Karina LeBlanc GK – Los Angeles Sol, Canada
Tina Ellertson D – Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Amy LePeilbet D – Boston Breakers, United States
Alex Scott D – Boston Breakers, England
Camille Abily M – Los Angeles Sol, France
Sonia Bompastor M – Washington Freedom, France
Shannon Boxx M – Los Angeles Sol, United States
Lori Chalupny M – Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Kelly Smith M – Boston Breakers, England
Eniola Aluko F – Saint Louis Athletica, England
Marta F – Los Angeles Sol, Brazil

Ok, so the first thing you will note is Alex Scott, Camille Abily, Sonia Bompastor, Kelly Smith, and Eniola Aluko probably won’t play (confirmed: Smith, Scott, and Aluko certainly will not. Why? Because they’ll be in Europe. France plays Germany on August 27 while England plays Russia on August 28th. And if either team makes it out of their groups, they’ll be at it again starting on September 3rd. So maybe just maybe if England and/or France punk out of the Euros early, a few of players above will be back in time. Maybe.

So contingency plan time. I guess it’s just cool to be nominated. Maybe Shaq can take someone’s place and roll up with the Jabbawockeez. And looking at the top picks from the fans, one can hope that Hope comes in as a midfielder (but realistically, LeBlanc and Solo will swap halves – the fans have spoken!). At least there are plenty of USWNT player pool-ers available from the Red Stars and FC Gold Pride. What? We’re not gonna pick even one? According to the fine print:

With several players expected to be unavailable due to national team commitments at the 2009 European Championships, the First XI players who cannot play will be replaced by the next-highest vote-getters at that position announced later this week.

So there’s still time for Shaq to get in this thing! Or rather, Abby Wambach.

The players voted LA Sol head coach Abner Rogers to be the All Stars coach. Rogers and the Commish get to pick seven more players so I’m sensing a very LA-heavy All Stars roster coming up. Stay tuned, y’all.

Sky Blue FC goalkeeper Karen Bardsley writes a regular column over at goal.com. For her most recent, she wrote about her call-up to England’s National Team (betcha’d never see the day when an American played for England and please feel free to use this little trivia fact to win bets against your frenemies). I normally wouldn’t think twice about her article but she mentioned “the great voltage converter meltdown crisis of 2009” which I immediately assumed was her queue to start waxing crazy literary metaphors regarding Sky Blue’s inaugural WPS year head coach fiasco. Earlier in the season, coach Ian Sawyers was let go leading assistant Kelly Lindsey to take the job. And now – uh – Lindsey resigned and Christine Rampone will take over as player/coach. Good lord I say. Karen, you had the most amazing opportunity to wow me with a poetic diatribe regarding your pro team’s ongoing staffing drama. Unfortunately, Karen’s words were completely literal. While she was watching a WPS game overseas on her computer, it’s voltage converter exploded. What a let down.

Rampone is currently recovering from emergency stomach surgery (she sat out the last two US/Canada games) so she’ll have plenty of time to concentrate on the coaching part of her new job. Sky Blue are now barely hanging onto their fifth place position after Washington beat Boston on Wednesday and shot up to third place. Sky Blue are just two points behind Boston while STL, Washingon, and Boston are all one point behind each other.

Boston Breakers 3 – Washington Freedom 1 If this game had the first penalty in WPS and it wasn’t televised, does that mean it really happened? Actually, make that two penalties. After a scoreless and lackluster first half, Briana Scurry fouled Angela Hucles inside the box in the 54th minute. And in the 72nd minute Breakers defender Amy LePeilbet was caught for a handball in the box. Kelly “too early to be thinking mvp” Smith converted the first penalty but Abby “goalposts are my white whale” Wambach missed the second. Shortly after AbbyFAIL, Christine Latham and Angela Hucles scored leaving the Freedom with another loss. And with the imminent arrival of Erin McLeod to the Freedom, Briana “can’t blame this on the pink jersey” Scurry’s days in front of the net may be numbered.

LA Sol 1 – FC Gold Pride 0 Marta Marta Marta (mom always said, don’t play ball in the house). She scored AGAIN from an Aly Wagner pass launched over the FC Austin Powers Goldmember defense. Wagner’s performance earned her a player of the week nod (her reaction to the news was to tweet that her husband should take her out to a nice steak dinner – word). And despite plenty o’ chances throughout the game from both sides, this would be the only goal of the match. A match many writers on the internets are calling a rivalry. I dunno. Can we really say that after three games? And this being the first “real” one? This win keeps the Sol at the top of the league and if coach Rogers can keep up the momentum of his shockingly astute second half changes, the team will probably win a spot at the finals. And not to mention Jennifer Doyle’s recent comment: “They are already much, much more fun to watch than the Galaxy.” Double true.

Chicago Red Stars 0 – Sky Blue FC 0 Lindsay Tarpley is the Michael Bradley of women’s soccer. Scrappy. Best word to describe the both of them. Unforch, she was unable to use that “skill” to her advantage this time around. The Red Stars were in control of the game from the get-go but after Megan Rapinoe’s chance to seal the deal with a bicycle kick was punched over the bar by Karen Bardlsey, the synergy kinda puttered. And it remained that way going into the second half. Sky Blue was forced to swap goalkeepers (Bardsley was having back spasms – yikes!) and Concussion Kai entered in the 62nd minute. Basically, it was a flurry of subs during that second half but the changes didn’t really create any new chances for either side. I’m guessing the players need more training time together OR both teams will perhaps start looking into some trades… whenever WPS decides to set up a transfer window.

Stay tuned and I’ll whip up a weekend preview for later this week. Also, please DO check out the team power rankings from Pott Rodriguez at Peter Wilt’s blog. I’m dead serious when I say get this girl a book deal and/or her own column on the WPS site.

Annnd, today they take a stab at interpreting the draft. I read those rules last night, and I swear, after a few drinks, they made total sense. But now that I’m having a sober morning, I’m really thinking, wtf? So let’s see if I can summarize this mess for everyone:

1. The draft, which should really be named “The 2009 discovery period,” starts Thursday Sept 25 and continues “through the 2009 season.” On Thursday, each team can select up to four international players to begin exclusive negotiations with. There is a pick order (and according to the NJ Sky Blue blog, the Bay Area is first) which indicates to me there is also a pick order for the players entering this draft. I can’t seem to find any info on the teams or players lists and their rankings. If anyone’s got the info, please share!

2. Teams can elect to pass on a player but if they choose to begin negotiations, that player should be within the last six months of her current team’s contract. But if she is not, the player’s current club must grant that WPS team access to the player. Each WPS team can negotiate with up to six international players at a time. Each team can sign up to five international players during the 2009 season.

3. This “discovery period” is only one of three methods for teams to gain access to negotiate with an international player. There’s Thursday’s draft, the Oct 6 General draft (no word on how players can enter this yet), and teams can file what I can only assume is the WPS version of what MLS calls a discovery claim. And it looks like discovery claims are ongoing and are not capped (yet).

So this leaves me to ponder two things: that WPS hasn’t started thinking of how and when to force teams to freeze their rosters and there are no restrictions on the number of claims teams can start tossing out. Shit, if I was a GM, on Thursday, I’d immediately file claims on everyone at FFC Frankfurt.

Speaking of… I keep reading rumors that Ali Krieger extended her contract to 2010. While I understand she’s a great player, I just don’t know if she’s good enough to play on two different teams on two different continents at the same time. Ooh, maybe she’ll prove me wrong.

Ok, I’m not writing the San Jose Offside blog anymore so you may be wondering why I’m telling this story. My point is, let’s hire Troy Dayak to do WPS commentary. We could even pair him with Brandi Chastain who, despite a few complaints, is doing a pretty darn good job in the booth for the Olympics. I’d even argue that she’s doing such a good job, her talents would be better suited coaching a WPS team – perhaps one in the Bay Area, which would of course mean we’d totally kick everyone’s asses and win loads of titles.