Couple of notes in tomorrow's paper:
Wambach waits: WPS' disciplinary committee will take a closer look at an incident from Sunday's St. Louis-Washington game in which a challenge from Abby Wambach left St. Louis star Daniela with two injured knee ligaments and a crack in her tibia.

Women#8217;s Professional Soccer kicked off in the US yesterday. A better than expected crowd of 14,832 turned up at the Home Depot Center to see Los Angeles Sol beat the Washington Freedom (can#8217;t decide if I like those team names yet) 2-0. The big draw was Brazilian maestro Marta, pictured above signing autographs for the #8220;Marta [.

Crunching some numbers and shaking them until they give up some useless information about the 148 players who played in Women's Professional Soccer this season:

• Five players - Kristine Lilly (Boston Breakers), Aya Miyama (Los Angeles Sol), Caroline Jonsson (Chicago Red Stars), Becky Sauerbrunn and Homare Sawa (Washington Freedom) all played every minute of every game.

Marta scored once and Karina LeBlanc recorded her third consecutive shutout as the Los Angeles Sol blanked FC Gold Pride 1-0 on a hot Sunday at Home Depot Center.

Marta's goal, her third consecutive, was all Los Angeles needed to beat FC and stay perfect in the Women's Professional Soccer standings.

Sol 1 FC Pride 0

A 30-yard pass from Aly Wagner over the top of the FC Gold Pride defense that landed at the feet of Marta gave the Brazilian her third goal in two games as the Sol took the lead two minutes after the break.

Photo by IsIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

After assisting the game winner against FC Gold Pride (Bay Area), the L.A. Sol's Aly Wagner not only solidified a starting spot but she also earned herself the honor of WPS Player of the Week.

Sol 4 Chicago Red Stars 0

Torrance's Shannon Boxx opened the scoring in the 14th minute, Camile Abily scored the second five minutes later and Marta added the third and fourth goals in the second half.

The 10-1-4 league-leading Sol are undefeated in 10 games; the Red Stars are winless in nine games.

Upon further research by statistics guru extraordinaire Peter Hirdt of Elias Sports Bureau, we have discovered that Christine Nairn is the 9th youngest player ever to score a goal for the full U.S. Women's National Team. Kristine Lilly was the youngest at 16 years, 22 days, a record that will likely never be broken (one of many seeingingly unbreakable records by Lilly!

Perhaps the most unlikely of opponents. And Sky Blue have never beaten the Sol.

Game story and game story.

Quotable:

"We play for each other and that's the way we play," said Sky Blue's Natasha Kai. "When we win for each other it's the best feeling. It's one of the best feelings I've had, we're the fourth seed and now were in the championship.

Sky Blue FC 0 Sol 2

A double strike by Brazilian star Marta two minutes apart gave the Carson-based Women's Professional Soccer team its first road victory in New Jersey this afternoon pushing its league-leading record to 2-0.

"I was very happy with our performance today," said Sol Coach Abner Rogers.

It was hot in Carson today and that was reflected in the play on the lush, leg-sapping turf in the 1-0 Sol victory before 6,119 at Home Depot Center.

Here's Sol playmaker Aly Wagner on the way the game went:

"It was hot and we were lethargic in the first half. We had bad movement, bad everything.

With Women's Professional Soccer missing several international players due to National Team duty, the schedule was full over the weekend. The league got it's first blowout, with Chicago putting up four goals against Boston while Washington and FC Gold Pride also pushed the offense. Saint Louis Athletica 0 - Los Angeles 0 Hope Solo saved an Aly Wagner penalty in the 73rd minute to split the points in a game where Los Angeles could easily.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

Week Eight revealed some lingering final third issues as teams in Women's Professional Soccer once again experienced a bit of down scoring.

Sky Blue FC 0 Sol 0

The Sol moved to 7-1-4 in soggy New Jersey to retain the WPS lead..

Sky Blue (2-5-3) outshot the Sol 7-2 and came closest to a goal when a Natasha Kai shot hit the post in the 15th minute. Sol goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc had her eighth shutout of the season.

Via Beau, USA Today asks, "What are your memories of the 1999 Women's World Cup?"
And I say:
It sucked.
It was too damned hot, China attacked more, Sun Wen was the best player on the field, and we had to go to penalties in order to win the tournament at home. We probably should have lost.

The Sol are still trailing 1-0 in the 59th minute.

But the Sol, which played in a conventional 4-4-2 to start the game, came out after half time in what looked like a 3-6-1, with Marta up top. A colleague noted it was the first time he'd seen that formation since Steve Sampson used it against Austria just before the 1998 World Cup.

Admittedly, a rather light subject, but since Twitter is all the rage right now it seemed silly to ignore it. Hence, today's column.

Here's a list of selected soccer tweeters. It's not mean to be definitive, but by all means add folks who you follow (or yourself) in the comments section below:

Galaxy & MLS:

*Striker Edson Buddle: EdsonBuddle

*Forward Bryan Jordan: BJ6

*Radio play by play voice Joe Tutino: joetutino

*Fan group Angel City Brigade: ACBrigade

*Don Garber: thesoccerdon

*Jimmy Conrad: JimmyConrad

Chivas USA (past and present)

*Sacha Kljestan: SachaKljestan

*Brad Guzan: bguzan

Sol & WPS

*Midfielder Aly Wagner: alywagner

*GM Charlie Naimo: LASolGM

*WPS Commish Tonya Antonucci: wpscommissioner

*Sol: LosAngelesSol

*Sol Midfielder Manya Makoski: Makoski22

U.

The Sol (11-2-4) can clinch the inaugural WPS regular season title with just a point on the road tonight at FC Gold Pride (3-9-3), a team that hasn't won in eight games and are 0-3 against LA this season.

Gold Pride will play on just three days rest after taking the field Sunday, while the Sol have had a considerably longer opportunity to relax, sustaining a rare 1-0 home loss July 8 to St.

Sky Blue's presence in the final is a bit of a surprise as they just barely qualified for the playoffs. Of course, in a league of seven teams playing a fairly short season I'm not sure the standings mean all that much. They had a rocky season - they fired their coach at the start, and the next to take the job quit just a few weeks ago.

Sol 1 FC Gold Pride 0

The Sol remains undefeated on the season after beating FC Gold Pride 1-0 at Home Depot Center to retain the lead in the WPS standings.

Despite Aly Wagner threatening to take over the game in the second half with enough long balls to make David Beckham jealous, the Sol were unable to add to Marta's goal just after the break.

U.S. National Team member Aly Wagner made her WPS debut for the Sol on Sunday afternoon, and her presence proved to be the difference in the Sol's 1-0 win over FC Gold Pride at the Home Depot Center on Sunday afternoon.
Ivan Yeo reports from the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Photo by IsIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

After assisting the game winner against FC Gold Pride (Bay Area), the L.A. Sol's Aly Wagner not only solidified a starting spot but she also earned herself the honor of WPS Player of the Week.

From WPS' weekly release comes this intriguing stat:
WPS players have struggled converting PK's so far this season. Only 1 of 5 PKs have been converted from the spot with Kelly Smith scoring a PK in Week 2 for a 20% league-wide success rate. Players who have missed converting include: Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom), Lori Chalupny (Saint Louis Athletica), Aly Wagner (Los Angeles Sol) and Tiffany Weimer (FC Gold Pride).

In a 0-0 game.

Each team had 10 shots tonight at Buckshaw Stadium in San Jose. The Sol could only manage one shot on target; FC Gold Pride had three.

Game story.

Sol XI: Karina LeBlanc; Manya Makoski, Sharlota Nonen; Brittany Bock, Keri Sanchez, Aly Wagner (77: McCall Zerboni), Camille Abily, Lisa Sari (46: Shannon Boxx), Aya Miyama, Han Duan, Marta.