If you are a connoisseur of Twitter like me, then you've already stumbled upon the terms "twiggers" and "twitches" numerous times and you've undoubtedly already figured out what they really mean. So to pacify the Decency and Morals Subcommittee of World Cup Blog, I will be using those terms (well, actually only one of those terms) liberally during this post in order to avoid getting into twouble.

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Defender Brittany Bock, 22, received her first call-up to the U.S. Women's National Team today in the wake of a 12-day camp at Home Depot Center and ahead of the Oct. 29 game against Germany.

She was an integral part of the Sol's defense last season.

Also named to the roster were Torrance's Shannon Boxx of the Sol and USC product Amy Rodriguez.

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GOALKEEPERS (2): Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica) DEFENDERS (6): Brittany Bock (Los Angeles Sol), Rachel Buehler (FC Gold Pride), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis Athletica), Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers), Heather Mitts (Out of Contract), Cat Whitehill (Washington Freedom) MIDFIELDERS (8): Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC), Shannon Boxx (Los Angeles Sol), Tobin Heath (North Carolina), Angela Hucles (Boston Breakers), Lori Lindsey (Washington Freedom), Carli Lloyd (Out of Contract), Heather O'Reilly (Sky Blue. Click to continue reading...

L to R: Bryce Aaron Collier, Ben Ballhorn, Preston Bates, Justin Rogers, Trevor Pedigo

The St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame is sponsoring 3 Soccer games on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at Midwest Soccer Academy. The College Women (Tyler Jr. College from Tyler, Texas plays Forest Park Community College) game starts at 11:00 am. Click to continue reading...

The best of the best in Women's Pro Soccer will compete against Umea IK in Sunday's WPS All-Star Game.

Umeå is the top team in Damallsvenskan (Swedish premier division) and has won seven Swedish championships in the last four seasons (2005-2008). In 2007 and 2008 Umeå finished runner-up in the UEFA Women's Cup with Marta on its roster for the five years before she joined the WPS.

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Final shots for the day:

*Sol defenders Brittany Bock and Stephanie Cox and midfielder Shannon Boxx were among 26 players called into Pia Sundhage's 12-day USWNT camp that begins Sept. 21 at Home Depot Center. Bock gets her second call-up of the year after also making the U.S. roster for the May 25 game against Canada in Toronto she was forced to miss after suffering a heel injury in training the day before.

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United States Women's National Team coach Pia Sundhage has named 26 players for a training camp running from September 21st to October 2nd in Carson, California. GOALKEEPERS (3): Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Ashlyn Harris (North Carolina), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica); DEFENDERS (8): Brittany Bock (Los Angeles Sol), Rachel Buehler (FC Gold Pride), Lori Chalupny (St. Click to continue reading...

Women's Professional Soccer had plenty of positives in its first year. Attendance was within estimates, though maybe tilted toward the low end of the range. Ratings were pretty good. The league got a little bit of media attention despite a lack of cooperation from wire services.
Best of all, the quality of play was terrific. Click to continue reading...

Photo: WPS Fan CornerThis hasn't been the best season for my MLS and USL-1 club teams: FC Dallas and the Austin Aztex have both struggled mightily, and short of a miracle or two, will both wind up at or near the bottom of their respective tables.
St. Louis Athletica, however, are a different story. Click to continue reading...

Your inaugural WPS All-Star Team:
Karina LeBlanc GK - Los Angeles Sol, Canada
Tina Ellertson D - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Amy LePeilbet D - Boston Breakers, United States
Alex Scott D - Boston Breakers, England
Camille Abily M - Los Angeles Sol, France
Sonia Bompastor M - Washington Freedom, France
Shannon Boxx M - Los Angeles Sol, United States
Lori Chalupny M - Saint Louis Athletica, United States
Kelly Smith M - Boston Breakers, England
Eniola Aluko F - Saint Louis Athletica, England
Marta F - Los Angeles Sol, Brazil
The first order of comedy, of course, is that half of this team won't be available for the All-Star game itself, or for the WPS championship, thanks to the UEFA Women's Championship. Click to continue reading...

The Sol's Brazilian star Marta was the top vote-getter overall, being named on all coaches ballots, 94 percent of media ballots (hello, media types), but finishing second to Boston Breakers defender Amy LePeilbet on players ballots (hmm, guess Marta is not exactly popular among her peers?). And the top three players fans voted for?

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Women's Professional Soccer on Tuesday announced the selection of the league's First XI and the WPS All-Star Team Head Coach in preparation for its 2009 WPS All-Star Game. Each of the players selected are invited to the 2009 WPS All-Star Game. The players were selected based on votes by fans (25%), media (25%), coaches (25%) and players (25%).

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Women's Professional Soccer on Tuesday announced the selection of the league's First XI and the WPS All-Star Team Head Coach in preparation for its 2009 WPS All-Star Game. Each of the players selected are invited to the 2009 WPS All-Star Game. The players were selected based on votes by fans (25%), media (25%), coaches (25%) and players (25%).

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If you got one of the 2009 Official U.S. WNT Yearbooks at one of the two recent domestic matches, you saw that as part of the FactBook theme, each player listed a bunch of Random Things About Me. We only had space for 10-12 in the book, but each player did at least 25. To read the rest, you can go to ussoccer. Click to continue reading...

In case you haven't seen this yet on You Tube, this almost made me want to get married ... ;>)

And thanks, Alison, for the quote -- and Boltgirl and Alice, for sharing your opinions. (Lack of Phillies' love is noting new in my little world ... but, as any Cubs fan knows very well, too, we carry on in spite of any/everything!

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For those of you who don't subscribe to the US Women's National Team Blog, you should check it out as there are some entertaining posts this week.
Whereas the Fake Sigi blog is driven by pure evil and a thirst for the blood of the living, the USWNT blog is a collection of goofy photos and random behind the scenes video. Click to continue reading...

While the players are with the National Team, they of course are keeping an eye on the results from their WPS clubs as the season enters its critical stage in the run to the playoffs. The players mostly have to follow Twitter, text messages from their teammates, WPS MatchTracker and post-game phone calls, but Lori Chalupny and Cat Whitehill were lucky enough to be able follow the St. Click to continue reading...

One year and three days after breaking her leg in the final U.S. tuneup game before the Olympics, Abby Wambach scored her 100th international goal in the 1-0 U.S. win over Canada Sunday in Rochester, N.Y.

It was Wambach's first U.S. goal since the injury. Forward Lauren Cheney, 21, who replaced Wambach on the Olympic roster, came into the game in the 63rd minute and set up the historic goal 15 minutes later.

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I'm ashamed of myself for not even mentioning this at all in my two prior posts, but the event at RFK today is a doubleheader. As I'm writing this now, I'm wearing an old school, WUSA-era Abby Wambach tee, back from when she was Mia Hamm's understudy.
Freedom takes on St. Louis Athletica at 5pm, in just over an hour. Click to continue reading...

If you watch the USA-Canada match on ESPN this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, you might see defender Lori Chalupny with a brace on her right hand. Seems she injured her paw in a collision with Heather O'Reilly during a WPS match. We went straight to the protagonists to get the inside scoop on the "incident" in this special WNT Blog video. Click to continue reading...

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                                                     Photo by ISIphotos.com

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By CHRISTA MANN

In Week 15 of Women's Pro Soccer, the Chicago Red Stars finally posted something new in the win column.

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United States Women's National Team coach Pia Sundhage has announced the roster for the July 19th (Rochester - 3pm - ESPN) and July 22nd (Charleston - 8pm - FSC) friendlies against Canada. GOALKEEPERS (2): Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica) DEFENDERS (7): Rachel Buehler (FC Gold Pride), Stephanie Cox (Los Angeles Sol), Lori Chalupny (St. Click to continue reading...

It's exactly half way through the inaugural season with 35 of the scheduled 70 games completed.

Player of the Week
It stands to reason that if you score the only goal in three WPS games last weekend that you'd win the Player of the Week award.

Saint Louis forward Eniola Aluko duly took the honor after scoring her third goal of the season to lead Athletica to a 1-0 road triumph over the Boston Breakers.

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Chicago drops third straight; Lloyd injures knee in WNT training
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - Typically, one shot does not add up to two goals. But that is what the Chicago Red Stars surrendered to St. Louis Athletica on Saturday.
A couple of unfortunate defensive circumstances cost the Red Stars late in the first half as St. Click to continue reading...

The U.S. team trained today at Allan Lamport Stadium in Toronto, a small venue (seats just under 10,000) that was built in the mid-1970s. The stadium, named after a former mayor of Toronto from the 1950s, was built on the site of the infamous Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women, i.e, a prison. The prison opened in 1872 with the idealistic promise of a "homelike" atmosphere for its inmates, but in it's almost 100 years of existence earned a dark and dastardly reputation, and in 1969 it was closed and demolished. Click to continue reading...

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                                                                  Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

Women's Professional Soccer named midfielder Lori Chalupny Week Seven's WPS Player of the Week after her game-winning goal brought St.

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                                                                  Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

Women's Professional Soccer named midfielder Lori Chalupny Week Seven's WPS Player of the Week after her game-winning goal brought St.

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I've been slowed by a mutant-strength headache, but finally, here is your tidal wave of homework...#1 - Exciting New York forward Mac Kandji bagged Player of the Week honors. Thank goodness I benched him from my fantasy line-up this week. St. Louis homegirl Lori Chalupny picked up the WPS weekly prize. Click to continue reading...

Video is up for two of three weekend WPS games. Let's take a look:
- Saint Louis 1, FC Gold Pride 0: How did Lori Chalupny's corner kick get in? Hope Solo takes care of the rest.
- Sky Blue 2, Chicago 0: Mind-boggling result -- winless team goes on the road against hot team and wins with relative ease. Click to continue reading...

Red Stars will have full roster for May 23 vs. St. Louis
The Chicago Red Stars received some good news from their perspective. That's not the case if you were hoping to watch the U.S. Women's National Team later this month.
Japan decided to pull out of its two-game set against the U. Click to continue reading...

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                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

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By CHRISTA MANN

In Week Seven of Women's Professional soccer, the two bottom teams earned a first win, the only undefeated club took its first loss, and two of the top-rated finishers played to a scoreless tie.

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                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

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By CHRISTA MANN

In Week Seven of Women's Professional soccer, the two bottom teams earned a first win, the only undefeated club took its first loss, and two of the top-rated finishers played to a scoreless tie.

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In a bit of a rush this morning, as usual. Our black lab Willie came up lame yesterday. He has a chronic shoulder problem which something seems to have exacerbated. This morning he seems a little bit better, but still not himself. He'll be turning 10 this summer, so it's worrisome to see him hurting.

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Athletica get their first win of the season by beating FC Gold Pride, and Sky Blue FC joins them by beating Chicago for their first win. FC Gold Pride 0 - Saint Louis Athletica 1 Lori Chalupny got the only goal of the game from a 16th minute corner and Saint Louis Athletica get their first win of the season. Click to continue reading...

Yup, it's Mother's Day. Hope yours is a good one, whether you're celebrating someone or being celebrated yourself. The universe has been kind enough to send sun, a steady breeze, and cooler temperatures hopefully making relatively pain free outdoor work a possibility for the hordes of mothers in New Hampshire who will be out there tending gardens and planting, perhaps, Mother's Day flowers.

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