Boston Breakers GM Andy Crossley recounts how July 25, 2009 essentially became Heather Mitts night at Harvard University. I can speak first-hand to the bobblehead not looking anything like “Mitsy,” as she is nicknamed, but bobbleheads are my No. 1 sucker collector items – right ahead of obscure uniforms. Anyway, equally interesting is the comment section. Seriously.
A couple of internal reminders:
Ashleigh Gunning wrote a great blog over the weekend about why her life is defined by more than just soccer.
And if you have not yet read it, you might want to take a look at the stories of four players who went to play in Russia this spring and came back with some horrifying accounts of how they were treated.
