Cat Whitehill has a tear but two W-League expansion teams are on a tear

By: Melissa | June 11th, 2008

It’s that dreaded ACL again. Whitehill tore it during Tuesday’s training and will now miss the Olympics. Stephanie Cox takes her place on the Peace Cup roster.

Also on Tuesday, Tampa’s Hampton Roads Piranhas were awarded the hosting rights for this year’s W-League semi-finals and finals set for July 31 and August 2. The event will coincide with the annual Super-20 League North American Finals for both the U20 men’s and women’s elite teams. On the women’s side, the co-mingling is a scouting opportunity as well as a chance for younger players to “witness the aptitude needed to excel at what is currently the top level of women’s soccer in North America.” My guess is the place will be crawling with WPS officials – especially considering the fact that the DC and NJ WPS teams both have active W-League clubs and Chicago established partnerships with FC Indiana and the Chicago Gaels.

And the W-league versions of the future WPS teams aren’t doing too shabby. DC and New Jersey sit sort of mid table-ish with 9 and 7 points respectively. Oddly enough, among the best performers are two of this year’s expansion sides. California’s Pali Blues and FC Indiana have 15 points and sit on 5-0 records. FC Indiana’s goalkeeper, Kristin Luckenbill, has allowed only one goal in this season so far while Pali Blues features three key Australian national team members: Sarah Walsh, Collette McCallum, and Kate Munoz. I’m crossing my fingers that some if not all of the Matildas in the W-League will stay on to play in the WPS next year. I don’t know what the status is of the A-League starting a women’s division at the moment, but I remember reading somewhere there was a possibility of that happening.

One last bit of news for now – I know it’s kind of old, but I stumbled upon this message board post from March that says AEG sold their share of the Los Angeles team to an investment group headed by actor and sometimes Hollywood United goalkeeper, Anthony La Paglia. If this is true, I breathe a huge sigh if relief for women’s soccer in LA.