W-League playoffs set

By: Melissa | July 21st, 2008

I was a bit busy on Saturday losing my phone in the Bayview while watching a large metal sculpture shoot fire, so I missed the part where the W-League playoffs schedule and division titles were announced. These titles are for, what I can only assume are, the best records in each region. And on that note, I think I can say with some accuracy that the Pali Blues took the Supporters Shield of the W-League this past weekend when they beat the Los Angeles Legends 3-1 on Friday and walked away with a perfect 12-0-0 record. So within each Division, FC Indiana won the Midwest (13-0-1), The Ottawa Fury won the Northern (13-1-0), The Atlanta Silverbacks won the Atlantic (13-0-1), and The Washington Freedom won the Northeast (11-1-2). USL breaks down the playoffs:

Toronto will play host to Laval in the Northern showdown for the right to face the Central Conference’s top seed and conference tournament host FC Indiana in the conference semifinals. Northern Division Champion Ottawa will face the Midwest runner-up Chicago in the other semifinal. The semifinals are set for July 25 with the conference final July 27.

In the Northeast, Boston will travel to Long Island for their opening match Wednesday with the winner moving on to take on the 2007 W-League finalist Silverbacks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which will be hosted by Atlanta. The defending league champion Washington Freedom take on the Charlotte Lady Eagles in the other semifinal. The semifinals are July 25 with the conference final July 26.

With the Pali Blues winning the W-League regular season title and a berth in the league semifinals in Virginia Beach, the Western Conference final will feature second-place Vancouver playing host to the rival Seattle Sounders Saturday, July 26.

The three conference playoff champions will join the Pali Blues in Virginia Beach for the W-League Championship tournament. The league semifinals will be Thursday, July 31 with the championship game Saturday, August 2.

Oh, and here’s a little extra bit of good news from USL: “The Final will air on Fox Soccer Channel at 11:00 pm ET with a replay the following day at 4:00 pm ET.” So after all of the above, three teams (the winners of the Central, Eastern, and Western Conferences – with the Eastern Conference consisting of two Divisions) should emerge to join Pali Blues at the semi finals in Virginia Beach.

So anyone have any predictions? This year may be a bit hard to guess since we’ve got two new and very strong clubs in the mix: Pali Blues and FC Indiana. The Washington Freedom are defending last year’s title and I think they will wind up in the final facing either one of those expansion sides. Now, with the final being televised, and the opportunity for a future WPS club and WPS Red Stars affiliates participating, this is suddenly a pretty cool promotional opportunity… except for the part where the Pali Blues are affiliated with no-one. Yeah, I still don’t get it.

Here is the schedule so far (Eastern Standard time):
Central Conference
7/23: Laval @ Toronto – 7:30 – Divisional Round
7/25: Chicago vs Ottawa – 4:00 – Conference Semifinal
7/25: Divisional Winner vs Indiana* – 6:30 – Conference Semifinal
7/27: Conference Championship – TBD

Eastern Conference
7/23: Boston @ Long Island – 7:00 – Divisional Round
7/25: Charlotte vs Washington – 5:00 – Conference Semifinal
7/25: Divisional Winner vs Atlanta* – 8:00 – Conference Semifinal
7/26: Conference Championship – 8:00

Western Conference
7/26: Seattle @ Vancouver – 7:00 – Conference playoff