In the world of “things that confuse me,” Laura Del Rio is expected to sign with FC Indiana for the 2009 season. So does this mean she won’t try to land a spot on a WPS team? FC Indiana still play in the W-League which allows clubs to stay amateur or go professional (FC Indiana chose the latter) and the owners of FC Indiana are part owners of the Red Stars, YET WPS officials have made it clear clubs will not get player preferences. So we should not expect to see such a relationship between the Red Stars and their affiliates (I think it was only last year that MLS even allowed clubs to sign players from their youth and amateur squads). Is Del Rio, and Indiana’s other major signing, Monica Ocampo, expecting not to make the cut because each WPS team is only allowed two international players? Or will there be another route to join a roster besides the announced drafts and combines?

And one last bit of news. It appears there may actually be a p2p feed of a Women’s FA Cup game between Everton FC and Arsenal tomorrow. I’ve got it listed beginning at 11:45am (I’m on the Pacific Coast) and the link to the feeds is here (hopefully some urls will pop up sometime tomorrow morning). I think this is a replay? According to their website, the new season doesn’t start until September.

First we have FC Indiana taking on the Seattle Sounders. On Sunday, FC Indiana won the Central Conference in overtime after Laura Del Rio tied their game against the Ottawa Fury in stoppage time and the game finished in overtime with a score of 4-3. The Seattle Sounders beat the the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0 with a Chalise Baysa bicycle kick in the 67th minute. Yes! A Bicycle kick!

USL has a game preview of tonight’s FC Indiana vs Seattle Sounders semi-finals game here.

Next we have the Washington Freedom taking on Pali Blues. The Washington Freedom beat the Atlanta Silverbacks this past Sunday in overtime with a Ali Andrzejewski goal in the 118th minute ending the game at 2-1.

USL has a game preview of tonight’s Washington Freedom vs Pali Blues semi-finals game here.

If these semis are as intense as the quarterfinals, I really really really wish they would be televised! But we do get to see the August 2 finals on the Fox Soccer Channel at 11pm ET. Set your Tivos now. Or, rather, I’ve got to see if I can find a p2p feed. I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t find feeds for July’s USA vs Brazil friendlies. Damn.

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

The W-League is inching closer to this season’s playoffs. The Toronto Lady Lynx, The Ottawa Fury, and The Boston Renegades have now earned spots. But perhaps the biggest upset of the weekend was the 3-0 victory The Washington Freedom had over Jersey Sky Blue on Saturday. This was apparently Sky Blue’s first road loss in the history of the club and puts the team in third place. And the team has at least one game in hand over the other playoff contenders in their Division. Yikes, this is turning into a bit of a nail biter.

In one last piece of news, Women’s Soccer USA is reporting that the St Louis club is negotiating with Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville to use their field for WPS games next year.

June 17 USA vs. Brazil 2 p.m. / 1 a.m.
June 19 USA vs. Italy 5 p.m. / 4 a.m.

That’s right US fans. Time to pour yourself a night cap, get comfortable in bed, fire up the laptop, and search for a signal. Good luck to everybody! And for effs sake, if you are successful, share the love. Pahleeese.

It also appears that the Pandora tv player is showing the games live. I swear I can’t keep up with all these players and channels.

On June 15th, the USWNT took on Australia for their first Peace Cup game. The final score was 2-1 for the US with goals by Natasha Kai and Abby Wambach. The official match report is here.

Steve Long of American Soccer News recently talked to Pia Sundhage about her coaching methods. Sundhage wants to continue to emphasize an aggressive defense but train the players to be smarter on offense.

She was clear that, “This team is very aggressive, which is great in defending. You should be aggressive in defending, but I don’t want to be aggressive in the attack. I don’t like that feeling. I’d rather say that in attack you have to be sly. You have to be clever, smart. Change, and change the speed.

She wants the team to maintain possession of the ball and wait to find the right moment to strike. She hopes to train the players to pass on immediate opportunities until the perfect moment arises.

It takes restraint in practice and preparatory matches to internalize the discipline to wait for a really superior chance, “Now the team is thinking to keep possession. We have to emphasize to keep possession, because that’s what we want to do in the Olympics. Dare to do that, because then it matters.”

And after watching the highlights of our 6-0 beating of Canada, I’d say we are on track to make this strategy a success.

USWNT Captain Christie Rampone had surgery Wednesday to remove her gall bladder. The surgery shouldn’t prevent her from playing in any upcoming games. In fact, she began rehabbing two hours after she left the hospital and has a month to recover before the Peace Cup games begin.

Anyways, here are some quick updates…

The yet-to-be-named Chicago WPS team just hired its coach, Emma Hayes. She is the now former coach for the Arsenal Ladies and during her time at the Emirates, she helped lead the team to back to back league wins. She’s a former W-League coach too and the Arsenal team has four former W-League players on its roster. Perhaps we will see some or all of them playing in the US soon?

USL awarded the Carolina RailHawks its W-League team of the week and Railhawks forward Casey Nogueira the player of the week. Nogueira notched one goal and one assist during their 2-0 victory over the Carolina Dynamo. Also getting a nod is goalkeeper Shannon Aitken who managed ten saves and a shutout to help Bradenton Athletics beat Tampa Bay 1-0.

A handful of W-League games will be available to watch on USLlive.com this weekend. You can watch the Carolina RailHawks home opener against the Atlanta Silverbacks Friday @7:30pm ET and the Vancouver Whitecaps season opener against the Ventura County Fusion Saturday @10pm ET.

Former USWNT and CyberRays player Thori Staples Bryan is playing for the Carolina RailHawks this season and current U-23 defender Nikki Krzysik is playing for the Richmond Kickers Destiny.

As a Linux user, I have my own personal issues with streaming video that only plays on Microsoft products but it seems if I am to follow women’s soccer, I’ll have to bite the bullet and install a xen server or something similar just to get my fix. Bah. Not pleased. Also, I’m missing the game since I’ll be at Buck Shaw for San Jose v Dallas which leads me to ask if anyone will record it and make it available online?