Tonight the Sounders Women play their first competitive match of the season at Starfire after picking up a road win against Vancouver in their opener. With the team is the full contingent of national team players, who've rushed back from a friendly with China to take part in the home opener.

This is the middle match in great stretch for Starfire, with the senior Sounders winning the US Open Cup match last night, the Sounders Women kicking off tonight, and the Reserves kick off tomorrow with the potential of a Steve Zakuani sighting.

U.S. WNT head coach Pia Sundhage officially named the 2012 Olympic Team a few hours before the USA took on China from PPL Park on May 27. It was not an easy process for Sundhage and her staff to cut down a talented pool of players to the 18 that will travel to the U.K. in search of Olympic gold, but the Americans will bring one of its strongest Olympic Teams ever over the pond this summer and that surely should make for some exciting matches.

This past Sunday, USWNT Head Coach Pia Sundhage announced the 18 players she will be bringing with her to London to compete in this Summer's Olympic games in London. Eleven of the players named to the Olympic squad also competed in the 2011 World Cup in Beijing. Three players named to the squad, Shannon Boxx, Heather O'Reilly and Heather Mitts, are each returning for their third Olympic games.

With the Olympics quickly approaching, it would seem the USWNT are prepared to take on whoever will be thrown at them when they head to London. Pia Sundhage's squad played a great game of football in front of a sold out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday, coming up with a big win against China. This match also marked the debut of new matching kits for both the USMNT and the USWMNT, who put them to good use.

U.S. Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage has named the 18-player roster for the 2012 Olympic Games. Eleven players make a return to the Olympics after helping the USA to the gold medal in 2008 in Beijing, China. Midfielders Shannon Boxx and Heather O'Reilly and defender Heather Mitts make their third Olympic Team while U.

PSP photographer Paul Rudderow was on hand for Sunday evening's Women's National Teams 4-1 win over China at PPL Park. Here's a look at what he saw.

United States starting eleven.

China struck first with a goal by Zhang Rui.

Carli Lloyd played strong in the midfield.

PSP photographer Paul Rudderow was on hand for Sunday evening's Women's National Teams 4-1 win over China at PPL Park. Here's a look at what he saw.

United States starting eleven.

China struck first with a goal by Zhang Rui.

Carli Lloyd played strong in the midfield.

The Sounders draw at Chivas on Friday wasn't the result we all hoped for, but it definitely wasn't a bad outcome either. Earning a 1-1 draw on the road, especially when they had to come back from a deficit, against an improving Chivas team that has always played Seattle tough at the end of a grueling stretch of games - in the long run, I think that's a fine result.

Photo by John Todd/ISIPhotos.com

The U.S. Women's national team shook off an uncharacteristic slow start to put on a show for a sold-out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday, as Alex Morgan showed off her outstanding form in a 4-1 rout of China.

The Chinese opened the scoring on the night, temporarily quieting a raucous crowd in Chester, Pa.

The US Women took down China 4-1 in front of of a sold out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday night in an Olympic warm up. A fantastic brace from Alex Morgan, a well taken late goal by Abby Wambach, and an unfortunate own goal by Chinese defender Zhou Gaoping were enough for the US to overcome falling behind in the first half through a Zhang Rui goal.

The US Women took down China 4-1 in front of of a sold out crowd at PPL Park on Sunday night in an Olympic warm up. A fantastic brace from Alex Morgan, a well taken late goal by Abby Wambach, and an unfortunate own goal by Chinese defender Zhou Gaoping were enough for the US to overcome falling behind in the first half through a Zhang Rui goal.

Alex Morgan Scores Twice, Abby Wambach Adds Late Goal CHESTER, Pa. (May 27, 2012) A crowd of over 18,000 watched the U.S. Women's National Team defeat China 4-1 on Sunday at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. "I'm very happy scoring goals but the happiest thing for us was we changed the game," said U.S. [...

La directora técnica de la selección estadounidense, Pia Sundhage, reveló hace unas horas a 18 jugadoras que competirán por estar en el podio en las próximas Olimpiadas de Londres.

Porteras:

Hope Solo | Seattle Sounders

Nicole Barnhart

Defensas:

Rachel Buehler

Amy LePeilbet

Heather Mitts

Kelley O'Hara

Christie Rampone

Becky Sauerbrunn | DC United

Mediocampistas:

Shannon Boxx

Carli Lloyd

Lauren Cheney

Tobin Heath

Heather O'Reilly

Megan Rapinoe

Delanteras:

Sydney Leroux | Seattle Sounders

Alex Morgan | Seattle Sounders

Amy Rodríguez

Abby Wambach

Quedan fuera de la lista final Ali Krieger por no estar recuperada al 100% de su lesión en la rodilla sufrida en el Preolímpico de Vancouver; Lori Lindsey, Jill Loyden, Meghan Klingenberg y Christen Press serán tomadas en cuenta como suplentes en caso de que alguna de las jugadoras base sufran alguna lesión.

It's easy to mistake Alex Morgan for a veteran. The U.S. women's soccer team forward has been in the spotlight scoring crucial goals in the semifinal and final at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, walking the red carpet at an "Entourage" HBO TV season premiere and posing in body paint for Sports Illustrated's annual [.

It's easy to mistake Alex Morgan for a veteran. The U.S. women's soccer team forward has been in the spotlight scoring crucial goals in the semifinal and final at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, walking the red carpet at an "Entourage" HBO TV season premiere and posing in body paint for Sports Illustrated's annual [.

Philadelphia loves Heather Mitts
U.S. WNT head coach Pia Sundhage has named 18 players that will face China in front of a sold-out crowd on May 27 at PPL Park. Sundhage named the team after a two-week training camp in Princeton, N.J. that featured 27 players.
Four players have experience playing for former Philadelphia women's pro teams while midfielder Carli Lloyd hails from nearby Delran, N.

The training session today for the U.S. WNT consisted of a 90-minute closed-door scrimmage vs. China as the team winds down its training camp in Princeton, N.J. Of course, the two teams will meet for real on May 27 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa., and with more than 15,300 tickets now sold for that match, it should be a rocking atmosphere.

Photo: Glenn Riegel, Courtesy of Reading United AC

US Open Cup

Second round action of the 99th edition of the US Open Cup kicks off locally with Harrisburg City Islanders hosting Long Island Rough Riders, who defeated Lehigh Valley's FC Sonic in last week's first round 2–0, at Skyline Sports Complex tonight at 7pm.

Article by Luke Lohr
In the wake of the unsurprising yet still saddening news of Women's Professional Soccer folding, fans may wonder where young female talent is left to practice their craft. Where are they to go? The WPS was the second strong attempt to capitalize on a market that was seriously under exposed.

Article by Leanne Elston
In disappointing but not altogether surprising news, Women's Professional Soccer announced today that after three seasons, it has folded. The league had already ceased operations for the 2012 season and had hoped to return in 2013, but the cancellation is now permanent.

It is a dark day for women's soccer in America. Women's Professional Soccer is no more.

WPS has stopped operations permanently and is dissolving after three seasons, the league announced on Friday.

"We sincerely regret having to take this course of action," said T.

U.S. WNT forward Alex Morgan has 12 goals so far in 2012. That got us to wondering, how many players in U.S. WNT history have scored 12 or more goals in a calendar year?
Turns out the answer is: 29
Following is a list of the best goal-scoring years in WNT history, led by Michelle Akers' near impossible probably-never-to-be-broken 39 goals in 1991.

The U.S. WNT has begun camp in Princeton, N.J. in preparation for its May 27 match against China at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage has called in 28 players, but will choose 18 to suit up against the Chinese, a team the USA met in its last trip to PPL in October of 2010 when the long-time rivals drew 1-1 as Alex Morgan scored her first career WNT goal.

U.S. women's national team coach Pia Sundhage has called on 28 players for a May training camp in New Jersey ahead of a friendly against China at PPL Park on May 27, as the U.S. women continue their preparations for this summer's Olympics.

The U.S. women will train in Princeton from Thursday until May 25 in the build-up to the friendly, and this camp comes on the heels of an April camp in Florida in which 26 of the 28 players called upon this time around participated.

The starting lineup that the Seattle Sounders Women sent out onto the wet Starfire pitch this evening was the one that we all dreamed about when the preseason flurry of world class signings came to an end. In goal, Hope Solo. At forward, Alex Morgan and Sydney Leroux. In the midfield Keelin Winter, Megan Rapinoe, and Veronica Perez.

Tonight the Sounders Women play their final preseason game and once again the US National Team players who've been bringing attention and excitement to the team for the last few months will be suiting up in Rave Green.

In fact it might be the first game that all of those players are available.

With two Sounders FC games this week, it would be easy to forget that the Sounders Women have a sold out game on Friday. Let's not, though, shall we? This is the final exhibition game before the start of the season. The opponent is none other than the UW Huskies. So far in their Spring season, the Huskies are 1-1-1, two of those games being against Seattle University.

The odds that a 20-player roster for a CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying tournament would feature three players with the same first name are pretty high.
Yet, meet the USA's Morgans: Morgan Andrews, Morgan Reid and Morgan Stanton (a.ka. Lil'Mo).
There is just one Morgan in the entire 2012 U-20 Women's National Team Player Pool (sublimely skilled center midfield Morgan Brian) and one in the U-23 WNT Player Pool (current Santa Clara striker Morgan Malborough) and none in the full WNT Player Pool (unless you count Alex Morgan?

Wow. Busy day for the WNT on Wednesday. Weight training in the morning, an on-field session in the morning, then a hard training in the afternoon. Suffice it to say, there was much water and Gatorade consumed today and there will be some heavy legs tomorrow. But as a week goes in the books at WNT training camp, goals are being accomplished, fitness levels are increasing and the tired players are sleeping very well at night.

We're now another step closer to the Women's Soccer Summer Olympic tournament in London after this morning's draw at Wembley Stadium.

Here's how the groups break down for the tournament (FIFA world ranking in parentheses):

Group E: Great Britain (9), New Zealand (24), Cameroon (52), Brazil (4)
Group F: Japan (3), Canada (7), Sweden (5), South Africa (65)
Group G: USA (1), France (6), Colombia (28), Korea DPR (8)

Some quick thoughts about the groups:

* Out of the top 4 teams, Brazil received probably the best draw by avoiding an early matchup with the USWNT, Japan, Sweden or France.

The results of the Olympic Final Draw are in...
The WNT will face France, Colombia and Korea DPR in Group G at the 2012 London Olympics taking place from July 25-Aug. 9 at six venues throughout Great Britain.
There won't be a lot of mystery for the USA in group play at the Olympics (although truth be told, the North Koreans are always a bit mysterious) as three first round opponents for the Americans are all teams they met during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Keelin Winters manages to just get a foot to the ball as Alex Morgan shoots
The U.S. team had just one training today, and as some ominous clouds rolled in during the practice, it seemed for a moment like it might be a damp and windy session, but the rain quickly passed and the team had another sharp practice that included a 30-minute full-field scrimmage (that featured some stoppages to work on set plays) at the end.

We got this quote from Kelley O'Hara back when we did a feature on her switching from flank midfielder/forward to outside back. It didn't really work for the piece, but we liked the quote -- we thought it summed up the historic 2011 FIFA World Cup experience of a reserve very well -- so we thought we'd share it:
"Everyone always asks what the World Cup was like.

The new US National Team jerseys are not.It's one thing for Nike to completely rebrand our teams every two years. Turning them into cartoonish laughing stocks is another. I'll expand on this later, for now though consider the following.- Clint Dempsey is a badass.- He looks the part, but even he looks silly in the new away jersey.

After the domestic Women's Professional Soccer league folded, Carrasco started lobbying for Morgan to come to Seattle and play for the Sounders Women. They could be together, he said, and wear the same jerseys. They could watch each other's games.

It was a lucky collision of circumstances.

Monday's first preseason friendly was an unqualified success both on and off the field. If tonight's game is going to match it it's going to have a little more competition off the field, as it's also the home opener for the Mariners. But people are already filing in an hour before and it looks to me like if tonight doesn't match Monday's crowd, it'll be close.

Friday night's game against the Seattle University Redhawks should be a more defensive battle. Last season the Redhawks had seven shutouts, thanks in large part to a veteran back line. They finished their season with a 12-6-1 record. They are largely a second half team, which should be interesting against the likes of Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan.

As the U.S. Women's National Team moves closer to going for gold at the summer Olympics in England, the growing buzz around the team surrounds budding superstar Alex Morgan, who has carried over her World Cup success last summer with a strong showing for the team in 2012.

Though she's still just 22, Morgan is quickly becoming the face of the national team, both with the attention she's getting off the field, and the goals she keeps scoring on the field.

On the way out of the main stand of Starfire tonight I caught a glimpse of Sounders Women GM Amy Carnell, and she looked delighted. It's easy to understand why. Though we never got official attendance numbers, the stadium was clearly at capacity, with the stands on both sides of the field full and more people spilling onto the surrounding grassy hills or watching from behind fences.

The new era of Sounders Women soccer begins tonight as the suddenly internationally competitive Seattle team takes on local college side Seattle Pacific University in their first preseason match. All of the national teamers except for Megan Rapinoe are on the game roster, so we should see action from Hope Solo, Stephanie Cox, Alex Morgan, and Sydney Leroux.