(I apologize to any international readers of this here blog as I believe Hulu is only available inside the US) Hulu started streaming Satuday Night Live episodes so I’m all caught up on this season and now I really really want to rename our tier 2 W-League the “What up with that” league. Basically, I just never had the opportunity to get that ball rolling UNTIL TODAY. The Freedom’s W-Leage side hired former dev player Joanna Lohman as the new GM. The first order of business was to rename the team and the new name they came up with was Freedom Futures. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!?!?! That is a horrible name! What’s wrong with the name they got now? Do they really think we can’t tell the difference between the two squads? This one goes right up there with the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues, FC Gold (Good Lord), and *cough* the CyberRays. I am with Kenan Thompson here: what is up with women’s soccer teams coming up with the worst names possible? Is this some sort of horrible tradition? And Freedom Futures? Are we watching a semi-pro soccer team or are we investing in the stock market? I am serving this decision two giant cups of FAIL.

So what else is going on in the world of women’s soccer?

Tiffany Weimer is excited to start playing for the Breakers this season. Also excited is Kelly Smith. She says: “Watching her play is an absolute pleasure, I’m really excited.” *GULP*

According to her club in the Netherlands Daphne Koster signed with Sky Who Blue. As the captain of the Danish National team, she took them all the way to the Euro semi-finals.

Did you miss the audio interview with Abby Wambach and Cat Whitehill this week? That’s ok. The Freedom Insider took notes for us.

Goal.com checks in over at the Australian W-League where Sydney FC will play the Brisbane Roar this weekend. Seems the two teams are developing a bit of a rivalry. Says WPS free agent Sarah Walsh: “It will probably be Sydney’s toughest game… It’ll come down to – to borrow the old cliché – of who wants it most.” Both teams contain the highest number of Matildas (national team players) in the league. Should be a bloodbath.

Over in the UK, there are apparently some rumors that Grimsby Town may ask Hope Powell to be their new head coach which would make her the first first team female coach of a UK men’s team. Likely just rumors but it seems folks agree that she certainly is qualified to do it.

Also in the UK comes a story from the Guardian – John Terry put his pants back on long enough to realize the Chelsea Ladies were in all sorts of financial trouble and he bailed them out, found them a new head coach, became the club’s president, and started attending their games. no word on whether he chased down Lorrie Fair for an autograph.

On a similar note, WPSL finalists Ajax America are officially broke and need everyone’s financial help to keep on playing. Also revealed in that link is the news that LA Sol lost $2 million dollars in 2009 but AEG do promise to remain partners through 2010. After that? Well, let’s hope Anthony LaPaglia doesn’t bail too.

The Soccer Science blog asked Emma Hayes 10 questions in a segment that really should be renamed Get To Know Me!

AND FINALLY, Match Fit USA is conducting a contest to determine who will be the winner of the Twitterverse Players League. Simply put, readers get to vote on their absolute favorite US men’s soccer player on twitter. This contest got me wondering – if there was a women’s version, would there even be enough interesting tweeters to have a proper contest? Seriously ladies, it’s time to step it up.

In other news:

Lotta lotta lotta loans. Marta is in Brazil with Santos FC. Kelley Smith, Alex Scott, & Karen Carney are back with Arsenal. For the Freedom, Sonia Bompastor is in France with PSG, Homare Sawa is in Japan with NTV Beleza, Lisa De Vanna is in Australia with Perth Glory… and there are probably heaps others all over the place either playing or just training. I’m sure there’s a full list somewhere. All this does is really make me wish I found a different line of work. Sure, playing in WPS can’t pay well but you do get to see the world a bit. Damn.

The USWNT training camp begins this week. Pia gets 12 days with her call-ups to decide who goes to Germany to play a friendly in October. There are a few new faces on the roster and the NYT Goal blog has a little interview with midfielder Yael Averbuch. Also, Abby Wambach got a dog. Hey, this is off-season news, y’all. We take what we can get!

And in much much more serious and somber news, one of the men accused of the “corrective rape” and murder of South African footballer, Eudy Simelane, received a life sentence. He was the second man involved who received a conviction so far.

This picture has nothing to do with WPS but I think it really captures these charged political times we live in

I’m a bit late on this post but as I type, Allie Long is celebrating her birthday at the Rhino Bar with some other Washington Freedom teammates. So if you are in the DC area and a fan (and who isn’t?), you should go. You should also bring a present. I mean something besides telling her good luck against Sky Blue FC on Saturday at 4pm Eastern for the first round of the playoffs (the game is on Fox Soccer Channel too). Something nice and thoughtful. According to her UNC player profile, she really likes the beach.

And here are some playoff previews to tide you over before the carnage begins

ESPN
World Soccer Reader
WPS site

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.

“[Jose Carlos Rivero is] over his head. Most of the referees in this league have been over their heads,” DiCicco said. “And they can look the part and play the part but that is just a very, very difficult call in that stage in the game. . . . Not only did he change this game, we have to play two days from now in St. Louis, and he’s reshaped the whole playoff picture. I just feel for my team because they played their hearts out. And they deserved better, they deserved a better center official.”

The call in question can be seen in the first few minutes of the video below. Breakers defender Alex Scott goes in a bit high on a tackle against Sonia Bompastor. Scott immediately gets the red card while Bompastor plays the entire game.

Earlier in the season, DiCicco made similar comments against the refs because of dangerous fouls against his star player, Kelley Smith. He received a fine and was forced to perform community service for his words.

Alex Scott mentions the incident in her blog:

Washington go on the attack, but it breaks down, we have the ball in the back passing it around for a sec, the ball comes to me……. i have space to drive forward, i take a touch forward the ball slips away from me a bit, i slid to try and retrieve it then BANG……………… i hear a whistle Bompaster is still on the floor rolling around, the ref is running over, i see him go to his pocket…….. so i think to myself great, a yellow card this early on, thats going make my game hard now……. BUT NO!!! he pulls out a RED!!!! i had to double take, i thought it was wrong, a red card in the 1st 5 minutes, come on! i was so shell shocked i could not say a word. my 1st red card in my career and i have been playing since i was 8!

The NY Times Goal blog points out, Abby Wambach had a similar looking accidental slide tackle earlier in the season that resulted in a yellow card and a season ending injury for Daniela (Wambach was eventually suspended one game). Scott also points out on her blog that all red cards issued this season were against the Freedom. Coincidence? Inconsistency? Conspiracy? Or are we just super super bored out here? Wambach’s yellow card tackle can be seen in the video below:

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.