Check out the schedule for this weekend's Women's Professional Soccer matches. Be sure to catch your favorite WNT players in action!
Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011
Atlanta Beat vs. Western New York Flash
KSU Soccer Stadium – Kennesaw, Ga. (Ticket Info)
7 p.m. ET
Western New York Flash has clinched a playoff berth and currently sits in second place in WPS standings.

Check out the schedule for this weekend's Women's Professional Soccer matches. Be sure to catch your favorite WNT players in action!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Sky Blue FC vs. Western New York Flash
Yurcak Field – Piscataway, N.J. (Ticket Info)
7 p.m. ET
Sky Blue FC claims sole possession of third place and looks to avenge their July 17 loss to Western New York Flash in this Saturday's matchup.

U.S. WNT midfielder Kelley O'Hara was initially left off the USA's 21-player roster for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, but due to an injury to Lindsay Tarpley, she got a second chance. It was a unique situation to say the least, but her naming to the roster fulfils a dream for the former U.S. youth WNT star, who knows her role in Germany and expressed empathy for the injured Tarpley.

U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage has named Kelley O'Hara to the Women's World Cup squad, replacing the injured Lindsay Tarpley, who underwent successful ACL surgery yesterday.
The 22-year-old O'Hara, a talented and tenacious flank midfielder, won the 2009 Hermann Trophy as college soccer's top player after her senior season at Stanford University.

Sepp Blatter will be the president of FIFA for the next four years.

Without a challenger on the ballot, the outcome was inevitable, but Blatter won the FIFA election on Wednesday, garnering 186 votes out of the 203 ballots that were cast.

"Our pyramid is intact, the base, the foundation is strong, and together we have four years to continue on our path and do our job," Blatter said upon his re-election at the FIFA Congress.

Editors's Note: Maura Gladys is a former reformed :> ESPN writer trialing for the The Shin Guardian. Please use the comment section to let us know what you'd like to hear about the women's national team as they prepare for World Cup 2011 and another unique hairstyle from head coach Pia Sundhage.

The rain and gloom lifted for both Columbus and the USWNT on Saturday night. The weather was sublime and the play on the field encouraging for the home side, who beat Japan by a score of 2-0. The next morning, bad news returned with the rain in the form of Lindsay Tarpley's ruptured ACL, but for a brief period fans could be forgiven of they found some rays of hope in the run-up to the Women's World Cup.

U.S. attacker Lindsay Tarpley will miss World Cup 2011 after suffering an ACL injury in Saturday's Send-Off Series win over Japan. Is it just me or does it seem like the USWNT is always without one key player at every World Cup?Despite that rotten bit of news, here are the highlights...- Greg Seltzer

I watched Once in a Lifetime over the weekend. It's a great documentary on the New York Cosmos and somewhat the North American Soccer League. I highly recommend it.

In today's Smolderings, we feature a podcast interview with Eric Wynalda, Lindsay Tarpley injures her knee again, FMF might be abusing water breaks for TV monetary gains, Tom Soehn talks to Orrin Schwarz and much more after the break.

What started out as a terrific week for Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) came to a devastating end.

The magicJack midfielder tore the ACL in her right knee for the second time in two years during the U.S. women's national team's 2-0 victory over Japan in a friendly in Columbus, Ohio.

As the Women's World Cup approaches, the goal is for everyone on the team to stay healthy. Unfortunately for the WNT, a key player went down in last night's game against Japan:

CHICAGO (May 15, 2011) U.S. Women's National Soccer Team midfielder Lindsay Tarpley, a member of the USA's Olympic gold medal winning team in 2004 and 2008 who was also a member of the USA's 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup Team, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee with 15 minutes remaining in the match against Japan on May 14 in Columbus, Ohio.

Former Red Stars MF Lindsay TarpleyFormer Chicago Red Stars midfielder Lindsay Tarpley tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee with 15 minutes remaining in the U.S. Women's National Team's 2-0 victory over Japan on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
U.S. Soccer announced Sunday that the injury will sideline Tarpley for six to eight months, preventing her from playing in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Former Red Stars MF Lindsay TarpleyFormer Chicago Red Stars midfielder Lindsay Tarpley tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee with 15 minutes remaining in the U.S. Women's National Team's 2-0 victory over Japan on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
U.S. Soccer announced Sunday that the injury will sideline Tarpley for six to eight months, preventing her from playing in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) got a scare Saturday night, as the midfielder was forced to leave the U.S. women's national team's 2-0 win over Japan in Columbus, Ohio, because of a knee injury.

Tarpley went 10 months between national team appearances after suffering a torn right ACL in her knee in August 2009.

Yesterday US women's coach Pia Sundhage announced her 21-player roster for the upcoming Women's World Cup: Goalkeepers - Hope Solo, Nicole Barnhart, Jillian Loyden Defenders - Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Becky Sauerbrunn, Amy LePeilbet, Ali Krieger, Stephanie Cox, Rachel Buehler Midfielders - Lindsay Tarpley, Shannon Boxx, Heather O'Reilly, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Lori Lindsey, Tobin Heath Strikers - Amy Rodríguez, Lauren Cheney, Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach I am struck by how old this US team is, especially in the back line.

United States women's national team coach Pia Sundhage won an international title in her first year at the helm, guiding the USWNT to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She's banking on that success carrying over to this summer's FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Twelve of the 21 players selected to represent the United States this summer have never participated in a World Cup before, but 14 were part of the 2008 world-championship team, and that experience will be counted on as the No.

Goalkeepers: Nicole Barnhart (Philadelphia Independence), Jill Loyden (magicJack), Hope Solo (magicJack)
Defenders: Rachel Buehler (Boston Breakers), Stephanie Cox (Boston Breakers), Ali Krieger (out of contract), Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers), Heather Mitts (Atlanta Beat), Christie Rampone (magicJack), Becky Sauerbrunn (magicJack)
Midfielders: Shannon Boxx (magicJack), Tobin Heath (Sky Blue FC), Lori Lindsey (Philadelphia Independence), Carli Lloyd (Atlanta Beat), Heather O'Reilly (Sky Blue FC), Megan Rapinoe (Philadelphia Independence), Lindsay Tarpley (magicJack)
Forwards: Lauren Cheney (Boston Breakers), Alex Morgan (Western New York Flash), Amy Rodriguez (Philadelphia Independence), Abby Wambach (magicJack)

By Pieter Brown - The little known South Florida WPS team magicJack SC took to the field in front of a reported 1,008 fans to beat Philadelphia Independence 2-1 this past Sunday.
Some Miami Ultras and Flight 19 members made the trip to FAU Soccer Stadium for the first time to see what this was all about.

We start our weekly review of everything soccer in South Florida, with our also weekly Blog Talk Radio show called Miami Ultras Alive hosted by Pieter Brown and yours truly, Uncle Ed. The show has now been extended to one hour and will be moved starting next Monday to 10 pm. This will happen every week until you get tired of us.

Midfielder Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) will travel to the United Kingdom on Monday in preparation for the U.S. women's national team's first match in England.

The U.S. will play England at 2 p.m. April 2 at London's historic Brisbane Road, home of League One club Leyton Orient.

Hola muchachitas y muchachitos! Burrito want to tell you about his new love. Her name is Hope Solo and she gonna play in South Florida! Well, at least that's what SI.com say and Burrito believe anything they say cause they always have the swimsuit issue an if that no give you credibilitys then nothing will!

The Algarve Cup continued today with the second day of group play. Six matches were played across the southern region of Portugal and we learned a little bit about what the championship match will look like.

Day 2 of the Algarve Cup started off with Japan crushing Finland with 5 goals. Shinobu Ohno kicked things for Japan with her goal in the 16th minute of the match.

Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) celebrated her first start for the U.S. women's national team in nearly 18 months in fine fashion Friday.

Tarpley scored the 28th goal of her international career in the 34th minute, helping the U.S. to a 2-0 victory over Norway at the Algarve Cup in Vila Real de San Antonio, Portugal.

Today's training was a light one. The squad did the beep test on a turf field and then walked down a hill to the grass field for a warm-up and some 9 v 9 from end-line to half field. Lots of nice goals, but a few particularly spicy ones from Lindsay Tarpley. You know the players below, but since not much went on today in the Algarve, we thought we'd give them their close-ups.

Following a seven-day camp in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., US head coach Pia Sundhage has named the 24-player roster that will travel to Portugal for the Algarve Cup (March 2-9). Sundhage will name a 20-player roster before the start of the tournament.

Hope Solo will go on this trip, but is not ready to compete in matches, and will be in Portugal to train as she enters the final stages of rehabilitation from shoulder surgery.

According to a report by Our Game Magazine, the magicTalk SC/Freedom have some official roster members...about time.
Now the question remains, where will the team play and will any games be played in the D.C. metro area?
According to email correspondence between VaSoccerNews and magicTalk SC owner Dan Borislow, the team is currently "Negotiating on a Venue".

Weekends aren't really weekends for the U.S. WNT in the sense that Saturday and Sunday are work days. Today was a busy one as the U.S. team had technical training in the morning and an intense, high-speed 11 v. 11, 90-minute intra-squad training match in the evening the featuring quite a few collisions, some crunching tackles and six goals by six different players: Kelley O'Hara, Lindsay Tarpley, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and young Kristie Mewis.

Beeeeeeeeeep!

A day of fitness testing is in the books for the U.S. WNT and the rest of the camp will be focused on, as Pia Sundhage said in the first team meeting, "play, play, play." But after a morning of VO2 Mac testing on the treadmill, the U.S. team hit the field in the afternoon for its usual quartet of timed 20 and 40-yard dash, agility test, jump test and Beep Test.

Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) will continue with the U.S. women's national team, as the midfielder was called into a week-long training camp that starts Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Tarpley and the other 20 players who were on the American roster for the recent Four Nations tournament in China are included in the 31-player roster named by coach Pia Sundhage.

The 2011 Four Nations Champions
Another exciting night in U.S. WNT history tonight as the USA rebounds from an opening game loss to win two straight games and take the 2011 Four Nations Tournament championship. Two very nice goals from the USA proved to be the difference in a match in which China had the majority of possession, but the USA had the majority of chances.

Lindsay Tarpley has some fun with the Chinese saleswomen
The U.S. team has been quite busy in China with training, a game, meetings, video and/or weights every day since the team arrived. Still, when you're on the U.S. WNT, there's always time for shopping, especially when there are some great deals to be had.

*Just a month after turning 16, Newport Beach Galaxy Youth Academy product Jack McBean, currently in his first semester at the U.S. U-17 academy in Bradenton, Fl., is reportedly
poised to sign a professional contract with the Galaxy.

McBean scored nine goals in 10 games for the Galaxy's U-15/U-16 team last season, which is coached by Kenny Arena, son of Galaxy coach and GM Bruce Arena.

Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) set up the opening goal and scored the game-winner in the 70th minute as the U.S. women's national team got past Canada 2-1 Sunday at the Four Nations Tournament in Chongqing, China.

It was Tarpley's 31st international goal, moving her past Brandi Chastain into sole possession of 11th place on the U.

U.S. women's national team midfielder-forward Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) recently was forced to give up her job as director of soccer operations for the UCLA women's soccer team, but she's not complaining.

Tarpley could no longer hold the position because her husband, B.

Midfielder Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) is one of 23 players named to the U.S. Women's National Team roster for the Four Nations Tournament, which starts next Friday in Chongqing, China.

Tarpley, who has 30 goals in 120 career caps, played only one match for the national team after returning from a torn ACL in her right knee suffered in August 2009.

The U.S. team did a lot of finishing today and Lindsay Tarpley certainly looked sharp. P.S.: How nioe does that field look?
Tarp roofs one....

Tarp slots one in the corner...

Today's morning session was one of those split sessions where half the team trains on the field for an hour and the other half lifts weights before they flip-flop for the second hour of practice.