I mentioned in my last post, from a few weeks ago, that I recently became the proud parent of twins. As they approach eight weeks of age I've slowly realized how completely they have changed my life. Add to that the normal ebb and flow of life and my passion for posting to this blog has diminished. Click to continue reading...

Look at that beautiful surface.
We'll give you the press release on this one so we don't miss anything important...props to Jay, Justin, Michael and anyone else who helped them along the way!
The Kansas City Wizards announced Monday that the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) has named CommunityAmerica Ballpark's playing surface the Professional Soccer Field of the Year. Click to continue reading...

On Thursday, November 5, I was a panelist at Football Partnership's Tweet Blowing the Whistle on Social Media, a discussion about soccer and social media. The panelists also included Greg Lalas (Goal.com), Chris Schlosser (MLSnet.com) and Chris Toy (Studs-Up.com). For more about the panelists, check out the blog I posted the day after the event.

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I spent sometime this season following the results of an upstart NPSL team that caused quite a buzz in the lower levels of American soccer, that team is Chattanooga FC.� A quaint, modest Appalachian foothills city that straddles the banks of the Tennessee River, Chattanooga is one of the last places people would look if they were searching for a soccer hotbed, and they would be missing out on something very exciting.

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Big Story
After months of speculation about a breakaway in North America's second division, featuring farcical news management by USL and ambitious statements from the renegade Team Owners Association, it's been confirmed today that a new second division professional league will launch in the United States in 2010, consisting of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps and� St.

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A little something flaring up at Toyota Park

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If you need any more evidence of why continued stadium development is the most important element in professional soccer's domestic development, go watch Saturday's match from Chicago.

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Last night I attended Alex Kotler's Football Partnerships panel, "Tweet: Blowing the Whistle on Social Media." Greg Lalas, Chris Schlosser, Chris Toy and myself were the panelists, and there were some seriously smart people in the room, all with incredible perspectives. It was humbling and insightful to be included among this group to discuss and share information on how we are each using social media to achieve our business objectives.

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Defender Connor Tobin has just wrapped up his first year of professional soccer but is unsure if he will be returning to Norwegian club Nybergsund-IL for a second season. Click to continue reading...

FIFA announced the 10 finalists for its 2009 Women's World Player of the Year Award last week and half of them—Marta, Cristiane, Sonia Bompastor, Kelly Smith and Abby Wambach—played last season in Women's Professional Soccer. In spite of her accolades, however, only one of these WPS players, Cristiane, did not have her WPS option picked up for next season and still remains out of contract. Click to continue reading...

It looks like the Women's Super League in England, a new semi-professional venture (not fully professional, as some are saying), will finally launch in 2011 and the application process is now open for clubs who wish to participate.

The plan is for eight teams to compete in a summer season from March to October, thus minimising schedule conflicts with the men's game but also going up directly against Women's Professional Soccer in the United States.

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This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature.

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This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature. Keep in mind this is a very short post on a topic I could describe for days.

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Alejandro Bedoya caps off his first season of professional soccer when Orebro play host to Trelleborgs FF on Sunday at Behrn Arena. Click to continue reading...

On Friday, the Chicago Red Stars signed Oswego native and DePaul standout Julianne Sitch. She played this past season for the Women's Professional Soccer champion Sky Blue FC out in New Jersey.
CLICK HERE for the team's release. Click to continue reading...

Big Story
It's been a bad week for football with racism by fan(s) prominently rearing its head again. Supporters continue to take a stand against racism in the game, but sometimes even their own clubs don't support their efforts in a shocking and petty move, Bristol Rovers management have refused to run an anti-racism ad in the club's matchday magazine by the club's own supporters trust, the Gas Independent Fans' Trust (GIFT).

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Living in the shadow of a parent who was a professional athlete is never an easy thing to do. But Minnesota native Teal Bunbury is making his own mark on the soccer world.

Teal, the son of Alex and Kristi Bunbury is a sophomore forward for Division-I Akron of Ohio and this year leads his team with 10 goals and is also top for points with 23.

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Living in the shadow of a parent who was a professional athlete is never an easy thing to do. But Minnesota native Teal Bunbury is making his own mark on the soccer world.

Teal, the son of Alex and Kristi Bunbury is a sophomore forward for Division-I Akron of Ohio and this year leads his team with 10 goals and is also top for points with 23.

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A glut of stadium-related news has hit the American soccer scene in recent weeks; from Baltimore potentially getting into the DC United business to the glory of grass, professional soccer facilities...

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Red Stars Head Coach Emma Hayes is in San Francisco this week watching Stanford, UCLA, USC, USF, and Santa Clara women's soccer teams play. I thought it would be fun to ask her the WPS series of "Off the Field" questions we collect from the players. Hey, coaches have favorite TV shows and i-pod apps, too!

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For the last time, it's pronounced HUE-clees!

The Boston Breakers site just announced Angela Hucles is retiring from professional soccer. She says:

I always wanted to involve myself in things I was passionate about and give 110 percent.

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Big Story
As expected, the Republic of Ireland have not been seeded for the World Cup playoffs the four countries who have been are France, Portugal, Russia and Greece, who will each face one of Ireland, Bosnia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

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Peter Wilt started his soccer management career with the Milwaukee Wave as director of marketing in 1987. 22 years later he has found himself back where it all started after working with the Chicago Power, Continental Indoor Soccer League, Minnesota Thunder, Chicago Fire, Milwaukee Professional� Soccer and the Chicago Red Stars.

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Peter Wilt started his soccer management career with the Milwaukee Wave as director of marketing in 1987. 22 years later he has found himself back where it all started after working with the Chicago Power, Continental Indoor Soccer League, Minnesota Thunder, Chicago Fire, Milwaukee Professional� Soccer and the Chicago Red Stars.

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Charlie Davies has undergone successful surgery after the car accident and here's the latest update. It seems unlikely he will be able to play in next summer's world cup but his chance of returning to his professional soccer is a possibility. A video report of the Charlie Davies story can be found here.

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Some random thoughts on the US win and the upcoming game against Costa Rica

The Greatest US Win I Have Never Seen.� � A lot has already been said about how absurd it was that this game was not broadcast to the average US fan, so there is no reason to continue to beat this dead horse.

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From the Evansville Courier Press, October 4, 2009
EVANSVILLE — My father bought my son a chess board last Christmas, and as we walked the boy through the ideas and concepts of playing chess, things seemed very familiar.
The familiarity was not only with the tactics on a battlefield but on a soccer field as well. Click to continue reading...

Red Stars midfielder to face Germany on Oct. 29
Chicago Red Stars midfielder Megan Rapinoe was one of 18 players named to the U.S. Women's National Team on Monday for the team's Oct. 29 match against Germany.
This year she has played in all seven of the U.S.'s international matches, posting two goals, an assist and a team-high five points. Click to continue reading...

We are way behind on posting this, but since the last question answered has become more relevant after the events of the past couple days, it still make sense to post this.
The TBR Mailbag is a bi-weekly feature brought to you by the TBR front office to allow you, the fans, to write in and ask questions about the team, organization, and the return of professional soccer to Tampa Bay. Click to continue reading...

Head over to ESPN Soccernet and read a nice piece about one-time Rowdies midfielder, Hugo Perez. The article is by Jeff Carlisle and details the career of one of the better US national team players of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before Claudio Reyna and Landon Donovan, there was Hugo.
He played just two seasons with Tampa Bay and unfortunately his career coincided with the dark years after the collapse of the NASL. Click to continue reading...

Three of the six players with state ties who were on Women's Professional Soccer rosters for the...
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Red Stars hoping to bring back team's scoring leader for 2010
The first day of Women's Professional Soccer's free agency had some pretty big names on the list, including Brazilian forward Cristiane (pictured right) and U.S. Women's National Team midfielder Carli Lloyd (pictured left) from the Chicago Red Stars' 2009 roster. Click to continue reading...

The condition of professional soccer in the United States is such that the when presented with a choice between playing the game on its highest level here or hanging up the boots and focusing on a...

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Though the 2009 regular season is finished for them, the Aztex are still going strong. A number of players and other individuals were honored at a recent post-season awards banquet, and the team is still looking forward to a few bigger-than-usual exhibition games.
First, the awards:

• Yordany Alvarez - Fans' Player of Year
• Miguel Gallardo - Chantico's Army's Player of Year (more info)
• Eddie Johnson - Players' Player of Year
• Michael Callahan - Clubman of Year
• Ignacio "Nacho" Araujo (Univision Radio) - President's Award

Additionally, Eddie Johnson was just named to the All-League Second Team. Click to continue reading...

On Monday the Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer exercised the 2010 contract options for nine players: Marian Dalmy, Ifeoma Dieke, Chioma Igwe, Carolina Jonsson, Brittany Klein, Ella Masar, Jill Oakes, Megan Rapinoe and Natalie Spilger.
With Karen Carney, Kate Markgraf and Lindsay Tarpley also under contract, the team currently returns 12 players from this past season's squad. Click to continue reading...

What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?

The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count on once the season ends.

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