US beats Italy; face Canada in the Championship

Congratulations the US Women's team who beat Italy 2-0 today to win their group and a spot in the Peace Queen Cup finals on Saturday.

The win mean the women took all three-group games, including a 1-0 win against Brazil (a little better then their World Cup result from last year). Also, their offense seems to be back as they out scored their opposition 5-1.

The final will be a rematch of 2006 as America's neighbor to the north will try to extract their revenge. The Canadians walk out of their group as undisputed masters as they took all 9 points with a +9 goal difference (10-1). As impressive as this is, it must be noted that the US faced the number 4,12 & 13 teams in the world while Canada faced off against the 23,24 and 27th.

This is the fourth final the US women have played in this year and the second involving Canada. So far the US is 3-0.

US Women know their road to the Olympics - Schedule

The US women know now who they are training to beat as Concacaf has released their 2008 Women’s Olympic Qualification. Six nations will take part in the competition for the 2 Concacaf spots in Bejing.

The teams have been divided into 2 groups of 3. The top 2 teams from each group will advance to the semifinals. Here is the full 2008 Women’s Olympic Qualification schedule:

Group A
USA
Mexico
Jamacia

April 2 - Mexico vs. Jamacia (7:30p)
April 4 - USA vs. Jamacia (7:30p)
April 6 - Mexico vs. USA (1:30p)

Group B
Trinidad & Tobago
Canada
Costa Rica

April 2 - Trinidad & Tobago vs. Canada (5:00p)
April 4 - Costa Rica vs. Trinidad & Tobago (5:00p)
April 6 - Canada vs. Costa Rica (11:00a)

Seminfinals
April 9 - A1 vs. B2 (5:00p)
April 9 - B1 vs. A2 (7:30p)

Finals
April 12 - Third Place (5:00p)
April 12 - Championship (7:30p)

All matches will take place at Estadio Olímpico Benito Juarez in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Although the US should have no problems making it through this tournament, the home pitch advantage for Mexico, combined with the short time between game number 1 & 2 (compared to Mexico), might cause a stubble in the first round.

My guess is the US will take group A with Mexico coming in second. Canada will sneaking by group B with Costa Rica claiming second. The big match will be the semifinal between Mexico and Canada as the US should easily handle Costa Rica (or T&T).

The finals are pretty meaningless in this one as both spots go to the teams in the championship match, but I still expect the US to end it on top.

NBA's Steve Nash invests in women's soccer league

The Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash is now a partner in the new Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league.

"I look at my childhood and realize how many athletes I had to look up to," Nash said in a phone interview. "I look at the opportunity to put some of these wonderfully talented athletes who are dedicated and committed and put them in a setting to inspire a whole generation below them."

This is just the type of invest the new WPS needs. Here you have a well-known player of a different sport preaching the wonder that is this game. It will not cause a huge rush of people to watch, but it does give the league a known face to help with the push.

Also, Nash Jeff Mallett, a former president and chief operating officer at Yahoo Inc.*, nails the advantage WPS has over MLS in that WPS will probably be able to get the best players in the world, including Brazilian World Cup stand out Marta.

* edit - as noted in the comments, Nash did not say this, the business man did.

Welcome to Women's Professional Soccer

The long awaited top-level women's soccer league now has a name and a logo. As you can see in the title, the name is Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). It might not be the most exciting of names, but it does tell you exactly what it is.

As far as the logo, much like the name, it gives you what it is, a woman playing the game of soccer. The fact that the woman in silhouette is none other then Mia Hamm kicking at the ball, just lets you know the level they are hoping to achieve.

The league will have their first kick in Spring of 2009 with teams based in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. It is very interesting that all but one of those teams is in a MLS city (hello St. Louis).

By the way, they provide the media with a great deal of information regarding the name and how to use it:

Please first reference the league in print or broadcast coverage using the full name of “Women’s Professional Soccer,” after which the “WPS” acronym can be incorporated. Please do not abbreviate the league’s name to “Women’s Pro Soccer,” or qualify it as “the Women’s Professional Soccer,” “the WPS,” “Women’s Professional Soccer league,” “WPS league,” “the Women’s Professional Soccer league,” or “the WPS league.”

Kind of reminds me of Toronto FC asking the media to not call them TFC. Let's hope WPS has better luck with the grammatical choices of reporters.

One last aspect of this launch that might be the most important thing, they are planning to have a large web presence. Their site will include "...access to behind-the-scenes videos on WPS TV, prospective player blogs, event and community calendars, league and team news, job and volunteer opportunities, links to individual team pages, and much more."

The people heading up this effort are smart so they must realize how little coverage they are going to get in most outlets. If they really want to reach people, they will need to take in on themselves and the web is a perfect way to do that. But they can't just slap some stuff up on a site and call it a win, instead they need to let it define itself. Find ways to allow readers to make things happen and encourage players to blog honestly about things. If they do this, they have a chance of standing out.

So we have a name, next step, finding players.

MLS Expansion: Milwaukee's dream looks to be dead

In a major blow to Milwaukee's hope of landing a MLS expansion squad, Peter Wilt has left his post as chief executive officer of Milwaukee Professional Soccer LLC.

Wilt, who was the former general manager for the Chicago Fire, had hoped to work with local financiers and politicians to bring top level soccer to Wisconsin, however, there just was not enough of a push to make it happen.

"Despite having a broad base of support, 8,000 season-ticket equivalents and what I feel is the best pro team/amateur youth sports association partnership in history, we haven't been able to secure the necessary governmental support or the development rights for appropriate land in the desired time frame," said Wilt in a statement.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Wisconsin would be a successful Major League Soccer market and that Milwaukee and its citizens would benefit from a team and stadium as part of a major mixed-use development."

Wilt had been working on the project since 2005, but his efforts to land a stadium location proved to be extremely elusive. Perhaps he is best known for his idea to use the Milwaukee Mile racetrack as a soccer pitch.

With Seattle landing a team this week and Philadelphia or St. Louis on the cusp of getting a club (not to mention the Portland, Las Vegas, Phoenix and New York City options), the idea of the league expanding to a city where the team would play at a race track must have finally seemed to far fetched for Wilt.

Thankfully he will still be involved in soccer, as he will work with the Chicago team in the new professional women's league.

2007 Women's World Cup - US vs. North Korea preview

US (0pts) vs. North Korea (0pts)
5am ET/2am PT
TV: ESPN2

The top team in the world takes the pitch tomorrow (or later today for them) against one of the less known sides in the world. North Korea always fields a quality team but little is known about them so even though it is safe to say the US is the better team, they might be caught off guard by their opposition.

What is known about the Koreans from the North is that they like to play an aggressive attacking style, much like America. The question is can the US women force them to play their game. The answer might come with the opening lineup as we will finally discover just how hurt Abby Wambach is. If her injury is serious, that is a major striker option missing, which means the ever wonderful Kristine Lilly will have to carry the team.

For the US to win, they will need to find a way past keeper Phi Un Hui and a way of shutting down Ri Kum Suk. Hui is a good net minder but she can be caught flat footed while Suk is, well just about the best player at the finals. But if the US can keep her locked up, North Korea will be forced to find other options.

Since both teams see this as a must win (in a group with four of the top five teams in the world, you don't want to drop points early), expect to see some physical play. Although the US women are tough, they can get out muscled, so they need to keep their ground and be ready to cover for little slips.

In the end, I think Hope Solo will come up with a couple huge saves while Lilly will play a game that reminds us all why, even at the age of 36, she is still one of the best athletes in the world. And if Wambach is not ready, I think Natasha Kai will do us proud.

MLS still looking at San Diego

Much like St. Louis and Philadelphia, San Diego has been a target market for a MLS team since before the league existed, but never have all the ingredients come together to make it happen.

Turns out, they still are not coming together, but there might be a move in sight.

However, before we get there, let's take a look at why San Diego is of such interest.

It makes perfect sense when you consider the area's soccer demographics: tens of thousands of youth players, some of the nation's best youth clubs, the Sockers' glistening legacy, World Cup TV ratings more than double the national average, nearly 1 million people of Hispanic heritage with a love for the sport, and millions more in Mexico just a short drive away.

The main sticking point has been the total lack of a suitable stadium as the only options are the 70,000 seater Qualcomm Stadium or USD's Torero Stadium, which holds about 7,000. But could that change?

Enter San Jose Padres owner John Moores who has talked with MLS in the past. Moores obtained "'the sole option to lease from the city Qualcomm Stadium for professional soccer' in exchange for waiving revenue from the stadium's naming rights deal." There has been talk about Moores bringing a women's team to the area as part of the new pro league, but is that enough for him to turn down naming rights money?

With the Chargers wanting to move out of Qualcomm and into an American football specific stadium (the stadium was build for baseball as well), there might be some redevelopment happening soon. And that leads us to one more point, Moores is a big San Diego State fan.

So here is the scenario Mark Zeigler is suggesting.

Say the Chargers move out of Qualcomm, and the city redevelops the site. Moores or someone else, armed with two soccer tenants and a homeless SDSU football program, could propose building a smaller stadium somewhere in the county.

This proposal is very interesting in that it is very similar to what we just saw with Lew Wolff and the San Jose Earthquakes. In both cases you have a baseball owner trying to bring a soccer team to a supportive city, but needing a little help from the city and a public university to make it happen.

The potential is very much there for the Chargers to move, even if they do not get a new stadium. The team has threatened to move in 2008, but even if they did, I would imagine it would take a while for the city to agree to redevelop the land. Anything could happen, but with MLS wanted more concrete plans these days before they award a team, I don't think this will be happening soon.

Women's World Cup draw

The year and the country might be different, but the draw ended the same as the US women have the same group stage opponents this year as they had in 2003. Again the red, white and blue will face Nigeria, North Korea and Sweden, but will they be able to walk away with three victories in Group B play?

They will face North Korea, the top team in Asia, on 11 September, Sweden, the 2003 runner's up, on the 14th and Nigeria, winners of the African qualifying tournament, on the 18th. The top two teams from Group B will advance.

Without a doubt, this is a difficult draw as any of these teams could advance. That said, Nigeria is the weakest of the group, but it would be silly to count them out, as their speed alone will make them a threat. With all odds, the September 14th match between the US and Sweden will probably decide who gets first in the group, but North Korea might just steal second place from one of the favorites.

The Wolrd Cup gets underway on 10 September when Germany and Argentina take to the pitch in Shanghai.

Here are the other groups:
Group A
Germany
Japan
England
Argentina

Group C
Norway
Ghana
Australia
Canada

Group D
China PR
New Zealand
Brazil
Denmark

US Women set World Cup sendoff match; Breakers return to Boston

The US women will not know who they will play in this fall's World Cup till Sunday, but they now know who they will play in the lead up to those date.

Between June 16 and August 25th, the women will take on six of the world's best. Here is the list:

June 16 - China - Cleveland Browns Stadium (Cleveland, Ohio) 7 p.m. ET
June 23 - Brazil - Giants Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.) 5 p.m. ET*
July 14 - Norway - Rentschler Field (East Hartford, Conn.) 6 p.m. ET*
July 28 - Japan - Spartan Stadium (San Jose, Calif.) 7 p.m. PT
Aug. 12 - New Zealand - Soldier Field (Chicago, Ill.) 12 p.m. CT*
Aug. 25 - Finland - The Home Depot Center (Carson, Calif.) TBA *
* Live on ESPN2

Five of these six teams will also travel to China for the World Cup.

In other women's soccer news, the new pro women's soccer league has announced the addition of a seventh team to their lineup. Joining LA, DC, St Louis, Dallas, Chicago and NY is Boston. The new team from bean town will keep the name of the former WUSA side Boston Breakers.

The Breakers were the best regular season team in the WUSA in 2003.

By the way, the league will announce one more location at a later date.

St Louis's new soccer club building from the bottom up

Joe Lyons of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes a look at the slow building process happening in St. Louis ahead of next year's launch of a new professional women's soccer league. Turns out that much like MLS's desire to not repeat the mistakes of NASL, the new women's league does not want to repeat the mistakes of the WUSA.

The yet-to-be named new league will replace the Women's United Soccer Association, which folded in 2003 after three seasons. That eight-team league, fueled by the success of the 1999 Women's World Cup, averaged crowds of better than 8,000 in its first season, but it was unable to sustain that success because of rising costs and limited revenue.

There are many interesting tidbits in the article, but the two I find most interesting concern the ties to MLS and what they need to be a success.

The new league, which is negotiating with Major League Soccer's marketing division to handle sponsorships and marketing, projects an operating budget of between $1.5 million and $2.5 million a team.
...
The local squad will probably open play at Anheuser-Busch Center in Fenton, where the main field can seat up to 6,200. Cooper said that the franchise could be successful drawing crowds of 4,000 a game.

Needing to sell about 4,000 tickets is a realistic, but it will still be difficult. Their angle, as expressed in article, seems to be to corner the kid market. With a schedule that is almost exclusively during the summer months, this is a good way to go. If they can keep ticket prices low, they have a great chance of being a success.