Oct 16, 2008
More Women's Soccer
A quick follow-up to my recent post:
First, I went to the Longhorns game I mentioned in that post. It was a pretty good time. I can't really call the crowd anything more than "sparse", unfortunately. And I'm probably just showing off my ignorance of the college game, but some of their rules are crazy. No stoppage time, for one thing. Plus, the clock counts down, rather than up, even to the point of the announcer counting down the last 10 seconds of each half.
But the field at Myers sure is nice, there's no denying that. And they beat Iowa State 2-1, so I got a coupon for 5 free wings at Pluckers! Bottom line: there are worse ways to pass the time than watching athletic college girls play your favorite sport.
But if you want to check it out this season, you better act fast: there are only 3 home games left. Friday, Oct. 17 at 7 PM against Oklahoma (see UT beat OU again!), Sunday, Oct. 19 vs. Oklahoma State at 1 PM (tickets just $3 with this PDF coupon), and Friday, Oct. 31 vs. Baylor at 7 PM (trick? or treat?).
I also discovered that these games can be watched live online for free: look for "TexasSports.tv" on TexasSports.com for that.
The Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) continues its preparations for next year. An article on the USL site sheds some light on the questions I had about if there would be crossover from W-League to WPS:
First, I went to the Longhorns game I mentioned in that post. It was a pretty good time. I can't really call the crowd anything more than "sparse", unfortunately. And I'm probably just showing off my ignorance of the college game, but some of their rules are crazy. No stoppage time, for one thing. Plus, the clock counts down, rather than up, even to the point of the announcer counting down the last 10 seconds of each half.
But the field at Myers sure is nice, there's no denying that. And they beat Iowa State 2-1, so I got a coupon for 5 free wings at Pluckers! Bottom line: there are worse ways to pass the time than watching athletic college girls play your favorite sport.
But if you want to check it out this season, you better act fast: there are only 3 home games left. Friday, Oct. 17 at 7 PM against Oklahoma (see UT beat OU again!), Sunday, Oct. 19 vs. Oklahoma State at 1 PM (tickets just $3 with this PDF coupon), and Friday, Oct. 31 vs. Baylor at 7 PM (trick? or treat?).
I also discovered that these games can be watched live online for free: look for "TexasSports.tv" on TexasSports.com for that.
The Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) continues its preparations for next year. An article on the USL site sheds some light on the questions I had about if there would be crossover from W-League to WPS:USL W-League players represented 24 of the 28 picks made in Monday’s Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) General Draft, which consisted of four rounds of selections between the seven WPS clubs. Moreover, 18 of those 24 selections competed as recently as the 2008 W-League season. Six players taken in the draft, including the number two overall selection Jill Oakes, were part of the recent USL W-League Combine held in Tampa, Florida.One big standout seems to be the W-League team Pali Blues. They won the W-League championship this year — their first year in the league. And they've had no less than 9 players drafted into WPS so far, with more expected.
Oct 4, 2008
Women's Professional Soccer
My fifth-grade daughter volunteered to be a reporter on her school's closed-circuit TV news this year. The other day she was interviewing a classmate, and asked her that quintessential kid's question: "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The girl's answer: a professional soccer player.
Since the WUSA folded five years ago, there hasn't been a top-level pro league for women soccer players in the U.S. That league, created on the excitement of the national team's 1st place win in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and the star power of players like Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy and Austin's own Mia Hamm, lasted just 3 seasons.
Now a new league, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), is gearing up to take a second shot at the big time. They'll begin play next April, though of course preparations are well underway now.
This incarnation of women's pro soccer is also riding the momentum of the national team, though this time it's with gold medals from the Beijing Olympics. And it's a new generation of stars, too: Hope Solo, Christie Rampone, Natasha Kai and Shannon Boxx, to name but a few.
The league will start with just 7 teams in 2009, plus 3 more already announced for 2010. Dallas was on the original list of 2009 teams, but apparently they couldn't secure a place to play. The team in St. Louis not only has a very nice looking logo/crest, they also have an interesting name: "St. Louis". That's it. Just, St. Louis. No mascot, no club name, not so much as an "FC", from what I can tell.
The league is forming their teams now. They've already divvied up the 21 national team players, with three going to each team. And they held an "international draft", too. If I understand it right, that draft was just for the right to try to buy particular international stars, which I thought was pretty interesting. Marta, Daniela, Christiane and the rest of Brazil's single-named, silver-medalled Olympic squad will be the most sought-after, it seems.
Next up is the league's general draft, to be held this Monday, Oct. 6. This draft will include any players who signed up for it, whether domestic or international. I presume a good number of players will come from the USL's W-League. That's one aspect of WPS I'm looking forward to seeing: what its relationship to the W-League will be like. Hopefully more cooperative than what seems to exist between USL and MLS, anyway. And someday this could become of great interest to Aztex fans, if the club adds the W-League team they already own the franchise for.
Meanwhile, with no team in Texas yet, I've been following the Chicago Red Stars. And even though she's not listed in the international draft, if Germany's Fatmire Bajramaj ever comes to play in the WPS, I'll immediately switch allegiance to whatever team she goes to. Just because.
As I've said before, part of what I find fascinating about soccer in the U.S. is watching the business, promotion and marketing aspects of the sport. I think MLS has done a pretty good job so far in growing the league in a sustainable way. It's not perfect, and there's still criticism about the level of play compared to other leagues around the world. But at least they've avoided the flame-out of the NASL. So, I'm interested to see how WPS does, too. I understand their teams will be partnering with MLS teams in some cases, to take advantage of similarities and synergies (if you'll pardon the buzzword). As with MLS, the question boils down to: can this work?
On a related note, Austin's current women's team — the UT Longhorns, ranked 7th in the nation &mdash just lost the first game of the season last night, 2-1 to Nebraska. They play again at noon tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 5), taking on Iowa State here at the Mike A. Myers stadium.
Since the WUSA folded five years ago, there hasn't been a top-level pro league for women soccer players in the U.S. That league, created on the excitement of the national team's 1st place win in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and the star power of players like Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy and Austin's own Mia Hamm, lasted just 3 seasons.
Now a new league, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), is gearing up to take a second shot at the big time. They'll begin play next April, though of course preparations are well underway now.This incarnation of women's pro soccer is also riding the momentum of the national team, though this time it's with gold medals from the Beijing Olympics. And it's a new generation of stars, too: Hope Solo, Christie Rampone, Natasha Kai and Shannon Boxx, to name but a few.
The league will start with just 7 teams in 2009, plus 3 more already announced for 2010. Dallas was on the original list of 2009 teams, but apparently they couldn't secure a place to play. The team in St. Louis not only has a very nice looking logo/crest, they also have an interesting name: "St. Louis". That's it. Just, St. Louis. No mascot, no club name, not so much as an "FC", from what I can tell.The league is forming their teams now. They've already divvied up the 21 national team players, with three going to each team. And they held an "international draft", too. If I understand it right, that draft was just for the right to try to buy particular international stars, which I thought was pretty interesting. Marta, Daniela, Christiane and the rest of Brazil's single-named, silver-medalled Olympic squad will be the most sought-after, it seems.
Next up is the league's general draft, to be held this Monday, Oct. 6. This draft will include any players who signed up for it, whether domestic or international. I presume a good number of players will come from the USL's W-League. That's one aspect of WPS I'm looking forward to seeing: what its relationship to the W-League will be like. Hopefully more cooperative than what seems to exist between USL and MLS, anyway. And someday this could become of great interest to Aztex fans, if the club adds the W-League team they already own the franchise for.
Meanwhile, with no team in Texas yet, I've been following the Chicago Red Stars. And even though she's not listed in the international draft, if Germany's Fatmire Bajramaj ever comes to play in the WPS, I'll immediately switch allegiance to whatever team she goes to. Just because.As I've said before, part of what I find fascinating about soccer in the U.S. is watching the business, promotion and marketing aspects of the sport. I think MLS has done a pretty good job so far in growing the league in a sustainable way. It's not perfect, and there's still criticism about the level of play compared to other leagues around the world. But at least they've avoided the flame-out of the NASL. So, I'm interested to see how WPS does, too. I understand their teams will be partnering with MLS teams in some cases, to take advantage of similarities and synergies (if you'll pardon the buzzword). As with MLS, the question boils down to: can this work?
On a related note, Austin's current women's team — the UT Longhorns, ranked 7th in the nation &mdash just lost the first game of the season last night, 2-1 to Nebraska. They play again at noon tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 5), taking on Iowa State here at the Mike A. Myers stadium.
Labels: MLS, UT, W-League, WPS
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