I’m not entirely sure how long this little bug was up on espn.com, but for a while there if you typed in the konami code (up up down down left right left right b a enter), the website filled with unicorns and rainbows. No idea if this was an intentional ploy to drum up a little publicity, but, to whoever let this one out, you are brilliant!

And if you missed out today, don’t forget you can click here to add unicorns and rainbows to your life on-demand.

Which does look a little bit like a chemical component of some sort. Chemistry buffs should feel free to speculate on what WPS really created in the comments. The Sports Illustrated article calls it a modification of the Australian A-League format (another league with a small number of teams) and I also see similarities to USL’s W-League; since last year’s regular season winner, Pali Blues got to sit and wait til their opponent for the final emerged from knockout rounds. So yeah, this thing just seems like a natural progression of what already was.

And the league is looking a bit more like a league and now that there are quite a few more players, we’ve even got some predictions on each team’s performance – which is cool. So I’ll leave you with something completely unrelated but totally awesome… Two city construction road signs near the University of Texas were hacked Monday morning (Jan 26th) warning the residents of Austin that a zombie attack was imminent.

* My friend’s winery will be hosting the Yelp holiday party. I told him if I am able to attend, I will write a Yelp review of the event.

* During a Swedish interview, Pia Sundhage said whatever salary LA Sol is offering Marta, it actually will not count against the salary cap. So I guess WPS just introduced their own designated/marquee player rule. No idea if the other teams get to participate.

* In the same interview, Sundhage said the USWNT schedule will not interfere with the WPS season. There will be National Team games before the season starts in April (and she specifically said they will participate in the Algarve Cup), but I’ve no clue if she meant no more call-ups until September or if her call-ups will work around the WPS games.

* A few years ago, Bitch magazine asked for submissions to their shout-outs/stuff we like section. And since I am pretty much a complete nerd, I sent one in about VLC which wound up in an issue. So then I got all fired up and excited about my addition to their magazine and I submitted another shout-out, this time to Radia Perlman who is sometimes called the “Mother of the internet” because she invented Spanning Tree Protocol (and after she invented it, she wrote a poem about it). Basically, STP is a big part of the glue that keeps the internet ticking – if a segment of the internet becomes unreachable, this protocol will allow auto-rerouting through a different path to reach the destination. And, at the time, I was working with it heavily and it did what it was supposed to do so darn well, I was just really really excited. Anyways, the next issue arrived and my blurb did not make it. Instead, the issue contained a shout-out to low rider jeans because they allow for a little more comfort when women maybe don’t have those washboard abs. So at that moment, I decided to cancel my subscription to Bitch magazine. No idea why I was thinking about that yesterday. Am I a sore loser?

* Los Angeles Sol named Johanna Frisk a post-draft discovery player who according to one site is Marta’s good friend. Another site says she’s her girlfriend. Either way, the transaction would indicate that LA Sol are still negotiating. But Umea have a multi-year contract waiting for Marta – presumably to stop this sort of thing from happening again next year and saving the rest of us the frustration.

* Goalkeeper Caroline Jonsson, is apparently in “advanced negotiations” with the Chicago Red Stars.

* Back in the US of Haaay, USL released a preliminary list of the W-League players invited to December’s WPS Combines.

I think I probably missed some stuff, but now it’s time to get off the internet and go celebrate Thanksgiving.

p.s. cheaptickets.com! It’s the sh*t!

In unrelated news, this is perhaps something I would have plastered all over the San Jose Earthquakes Offside blog (if I still wrote it). Somewhere about 200 miles south of San Francsico, a small group of very strange people put together a giant machine that makes sounds depending on the seismic activity of the fault line they conveniently put this giant machine on top of.

And behold, the giant machine. So I’m in the process of trying to find a ride down there because this weekend is apparently the last time it’s up and running before it gets put into a shipping container and… uh… taken to another fault line? No idea. Anyways, there’s supposed to be a big party so if you’ve got nothing better to do and want to drive to the middle of California, here’s your excuse (I think the weather’s gonna hold this weekend – yes?).

And since what I just wrote clearly has nothing to do with women’s soccer or just soccer in general, I’m gonna end this post by saying kudos to the Chicago Fire and Dennis Hamlet for having a great first head coach year. I was pretty darn bummed out last night when they didn’t make it to the MLS final.

Ok, so back to the soccer. FIFA announced its shortlist of nominees for the 2008 Player of the Year award and eight out of the ten players nominated are WPS draftees. Ok, technically two out of the ten players are officially playing in the league while the other six are still in that “international discovery” negotiation-y phase. And I haven’t read any articles saying Cristiane, Daniela, Marta, Christine Sinclair, Kelly Smith, or Ingvild Stensland actually put pen to paper so I’m going to assume they are all still pondering their offers. Anyways, if all goes well, here is the FIFA shortlist and each player’s team:

Shannon Boxx (USA) Los Angeles Sol
Cristiane (Brazil) Chicago Red Stars
Daniela (Brazil) St. Louis
Marta (Brazil) Los Angeles Sol
Christine Sinclair (Canada) Bay Area
Kelly Smith (England) Boston Breakers
Hope Solo (USA) St. Louis
Ingvild Stensland (Norway) St. Louis

Which just leaves two Germans, Nadine Angerer and Birgit Prinz, as the lone nominees not linked to WPS. Bet they feel lonely. Ok, they probably don’t. National Team head coaches will vote this list down to three with an announcement in December. The winner will be announced at a fancy gala in Zurich in January.

And in kind-of-sort-of drama news, Umea gave Marta an ultimatum to make her decision on where she’ll wind up by the end of this month (i.e. tomorrow!). Marta did ask the LA Sol if Johanna Frisk could also come play for the team and apparently LA offered Johanna a contract. Although I’m not sure if LA first put a discovery claim on her. Anyone know?
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Stupid Filter results: “Text is not likely to be stupid.”

Sundhage’s approach in de-emphasizing the role of Wambach might be what could ultimately save the team now. The new possession-based emphasis has created more opportunities for other players. Though Wambach still leads the squad with 13 goals this year, the scoring disparity isn’t so vast. Lindsey Tarpley has 10 goals, while Natasha Kai has 12, including the winning header versus Brazil that she scored after Wambach’s injury.

Canales does add that losing Wambach while the team is “still taking baby steps to develop other options,” is potentially devastating, but Pia’s work so far has de-emphasized Wambach’s role to such a degree that her absence is not crippling. So to everyone, it’s not over and I think we’ve still got a pretty good shot at the Olympics. I’m remaining positive (but – hey – I still think the San Jose Earthquakes are gonna make the playoffs this year). As for the economy, I could honestly use a little confidence boost right now. I just listened to some very compelling arguments last night that claimed the worst is yet to come.

Here are some quick women’s soccer notes:

* Scott Kucirek, at his Norcal Women’s Soccer blog posted an article from The San Francisco Business Times on his efforts to bring WPS to the Bay Area. So far, he’s acquired around one-third of the investment money and is in talks with Cal State, East Bay (that’s Hayward to the rest of us) and Santa Clara University to host games.

* CFO Magazine has a report on the financial plan for WPS. The article explains: there will be a salary cap “lower than the $40,000 average paid by the WUSA,” there is a strong push from the league to land national television deals, and teams may have the option to sell jersey sponsorship. WPS is also working with SUM (Soccer United Marketing), an organization that works with MLS, with marketing opportunities.

* And the W-League playoffs fight is in full swing. Most notably, the Connecticut Passion beat the Boston renegades 2-1, on July 16th, putting the Passion in a three way tie with the Long Island Rough Riders and Jersey Sky Blue for third place in their Division.

The under 20s are off to their World Cup and the under 17s are off to try to qualify for theirs.

The Pali Blues continue their W-League winning streak, beating Fort Collins 2-0. Can we just give the Blues the LA WPS territory now?

The future WPS NY/NJ team, New Jersey Sky Blue is in danger of missing the W-League playoffs. They’re currently at third place in the Northeast Division. Whoops.

I’ve been awol guys. Sorry for the not so many updates. Just taking care of business… In about an hour, I’m off to the DMV to for realsies own a new old car I’ve lovingly named El Guzano. At least if the real Guzan leaves Chivas USA for Europe, I’ll still have a daily reminder of the good ‘ol days with my favorite MLS team.

And one last completely off-topic thing – I am completely and utterly in love with Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud. If you haven’t jumped on this bandwagon yet, I deplore you to get with the program. I’ve been wasting my time recently building server images and coming up with all sorts of uses for them. Future of scalability right here.

Yeah, it’s been a little footie break for me. And I’m back just in time to get ready for the first WPS draft. Any word on when that’s happening? Any news? MLS is boring me right now. Let’s bring on the new league!