The Aztexan

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  Women's Professional Soccer

  Women's Professional Soccer kicks off with their first game on Sunday, with the Los Angeles Sol hosting the Washington Freedom. Maybe we'll see former Longhorn Jill Gilbeau take the field with the Freedom against the Sol's Brazilian superstar, Marta.
  
  I had more or less randomly picked the Chicago Red Stars as "my team", but I've switched to support St. Louis Athletica instead. St. Louis is such a hotbed of soccer, and they're still getting the cold shoulder from MLS (though some are making the case for a USL-1 team there). Plus, they have one of the coolest crests around, hands down. And they have a Brazilian national team star, too: Daniela.
  
  If you haven't seen the WPS commercials, they're pretty good. Here's the one featuring the Freedom's Abby Wambach.
  
  


• Aztex announce four additions — USLSoccer.com
  

  The Austin Aztex have announced the signing of four players for their inaugural USL First Division season, inking local Aztex PDL product Josh Alcala as well as Mike Callahan, Ryan Caugherty and David Sias.

  Nothing against any of the other guys, but I'm especially glad to see fan favorite from last year's U23 squad (and fellow blogger) Josh Alcala be officially added to the roster.


• USL partners with NeuLion for exclusive online video service — USLSoccer.com
  

  Powered by NeuLion, USL Live will carry all USL-1 matches in 2009, both live and on demand, that are not part of the USL Fox Soccer Channel television broadcast schedule. The upcoming season will be the first year the service will be available for free. The NeuLion platform will also increase video availability for other USL clubs in addition to providing match highlights and other special video content such as press conferences, interviews and features.
  

  The company that provided online video of USL-1 games last year went out of business, and there was doubt whether a similar service would be available this year. With just one USL-1 game per week on Fox Soccer Channel (2009 FSC schedule), that leaves very little chance to see your team on the road.
  
  This is a real masterstroke by USL (how often do we get to say that?). I've subscribed to MLS' similar service, now called Match Center, for a couple of seasons now. I originally signed up so I could see more FC Dallas matches, but with access to so many other games, I found myself having those on frequently, too. Watching other teams, seeing other action, hearing more names - it all deepened my fandom for MLS. I expect that will happen even more in this case, where the barrier to entry is even lower.
  
  Now Chantico's Army just needs to find a local pub to watch away matches, one that can hook up the computer video to a big screen...

• USL Week In Review — Inside Minnesota Soccer

  Brian Quarstad of the blog Inside Minnesota Soccer, which covers our USL-1 rivals Minnesota Thunder, among other things, has started writing a periodic roundup of news around the league. Excellent & highly recommended.

Labels: media, players, USL-1, WPS

// posted by Chris @ 9:39 AM