The above photo is how I imagine the recent WPS behind closed doors Expansion Draft went down

Umea IK received a teeny tiny blurb at uefa.com. Mika Sankala stepped down as head coach this week because the traveling took him away from his family (awww). No word on his replacement (that I know of). And St. Louis just signed former Umea players forward Madelaine Edlund and midfielder Elaine.

Hope Powell and the England squad will play Turkey on Thursday (while we Americans eat turkey on Thursday) and a win for England means they qualify for the World Cup. That’s a potential spot earned in three games. Uh, wow. No wonder CONCACAF are dragging their heels on this. Anyways, Powell wins quote of the week from a Guardian interview where she spoke about England’s 8-0 beating of Malta last month:

Now we have to build on what we’ve achieved this year, and to do that we must qualify for the World Cup. We made a good start in terms of the result against Malta, but it was disappointing that we didn’t score more goals.

The WPS site has an interview with new Sky Blue coach Pauliina Miettinen where she discussed scouting and what she looks for in potential players. Part of her research is finding out more about the player off the field: “I also want to know what they are really like, day-to-day, and also about their personality.” Um, ok. I’m all for co-workers getting along and finding the right fit and all that but it does seem that she mentions this sort of thing A LOT. And coupled with the fact that this is a women’s league and she’s a female coach, it tends to imply to the average person that maybe THIS IS ACTUALLY A HUGE PROBLEM IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Just a fyi there – especially on the heels of the whole Elizabeth Lambert fiasco. Yes, I may be totally overreacting here but it bothers me.

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.

picture courtesy of the FC Gold Pride twitter feed cheers David!

Ok. So now we’re looking at Washington, Boston, and Sky Blue to fight for a post-season. Boston are one point behind Washington and Sky Blue are two points behind Boston. Sky Blue have two more games to play while Washington and Boston have just one. I’m getting nervous just typing this.

And the W-League final is set. La Sol affiliates, Pali Blues will play Washington Freedom affiliates, uh, the Washington Freedom.

who is this guy?

It’s been a busy week in the world of pro, semi-pro, and not-at-all pro women’s soccer so let’s review…

WPSL The final four are set. The semifinals will take place in Long Island (will they throw in some of that famous iced tea?). On August 1st, the Dallas Premier play the Long Island Fury then defending champs Ajax America face Miami Kickers FC. The winners of these games face-off in the final on August 2nd.

W-League What an upset! The Ottowa Fury beat FC Indiana last Sunday 2-1 and ended the season quite a bit earlier than last year’s runner ups expected. So now the Fury will face the Washington Freedom (yes – same franchise as the WPS team just the W-League version) on August 1st at the Maryland SoccerPlex. On July 31st, the regular season champs (ahem) Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues play last year’s champs Pali Blues in exciting Newburgh, New York. I just Googled tourist info for Newburgh and after y’all finish visiting the many George Washington historical landmarks, you are totally done with that place. So if you are still in the area and reading this, you simply do not have a good excuse not to go. Oh, and there’s been a bit of a shift in how things get done in the W-League. Instead of the automatic bye to the final for the regular season winner, the winners of the two above games face each other in the final – which will be live on Fox Soccer Channel at 7:30pm ET August 7th.

WPS The playoff run continues and most importantly, STL and Boston try to clinch their positions. STL win a spot (and apparently get a home field playoff game) if they beat Boston on Saturday OR tie Boston and Washington lose or tie a game this week. Boston win a spot if they beat Washington on Wednesday and I think if that doesnt’ work out they might also get a spot if they beat STL on Saturday… but don’t quote me on that (or anything really). So basically if Boston win tomorrow, STL does too and our friends in mound city don’t even need to lift a finger. And check that last link from answerbag.com. Commenter zaqes1 says St Louis is also called choke city because their sports teams often lose during the playoffs. So is it really in the bag for STL? Ok, it probably is. But I’m just trying to create some intrigue here.

And don’t forget that completely meaningless La Sol at Chicago game that happens to be the only one this week available online as well as on tv.

Right. We’ve got some playoffs, we’ve got some seasons ending. We’ve got that All Stars game to think about. We’ve also got the Euros. Last year around about this time, I spent a few confused and hungover mornings in various bars surrounded by annoying passionate and worldly Spaniards. Now it’s time for the ladies to play (they like to say that in Europe a lot ladies don’t they?). It starts August 23 and ends September 10th. And with France, England, and Sweden competing, I think it’s about 100% likely that quite a few of our All Stars picks won’t be available to play. (And quite a few Umea players won’t make the trip either.) But it seems that according to the fans’ votes, it doesn’t matter anyways since WPS published the tally so far and according to us, we really just want to see the US Women’s National Team play Umea IK. Screw everybody else in this league. Ok, fair enough.

And if you click on this link, you can watch highlights of Germany’s 6-0 pounding of the Netherlands this past weekend in a friendly. Watch the Dutch keeper completely lose it well before the end of the first half. I love the commenter: “the Dutch keeper might have saved it if she just stretched a bit more.” Indeed.

I took this picture in the bathroom stall at San Francisco’s Kezar Pub today. My phone doesn’t have flash and I think I dropped it one too many times so sorry about the quality. But it probably doesn’t really matter anyways (that’s Rachel Beuhler in the photo). With this past weekend’s results, both FC Gold Pride and the Chicago Red Stars are eliminated from the playoffs. And Washington and Sky Blue are now tied for fourth place. Next up, Sky Blue sit the upcoming week out and St Louis attempt to finally win that #2 berth.

No cristal for this bunch. With Thursday night’s 0-0 tie to FCGP, LA Sol get that one elusive point to make them the WPS regular season winners. Now they have an automatic bye to the final and home field advantage – meaning this thing will be at the Home Depot Center on Aug 22 (mark your calendars). And they’ve managed to do it with games remaining in the regular season. Two of those games are even on tv! And one is against the Red Stars. This weekend, in a game only available online, the Red Stars are going to give it one last shot to make a post-season run. If they fail, they’re out, and their upcoming televised match between LA will be pretty effin’ meaningless. On August 2, both teams could just take off to the bar and field a roster of trained monkeys. Ok, I’d totally watch that.

The Red Stars will make their final stand on Sunday and they’ll do it wearing green uniforms. It’s an environmental thing ya know. I do my part by buying the box wine – lower carbon footprint than the regular wine. The Red Stars will do their part by wearing the green jerseys then auctioning them off afterwards.

The Freedom don’t play this weekend The Freedom play Chicago this weekend and Sky Blue are yet again going to fight to keep their slim lead over Washington… by playing Boston… who are in third place but nipping at the heels of STL… STL are up against FCGP on Sunday. It’s a two point difference between STL, Boston, Sky Blue, and Washington right now (and in that order) so we may see another shift in the postseason line-up by Monday. And apparently with Thursday’s tie, FCGP aren’t completely out of it yet. But who are we kidding?

Now, after watching the atrocious offensive play from STL during their Saturday game against Washington, I’d guess this week is in the bag for LA already except Lori Chalupny is back from National Team training camp and training with STL. Lori Chaloopa… who just so happens to be the second highest goal scorer for STL (thank you stats page) and who strangely enough has become the offensive spark for this team. And Sky Blue after their amazing fire-the-coach-and-start-winning-shit late season run, are barely hanging on to their lead over Washington. So by the time they meet the Freedom on Aug 8th, that game could be a post season deal-breaker. WPS has the break-down (thanks again to the stats collector person whoever you are)

While all games are key at this time in the season, looming on the horizon is a potential one-game elimination match on August 8th to get into the playoffs between current 4th-place Sky Blue FC and fifth-place Washington Freedom, who are currently 2 points back from a playoff spot. Washington has a 6-5 goals edge on the season series with a win and a tie, so if the two teams come in tied on points, then Washington would only need a tie to earn the head-to-head tiebreak, while Sky Blue FC would need a victory. If Washington comes into the game behind by 1, 2 or 3 points in the standings, Washington would still take the season series with a victory against Sky Blue FC and would also edge them for a playoff berth thanks to the head-to-head tiebreak.

I just checked and it looks like this upcoming match is not available on tv or online which is (drumroll please) poetic and kind of sums up the inagural WPS season in a, err, metaphorical type nutshell.

The Freedom, on the other hand, soldiered through a depleted squad from call-ups to beat STL. But that’s not the story here. Third string goalie, Kati Jo Spisak, hurt herself in the second half and had to sub out. Except, with first choice Mcleod off with Canada and second choice Scurry injured, goalkeeper coach Nicci Wright had to come out of retirement and finish the game. But that’s not even the best part of the story. Did you watch this one? (it was available online – just sayin’) Cause Eric Wynalda was one of the commentators. So when Wright subbed in, he asked, wouldn’t it be funny if she blew the Freedom’s lead? Her players would never take her seriously again… which, of course, would be true but luckily Wright never had to worry about that potential problem. There was even a camera cut-over to Wright after a near miss that showed her nervously laughing and sticking her tongue out.

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The Red Stars/Sky Blue game turned into Natasha Kai injury watch. Girl walked into that with tweaks to both shoulders. She then spent the rest of the game dragging her team to the win and possibly injuring the rest of herself in the process. She created quite a few chances she couldn’t finish and didn’t wind up scoring the lone goal but I bet if she was fit, she’d have gotten a hat trick. Barring any extreme upsets, Sky Blue and the Freedom are really the last teams fighting for a post-season. But with Kai’s injuries and the return of her teammates from national team duty, this may be her last hurrah for 2009. Bit of a bummer considering her great 2008 with the nats.

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I missed the FCGP/Boston game. It wasn’t online, it wasn’t on tv, and I had to deal with some stupid house crap so I couldn’t make it down. But I already knew it was gonna be a loss for the team at the bottom of the table. And after watching the San Jose MLS team sit at the bottom of their table AGAIN, I’ve got a new theory that Buck Shaw stadium is cursed (I’m too lazy to look up the college teams’ stats so my theory is not quite complete). In fact, I’m thinking Sarah Winchester got bored of her unfinished house down the street and moved into the press box. Also, I want Tiffany Weimer traded to another team asap. At the beginning of the season, she was the one to watch and now she’s getting subbed out of the game at the half.

So for the next month, focus on Sky Blue and the Freedom. Sky Blue start off playing the number 2 & 3 teams on the table with Natasha Kai needing to pull more magic out of her ass this coming Wednesday while her teammates on the nats play Canada again. The Freedom have it easy against the last two teams on the table and Boston in between. So by the time these teams face each other on August 8th… well, their last meeting was this past week and ended in a 4-4 tie.

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I would like to take a few seconds here to give a shout-out whut whut thank goodness Andrea Canales is back writing about women’s soccer again. When the old Sideline Views blog folded I was absolutely crushed. She and Kathryn Knapp are putting together a fantastic one-stop-shopping news source over at Goal.com. And regarding the recent review/suspension of Abby Wambach and Kia McNeill from last Sunday’s Athletica/Freedom game, Canales spells it all out short, sweet, & to the point:

Women should not be exempted from the fierce desire to win and the willingness to push themselves to the limit to make that happen. However, neither should they get a pass on reckless “red mist” moments of play where they lose sight of the potential to injure.

Perhaps Commissioner Tonya read Canales’ article because after the WPS Disciplinary Committee ruled to take no further action, she stepped in and announced a one game suspension for Wambach and McNeill. She also requested US Soccer review the referees assigned to WPS games. Except, I think Fox Soccer Channel didn’t get the memo because all throughout Sunday’s Red Stars/Sky Blue game, the commercials for the upcoming Freedom/Boston game kept announcing Abby Wambach’s Washington Freedom (and I’m not quite sure on this but Wambach may be out not from suspension but really because national team camp officially starts on Sunday).

Saint Louis did react to the loss of Daniela very very fast. Fast enough to get two trades in before their next game against FC Gold Pride. Christie Welsh and Kendall Fletcher moved from LA to STL in exchange for a conditional 2010 first-round draft pick and a 2011 first-round draft pick. But with the league so new, it’s hard to gauge this decision. Brash and desperate = yes. But how losing these future draft picks will affect STL in the future is unkown at this point. The last time I checked, each team was only allowed 5 international spots and for the women’s game in the US, the college draft does produce quality players. At least the band aid appears to be working as Saint Louis beat FC Gold Pride 1-0 this weekend.

Daniela suffered two injured knee ligaments and a crack in her tibia from Wambach’s tackle. Daniela is now out “indefinitely” and STL can kiss their most prolific goal scorer goodbye. So the new question is whether Wambach deserves more than a yellow card. This is something WPS is considering. COO Mary Harvey spoke to Goff: “We are carefully reviewing the play, just as we are reviewing other physical plays and yellow cards issued over the weekend. The review must play out properly and thoroughly before any judgments can be made.”

Wambach issued a public apology: “In regards to the injury Daniela sustained during our game, the thing I need to convey most is how hard it is for a player who has sustained a significant injury in the past year to now be on the other side of it. It’s been crucial for me to find out exactly what injuries Daniela has sustained because of how important I know she is to the Saint Louis franchise. I’ve been in contact with a close friend on the team to stay updated. Unfortunately soccer is a physical game and players do get injured. There was no intent on my side to cause any harm. I wish Daniela nothing but the speediest of recoveries. My thoughts and prayers are with her.” Waldo went off on the situation on Fox Fone In (still looking for a link). Solo even chimed in about it on Sunday: “My thought on it was that there was no excuse for it. I know Abby means well, and I know she has a good heart, and that she’d never want to see a player go down. But in the emotions of a game, it was right after the kickoff after they scored, and it was too many emotions, and she went into two-footed.” And it was a physical game, although I’m not entirely sure it was a personal game (but WPS needs a few good stories so I’m rolling with it). So the question now is whether Wambach gets a fine or suspension… or nothing.