Be a Tiger! Be a Tiger!
By: Melissa |
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Here are some links to pass the time while you ponder what exactly was that photographer thinking in the above photo shoot?
I was wondering about this whole free agency thing and the USWNT contracts. Luckily, it’s all been cleared up in a lone twitter. Those players who haven’t yet resigned with their 2009 teams become free agents on September 30th. So now it’s not quite so bad that Hotlanta and Philly don’t have any national team players… yet.
The FA Superleague is now scheduled to start in 2011. Suuuuuuure it is.
Heather O Reilly tells US Soccer how awesome it was to win the first WPS season. I remember the moment it as if it was only a month ago.
Megan Rapinoe tells US Soccer how not-awesome it was to not win the first WPS season and a bunch of other stuff too.
Something Happened!
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Today was all a-twitter as Philly and ATL got to pick five international players each to stock their rosters. But, assuming similar rules apply from last year’s international draft, both expansion teams really picked five players each with whom they have the exclusive rights to negotiate a contract. Or, they picked five players each with whom they have the exclusive rights to trade the rights to another team so the other team can negotiate a contract. Here’s a rundown of today’s picks. In essence, this is the first round intended to give the expansion sides a slight advantage because the “International Discovery Period” begins tomorrow (Sept 23rd). That means all teams will get the chance to claim a new group of internationals – but not before they clear their rosters. So yeah, that’s happening too. Players are getting waived left and right. But all is not lost in that department either. WPS does do one thing that MLS fans may raise an inquisitive eyebrow over. Free agency begins September 30th so all those waived players get the opportunity for each team to compete with each other and woo the players into a new contract. That should be fun… I think. We’ll see.
In other news:
Lotta lotta lotta loans. Marta is in Brazil with Santos FC. Kelley Smith, Alex Scott, & Karen Carney are back with Arsenal. For the Freedom, Sonia Bompastor is in France with PSG, Homare Sawa is in Japan with NTV Beleza, Lisa De Vanna is in Australia with Perth Glory… and there are probably heaps others all over the place either playing or just training. I’m sure there’s a full list somewhere. All this does is really make me wish I found a different line of work. Sure, playing in WPS can’t pay well but you do get to see the world a bit. Damn.
The USWNT training camp begins this week. Pia gets 12 days with her call-ups to decide who goes to Germany to play a friendly in October. There are a few new faces on the roster and the NYT Goal blog has a little interview with midfielder Yael Averbuch. Also, Abby Wambach got a dog. Hey, this is off-season news, y’all. We take what we can get!
And in much much more serious and somber news, one of the men accused of the “corrective rape” and murder of South African footballer, Eudy Simelane, received a life sentence. He was the second man involved who received a conviction so far.
Category: "News", Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Los Angeles Sol, Philadelphia Independence, Sky Blue FC, US Women's National Team, WPS News, Washington Freedom
Tags: "News", a dog, Abby Wambach, Alex Scott, Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Eudy Simelane, Homare Sawa, International Draft, Karen Carney, Kelly Smith, Lisa De Vanna, Los Angeles Sol, Marta, Philadelphia Independence, Sky Blue FC, Sonia Bompastor, US Women's National Team, Washington Freedom, WPS News, Yael AverbuchImmma let you finish, but first… LINKS!!!!
By: Melissa | 1 Comment
2011 World Cup Qualifying is underway in Europe. The groups are posted here and the recent results are:
Iceland – Estonia 12-0
Armenia – Finland 0-4
Slovakia – Macedonia 9-0
Poland – Ukraine 4-1
Bosnia- Herzegovina – Hungary 0-2
Malta – Spain 0-13
Switzerland – Ireland 2-0
Slovenia – Italy 0-8
UEFA qualifying runs til August of next year. OFC starts in October, AFC started in April, while CONCACAF and CONMEBOL are yet to be decided? HEMISPHERE FAIL.
Nottingham Forest wants to build a “Wembley for Women” meaning a 45,000 seat stadium. The club is hoping it can be the place to host all England home games as well as the FA Cup finals.
Did Peter Wilt get pushed out of Red Stars management via some evil corporate coup? The answer is no. He’s just keeping his options open but will stay involved perhaps in a lesser capacity while Marcia McDermott takes on a bigger role. Easy Peasy.
That’s all for now. Seacrest out!
Social Activism?
By: Melissa | 3 Comments
In the past, I’ve ruminated or rather thought out loud the question of how this league can be all about gender yet market itself as mostly genderless. This idea is apparently the topic of a little e-fight going on between Wendy Parker and someone who refers to themself as the Fake Sigi Schmid (I suppose someone’s gotta be him). Basically, Parker argues that WPS should steer away from marketing itself as a social cause which irked Fake Sigi and the fake one (not to be confused with the special one) wrote an admittedly very eloquent post explaining the point. Alright, I’m gonna paraphrase. Here we go…
Parker: The WUSA folded partially because their overt “girl power” message turned off potential ticket buyers. Furthermore, this recession is hitting niche sports markets hard so the bottom line is more important than ever.
Fake Sigi: The WUSA folded partially because they jumped on the “girl power” bandwagon as a last ditch effort to save the league after they ran out of money. WPS is working to distance itself from the failures of WUSA by starting out as a more grassroots business model and by not marketing themselves as a charity case, or as Andy Crossley said, “the ghetto of being a role model for girls.” (great quote!) So what WPS can do is embrace cause-related marketing which is apparently an actual term that defines businesses that align themselves with social causes by raising money, creating volunteer opportunities, raising awareness, etc etc etc. The point being the message targets the company’s audience emotionally. We all feel a bit better about spending our money on you because you care about the same issues that we do. Fake Sigi also argues that – well – WPS is struggling to understand their core demographic market and cause-related marketing is a good way for them to figure it out before they lose all the fans.
What can I say, I’m nowhere near as eloquent or S.M.R.T. but I do agree with the fake one. And one of my employers just happens to be a organization at the forefront of this cause-related movement. Over the years, I’ve seen their funding shift dramatically from 100% philanthropy to now majority business partnerships and their list of clients is really becoming a who’s who of the Fortune 500. What Fake Sigi writes is no joke. WPS can benefit from league-wide and strategic social cause marketing because that is actually what many consumers want. And don’t even get me started on the demographic woes of the WPS. It’s enough to make me stop caring about this league altogether. The mixed message of yes this is an important thing for women’s sports but no we aren’t going to talk about it might just backfire because the league’s core audience, who the fake one calls “athletic minded women and girls,” may very well want WPS to talk about it!
Well, I’m no expert on the subject and it seems pretty apparent that this is new-ish mostly unchartered territory (srsly, how many professional women’s sports leagues are there?). And I’m typing this while sitting at said job mentioned above while at the same time testing mysql backup programs. Stay tuned while I pull together my thoughts on why WPS should completely ignore television and broadcast everything online as well as keep all video archives available on their website on-demand. That’s right – control the means of production!
Links!!!
By: Melissa | 2 Comments
I recently installed the Read it Later Firefox plugin which I will be using to clip (i.e. remember) all the interesting womens soccer links I stumble upon then spit them back out to you all. Call it one stop shopping and, yes, you can thank me later. Here goes installment number one…
Expansion Draft! Were you wondering why ATL & Philly passed on their last picks? Turns out, per the rules, they could only pick from FC Gold Pride in that round and they instead said no. Ouch.
Combine! The W-League Combine is September 24 – 27 and will be crawling with WPS coaches. This time, WPS and W-League coaches will meet each night to rank the players and choose the best to play against each other on Sunday. It’s like a fight to the death but everyone lives.
Speaking of the W-League, apparently it’s not going anywhere despite the sale of USL and a few USL-1 teams threatening to form their own league. W-League President, Melanie Fitzgerald, says hell to the no.
We are very excited about the acquisition of USL by NuRock Soccer Holdings from Nike. It is clear from our early meetings with the new ownership group that NuRock is committed to providing the necessary resources to enhance our ability to manage the W-League and allow for us to provide more active support and service for our franchisees
The above does indeed loosely translate to “hell to the no.”
Jo Lohman and Becca Moros are blogging from Japan where they are playing for a team over there (anyone know which one?). A friend of mine went to Japan on vacation this summer and told us all about a cat cafe which is exactly what you think – a place to go to sit down, order sweet drinks, and pet a bunch of cats. Now when my friend is having a bad day, she twitters that she wishes she could go back to the cat cafe in Japan. Yes, this link was just an excuse for me to write about the cat cafe.
So apparently the international draft is happening next week but you won’t see one name on that list. Laura Del Rio, FC Indiana’s top scorer in 2009 and brief (like for a week) international draft pick for the Red Stars, just signed with FFC Frankfurt where she will be paired up top with star striker Birgit Prinz. This is a HUGE move and I think a pretty hilarious fuck you message to WPS. Ha Ha.
Speaking of WPS (oh, wait, that’s this blog), Click this link here to Kanye-ize the official WPS website. No-one shall escape!
WPS season two hopes and dreams
By: Melissa | 1 Comment
Today was the inaugural expansion draft where the Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence nabbed a bunch of players from every team so they could start their own teams. It wasn’t very exciting mainly because it was secret. None of the teams published their protected lists and the draft itself was behind closed doors. Fitting too because the expansion picks were about as unmemorable as last season’s Greys Anatomy season finale (go away Denny! mah huuuusband is here!). Or, to use a more fitting metaphor, today’s expansion picks were about as memorable as the inaugural WPS final. I swear Sky Blue had it in the bag before halftime and most dramatic part was discovering after the fact that Christie Rampone was already pregnant.
But the expansion draft does remind us all that WPS season two is on the horizon. I’ve been away for a while dealing with LIFE so I missed likely all the postseason reflections and reviews out there on the internets. Although I did catch Peter Wilt’s post at Pitch Invasion which is good enough for me! Just read that one. So I say it’s time to move on to season two! Haters to the left. Looks like the league has another year in it. Here’s what I’d like to see happen for 2010.
Christie Rampone is officially named head coach of Sky Blue FC By April she should be showing and I think it will be crazy cool to see her preggers self perched on the sidelines bossing everyone around like a soccer version of the movie Fargo – but without all the blood and snow and William H Macy. Even better would be Rampone solving murder cases while at the same time coaching her team to their second league victory.
Kim Zolciak becomes a sponsor of the Atlanta Beat and her headshot is screenprinted on the front of their jerseys This will, of course, coincide with the release of her soon to be hit album follow up to the smash single Tardy to the Party. Kim, THE BRAND. You know she only needs to ask Big Papa for the money. And then Real Housewives season three will feature scenes from team practices & games. And WPS, the brand, gets plastered all over Bravo tv for a few months. Win win.
Justin.tv or Ustream.tv or Veetle or whoever gets a WPS channel I was pleasantly surprised to discover a few months back there was a 24 hour online rollerderby channel. Interviews, live games, random filler. Very impressive. Just sayin’.
Rachel Brown joins WPS Perhaps the Euros final was not her shining moment but I spent most of that game thinking the England keeper really is the spitting image of Christina Cox, one of the actresses on that mediocre soap opera in space, Defying Gravity. And after reading that the British “Superleague” is on hold yet again, perhaps she really is Christina Cox? Girl has gotta pay the rent somehow.
FC Gold Pride actually sign a player under the age of 40 And the rest of us spend one more year inventing new and hilarious ways to make fun of the name “FC Gold Pride.”
A US player will finally outshine the foreign players A year ago at this time, I fully expected the brand spanking new league to unveil a whole new crop of amazing American players. Uhhhhh, no. Instead, we got to meet (some of us for the first time) Sonya Bompastor, Eniola Aluko, Lisa De Vanna, Karina LeBlanc, Aya Miyama, etc etc etc. A few fresh faces creeped into the roster for the upcoming USWNT training camp and WPS marketed the Olympic winners hard in their advertising campaigns. But on the field… I dunno… I felt like our domestic draft picks just kinda disappeared. No star quality? No flair or creativity? Are we still just settling in? Fuck it. Let’s bring on season two!
In it to win it
By: Melissa | Add Comments
This picture has nothing to do with WPS but I think it really captures these charged political times we live in
I’m a bit late on this post but as I type, Allie Long is celebrating her birthday at the Rhino Bar with some other Washington Freedom teammates. So if you are in the DC area and a fan (and who isn’t?), you should go. You should also bring a present. I mean something besides telling her good luck against Sky Blue FC on Saturday at 4pm Eastern for the first round of the playoffs (the game is on Fox Soccer Channel too). Something nice and thoughtful. According to her UNC player profile, she really likes the beach.
And here are some playoff previews to tide you over before the carnage begins
ESPN
World Soccer Reader
WPS site
Stuart Holden is totally the new Jimmy Conrad
By: Melissa | 1 Comment
The above pic is from taterpie (or rather, her friend Chris). I always had my suspicions about the Dynamo and USMNT midfielder, but now I think it’s official – Disco Stu has a posse (remember this?). Ok, so what does this crap have to do with women’s soccer? Basically nothing, although I have to give a little appreciative shout out to the current Euros marketing campaign over in Britain:
That pic comes courtesy of Alex Scott’s twitter and I otherwise would have never seen it so thanks to her and yfrog.
Also on the women’s side, shout outs are in order for the Shannon Boxx goal celebration video and the Tobin Heath double nutmeg. I hope there are others. Are there others?
(I just remembered the girls kicking the ball through the donut video.)
In other news, WPS announced the complete All Star list. Now every team is represented so we can all stop our sniveling.
Category: WPS NewsPlayoff Picture: the high fashion edition
By: Melissa | 2 Comments
That’s Kristen Graczyk and what’s-his-face modeling something or other for a local San Jose California rag called The Wave (more pics plus full article here). But if you do click on the link to the article, you’ll quickly discover that the dress above costs *cough* $1,140. I could fill an entire notebook with things I’d pay $1,140 for and none of them would be THAT DRESS. And don’t even get me started on the irony of the title: “Winning Style.”
(and is it just me or are they posing in front of a freezer full of raw meat?)
Moving on… Sky Blue FC and the Washington Freedom are currently tied for 3rd place with the Boston Breakers a measly one point behind them. This Saturday, Sky Blue play Washington and Boston play LA on Sunday. At some point in the middle of that mess, St Louis play FC Gold Pride but whatevs to that game, right? The WPS site mapped out every single playoff scenario for us which is kinda cool but also kinda weird in a creepy sort of “dear fans, you didn’t vote for Marta therefore you can’t figure shit out for yourselves” kinda way. But basically, it boils down to – whoever wins on Saturday gets home field advantage for the first round and Boston are out if they lose on Sunday. There you go. Also, there will be an audio feed of Saturday’s game and Sunday’s game will be on FSC.
Meet the league MVP… in 2021
By: Melissa | 1 Comment
That is, if WPS lasts that long (crossing fingers).
(Also, meethinks this video is a super low budget homage to this little gem from the not-so-past.)
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