There's quite a bit on the soccer news front, as you may have guessed from the headline this morning.  The WPS has held its combines on the East and West coasts, and is gearing up for its draft on Friday, January 16th.  (That's this Friday, folks!)  Here's some nice video from the West Coast combine [.

Happy Saturday morning ... as the clouds roll in, bringing some much needed rain to these parts. I went for a run yesterday after work and jogging by the fire house, noticed the sign saying that the fire danger was "extreme." (Breathed a small sigh of relief that I wasn't lounging by the chiminea, endangering the neighborhood without realizing!

Have you been having trouble this week keeping track of what day it is?  I'm not complaining about the Thursday Holidays, mind you - but it's made for some serious disorientation.  Nice and quiet at work, though.  I've been digging through things I hadn't gotten to for months, and my in-box is down to just [.

They had me going there for a minute. The grudge match today between Washington and Man Is It Going To Get Old Having To Type The Entire Word Each Time Louis Athletica? Better than we had any right to expect, considering the visiting team hadn't - you know, that thing where the little ball thing goes into that net contraption on the side there.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

For a league that is just over six weeks into its inaugural season, Womens Professional Soccer now faces its first big controversy.

I didn't give KC much chance going into last night's game in Seattle against the expansion Sounders, I just thought that Seattle on paper was too good. Seattle was good, but some mistakes by them allowed KC to take advantage and get a 1-0 away win against the previously undefeated and unscored on Sounders.

In what sounded like a wild and wooly second half, Christine Latham and Kristin Luckinbill were major contributers in a decisive 3-1 win for the Boston Breakers.

The Breakers scored first, on a PK by Kelly Smith in the 54th minute after Scurry fouled Hucles in the box. Lori Lindsey equalized soon after, and Abby had a chance to give the Freedom their first lead of the new season on a second PK (after a handball).

That's not a typo - but I'm morose as well, after Rebecca Moros scored for the Freedom against the Breakers, and all the blue team could come up with was a tie in yesterday's match. I am sure that they wanted to pull off the win against the Abby-less Freedom ... and with Maren Meinert there, no less.

The entire U.S. team and staff were hosted for a scrumptious BBQ dinner last night at Casa Wambach. Special thanks to Abby's parents, her brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, friends, relatives and everyone else. Really, the Wambach Clan is never-ending. It was nice to get out of the hotel, get some good food and visit with one of the U.

First off - Beulah's match report is up! (This is on the Breakers' win over the Freedom ... which ranked somewhere below a broken windshield in Beulah's book ... understandably!) Sorry to hear about your windshield! As for Abby not getting up - that was a huge gripe of mine (and my compatriots) back in the WUSA days when "Get up Abby" was a favorite refrain when the Freedom were in town.

Cheltenham Town FC has been relegated to the fourth tier of the English football league system after the club's 1-1 draw against Carlisle United at Abby Business Stadium. The club will compete in Coca-Cola League Two for the 2009-10 season.
Manager Martin Allen noted on the club's website, "I wish season wasn't ending.

Expanding a little on what Kenn and I talked about in the podcast.
That podcast is of course Four at the Back, starring him and me. And Kenn had to work extra hard to edit this week's show, because I was all over the freaking place. Gonna have to do a separate post on the big Abby & Briana v.

If you've been paying any attention to JordanCornblog's track record on sports predictions, you'll know that it's pretty much best to ignore anything that I say. (This is, by the way, very freeing in some ways.)

So here are my week 6 WPS predictions ... and for more informed previews, check out Christa Mann's Week 6 Preview on Soccer by Ives!

Women's Professional Soccer finished its inaugural regular season yesterday (something many thought it wouldn't be able to do), with the final playoff berth not decided until the final moments of the penultimate game on the schedule.

Your final standings:

Team W L T Pts GF GA Los Angeles Sol 12 3 5 41 27 10 Saint Louis Athletica 10 6 4 34 19 15 Washington Freedom 8 7 5 29 32 32 Sky Blue FC 7 8 5 26 19 20 Boston Breakers 7 9 4 25 18 20 Chicago Red Stars 5 10 5 20 18 25 FC Gold Pride 4 10 6 18 17 28

(Wait, let me get this straight.

Freshman forward Brittany Henry and junior Laura Leber scored as the Minnesota State women's soccer team knocked off Metropolitan State College 2-1 on Friday in Denver.

The Mavericks avenged a 1-0 loss to Metro State that ended their season last year in the NCAA tournament.

Henry broke a scoreless tie in the 51st minute with an assist from senior Abby Maxson.

Abby Wambachscored her 101st career goal on a header in the 34th minute and a world class performance by the U.S. defense made sure it held up for a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Germany in front of a sold-out crowd at Impuls Arena in Augsburg, Germany.
Read the match report at ASN's USWNT page.

I'm loving the warmer temps here in NH, as the sun rises on this February Sunday! Have you heard of Jennifer Figge?  She just completed the amazing feat of swimming from the Cape Verde Islands to Trinidad ... at the age of 56.  (And I can't even get myself to exercise for 15 minutes these days!)  [.

What do Bob Duffy and Abby Wambach have in common? Well, one IS the mayor of Rochester and one COULD be the major of Rochester, or perhaps it just seems that way whith the amount of love and recognition that the U.S. striker gets when she returns to her hometown. Wambach has done interviews with about a 10 different media organizations since return to Rochester and she has been constantly recognized on the streets.

Official Press Release (Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues)
NEWBURGH, NY - The Pali Blues defeated the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues 4-0 on Friday in a W-League Semifinal match that featured a battle of unbeatens.
The win means that Pali advances to the W-League Championship to defend its 2008 title against the winner of the other semifinal between Washington and Ottawa Saturday night.

Damn it's chilly (again) this morning. Bracing. We've got a nice big stack of big old birch logs to start sawing up and splitting, compliments of ChristopherCornblog (and yours truly who stripped and trucked the last load up the hill). And man am I sore now! It felt good but the lesson is that you can't sit at a computer for 6 years and then chop and saw and lift and carry .

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

The First Round of the WPS playoffs were in full effect Saturday as the favored Washington Freedom fell to the underdog Sky Blue FC (NJ).

Abby Moder is listed as a defender on the Edgewood College women's soccer team. But the freshman...
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Here are the facts (or as many facts as I can remember): The #1 and #2 ranked teams in the world are about to play a friendly in the future location of the 2011 Women's World Cup. Germany recently won the Euros by destroying England 6-2 and if you caught that one on the internets, I don't use the term "destroying" lightly.

By CHRISTA MANN

Week three of Women's Professional Soccer is set to kick off on Saturday with three intriguing match-ups. The Boston Breakers host the St. Louis Athletica , the Washington Freedom comes off a bye to host the Chicago Red Stars and FC Gold Pride(Bay Area) travels to a winless Sky Blue FC (NY/NJ).

Phillies won, Red Sox won .. and I've got the Slingcatcher hooked up and working in Dewd's room!

Meanwhile, the Breakers will be honoring soccer great Maren Meinert at the game with the Freedom on May 17th at Harvard Stadium. WUSA fans remember her fondly as a key ingredient in the Breakers' success - most especially in their final year (with Pia coaching).

The United States Women's National Team beat Canada 4-0 on Monday night in a friendly at BMO Field in Toronto. Shannon Boxx opened the scoring for the USA in the third minute, with Christie Rampone making it 2-0 in first half stoppage time. Lindsay Tarpley scored in the 78th minute and Lauren Cheney finished off the US offense in the 81st.

Trinity Catholic - 2
Springfield Catholic - 0
In a game that can only be classified as a disappointment for the Springfield Catholic squad, it is their North County St Louis foes that will move on to Final Saturday against St Vincent, 4-1 winners over St Pius X in the early game.

Official Press Release (Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues)
NEWBURGH, NY – The Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues defeated the New Jersey Wildcats 3-0 on Wednesday to stay undefeated and atop the W-League Northeast Division.
Forward Angelika Johansson led the way with two goals for the Hudson Valley (8-0-1, 25 pts.

... witten wiff apologies to Baba Wawa ...

So I've not got a lot of time this morning, but wanted to share some soccer bits ... like an article about the trials, triumphs and tribulatiopns of the WPS from the NY Times.

Selling Americans on professional soccer has been tough.

So it's a big day here in Canterbury as Willie turns 10 and continues to have pretty good energy and quality of life on his daily dose of steroids. We are so glad you're still here with us, Willie!

And it was a big day in Rochester yesterday, as Abby scored her 100th goal in front of a nice, big hometown crowd.

The WPS home page and standings page are afraid to admit it, apparently, but Chicago is out of the playoffs. I'm guessing it's because "See the Sol and Red Stars jog around for two hours!" isn't a recipe for FSC ratings gold.
Nevertheless, we must not quail from the truth. The Red Stars have 17 points, and two games left = maximum of 23 points.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

The First Round of the WPS playoffs were in full effect Saturday as the favored Washington Freedom fell to the underdog Sky Blue FC (NJ).

So FSC showed the Freedom-Sky Blue game after all, if a couple of days late. I'm just happy some of the other local sports Foxes, like Fox Sports Chocolate City* and Fox Sports Fuhgeddaboutit.
Very well-played game, which makes a grand total of one for the Skys all year. And right on schedule comes the phrase that makes me swear never to cheer for an underdog ever again.

Of course, I was a Phillies lover before, but after last night's top-of-the-9th heroics, how can you not love that team? Bring on the Dodgers ... and let's have a repeat of last year! I went to sleep thinking of my Dad, and how excited he'd have been (gave him a congratulatory phone call, in my mind).

(Thanks to Anna for the graphic)

It's Futbolita's One Year anniversary and 21st birthday today (exactly a year since we started the site!) so we'd like to take the opportunity to thank every single one of you for your support, comments, backlinks, retweets etc.

By CHRISTA MANN

Week three of Women's Professional Soccer is set to kick off on Saturday with three intriguing match-ups. The Boston Breakers host the St. Louis Athletica , the Washington Freedom comes off a bye to host the Chicago Red Stars and FC Gold Pride(Bay Area) travels to a winless Sky Blue FC (NY/NJ).

The crow has to do with my third erroneous WPS prediction ... a Freedom loss. Not! Looks like an awesome second half (and the first wasn't half bad, either). Beulah will be happy (but no post this week - too bad)!

On the school connections front - first the happy part - a friend request on Facebook from Denise Montana - who I remember as Denise Dormer - and who had an amazing voice (and still does).

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

For a league that is just over six weeks into its inaugural season, Womens Professional Soccer now faces its first big controversy.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

Play continued in Week Nine of Women's Pro Soccer despite the glaring absences of both Canadian and U.

Trinity Catholic - 2
Springfield Catholic - 0
In a game that can only be classified as a disappointment for the Springfield Catholic squad, it is their North County St Louis foes that will move on to Final Saturday against St Vincent, 4-1 winners over St Pius X in the early game.