Dan Borislaw hijacking the magic out of women's professional soccer

What a blow to women's soccer after that magnificent exposition by the US national team at the CONCACAF Olympics qualifiers. The WPS has decided to cancel the 2012 season after running into a retaliatory lawsuit bought by the former owner of the magicJack, Dan Borislow.

While both teams already qualified for the London 2012 Olympiad there is a certain amount of pride at play. For Canada's women this is an opportunity to declare that they deserve to be in that top tier of teams challenging for Gold or Women's World Cups. With the Great White North hosting the 2015 Women's World Cup it is matches like this and their second straight 20k+ crowd that demonstrate that they are a top nation in the women's game.

The candidates for the 2011 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year are as good as ever and truth be told, all five would be deserved winners.
Who are you voting for?
Maybe these videos will help you make up your mind, or maybe not. After all, you can vote once a day!
Lauren Cheney: Breakout Star


Ali Krieger: Right Back, Right Time


Hope Solo: Golden Glove Winner


Abby Wambach: Ms.

As the U.S. WNT will of course not be together for the holidays after breaking camp on Tuesday, the team had its Holiday Party tonight and a merry time was had by all.
The focus of the party was the exchanging of Secret Santa gifts, spearheaded by master organizer Heather Mitts, but the festivities also included Christmas music, cookie decorating and of course a good helping of ugly sweaters (see above).

If you noticed like I did a pint sized player who took over midfield for the Philadelphia Independence in Sunday's semi-final against the MagicJack and wondered idly, "She is something special", don't go into the scouting business just yet.

Veronica Boquete is already out there and is the WPS player of the year because she is special.

Game Time: 4 pm, Saturday

TV: Sort of? Tape delay of the game will be shown on CSN at 11 pm but you can watch the webcast live on Fox Soccer.

Before we get too far into this, let me confirm. The Independence are in fact playing a team called magicJack for the right to play Western New York in the WPS Final.

Hope Solo of course gets the most attention in these parts of the ladies on the United States Women's World Cup squad. Some of that is due to her growing up in our state and playing for the Huskies, it is also because she's quite good. The other most recognizable name for Sounders fans that have only casually watched the games is Alex Morgan.

Sunday's final vs Japan is going to be verrrryyyy interesting!! 2 completely different teams but with the same die hard attitude! I'm torn over who I want to win, because I'm not totally sold on the US team yet. Their style is...not so attractive, but their chemistry and attitude is immense.

Lauren Cheney will need to control the tempo in midfield if the US are to defeat Japan.

It all comes down to Sunday. We've all heard it before (many, many times).

Japan USA: Sunday, ESPN, 2:45 PM

The US women are in the World Cup final for the first time since 1999. Many wondered if they would have a letdown in their semifinal match against France following an emotional quarterfinal win over Brazil.

From some perspectives (including that of players on the field), it looks like France outplayed the USWNT in the World Cup semifinal. But France lost.It has been said, too, of France's game against England, that they dominated possession, played the better game. But they only won on penalties. Many felt that Brazil played a better game against the US in the Olympics, some might say they played a better game (in a few ways at least) than the USWNT last week – but Brazil lost the Olympic and the World Cup matches.

Lauren Cheney: Her stunning goal and set piece assist lifted the USA over France

First, kudos have to go to the unsung US defense that battled a spectacular French side to no more damage than Sonia Bompastor's equalizer. Take a bow Christine Rampone, Amy LePeilbet, Ali Krieger, and especially Becky Sauerbrunn whose assured performance belied this being her World Cup debut.

From looking around the internet, I can tell there is quite a buzz about the US Women's National Team comeback win over Brazil, and rightfully so.

It was a tremendous match that featured a little bit of everything: an own goal, some ridiculous decisions from the referee, a late equalizer and even a penalty shootout.

It's big time for the ladies in just a few hours.

Big effort needed from this US lady--Shannon Boxx--today...

Their own private Ghana you might say, with the exception that the US comes up big against Brazil while the men wilt against their nemesis.

Here's the US starting line-up.

It's big time for the ladies in just a few hours.

Big effort needed from this US lady--Shannon Boxx--today...

Their own private Ghana you might say, with the exception that the US comes up big against Brazil while the men wilt against their nemesis.

Here's the US starting line-up.

Goal nabber Lotta Schelin drives the offensive bus for Sweden...

Update:

The US line-up vs. Sweden: Solo; Krieger, Buehler, Rampone (c), LePeilbet; Rapinoe, Boxx, Lloyd, Cheney; Rodriguez, Wambach

O'Reilly gets to rest her groin while Wambach makes the cut.

Predictions? Give them in the comments. This has been a low-scoring World Cup so far - 2-0 USA is my guess, and I think I'm being generous with the scoreline. To the USA, that is.
Lineups: USA - Solo; Le Peilbet, Buehler, Rampone, Krieger; Cheney, Boxx, Lloyd, O'Reilly; Rodriguez, Wambach
North Korea - Hong; Jong, Ri Un Hyang, Ho, Song; Ri Ye Gyong, Jo, Jon, Kim; Yun, Ra
I like Rapinoe's skill on the ball, but Cheney offers more of a finishing threat, so I'd guess Sundhage's move is to try to put more scoring punch into the lineup.

Predictions? Give them in the comments. I saw this has been a low-scoring World Cup so far - 2-0 USA.
Lineups: USA - Solo; Le Peilbet, Buehler, Rampone, Krieger; Cheney, Boxx, Lloyd, O'Reilly; Rodriguez, Wambach
North Korea - Hong; Jong, Ri Un Hyang, Ho, Song; Ri Ye Gyong, Jo, Jon, Kim; Yun, Ra

Our USWNT gals are set to kick off World Cup play against North Korea in about 35 minutes. Here is your game one line-up:Solo; Krieger, Buehler, Rampone, LePeilbet, Boxx, Cheney, O'Reilly, Lloyd, Rodriguez, WambachI'll be back later with highlights, reactions and perhaps a few thoughts. Enjoy the game, everybody, should be a tough one.

The USA's 90-minute training session today was held under intermittent sunshine and clouds, but the squad is looking sharp and extremely anxious to get this tournament underway. The competition starts tomorrow with two games in Group A and then the tournament will be off and running with matches on eight straight days.

Here is a look at the USA's official team photo that the squad took a few days ago here in Austria (as you can see by the scenic background). This might make a cool wallpaper on someone's lap top. There will be a video of team photo day up on ussoccer.com shortly, so please look for it.
Back Row (L to R): O'Hara, Rapinoe, Heath, LePeilbet, Sauerbrunn, Morgan, Krieger, Lindsey
Middle Row (L to R): Cheney, Wambach, Barnhart, Solo, Loyden, Boxx, Mitts
Front Row (L to R): Cox, Rodriguez, Rampone, Buehler, O'Reilly, Lloyd

And it's the team's second loss in the last five games:

CHONGQING, China (AP) -- The U.S. women's team began World Cup preparations by losing a match in which it led for the first time in more than eight years.

Carli Lloyd's goal off an 11th-minute corner kick was offset when Stina Segerstrom scored in the 16th and Kosovare Asllani in the 60th to give Sweden a 2-1 victory over the Americans on Friday in the opening game of the Four Nations Tournament.

In order to keep the team moving and awake as the players try to adjust to China time as soon as possible, the squad took a walk today around a local market/mall. Not many purchases were made, but the players had a good time (as always) experiencing the unique that is Chinese commerce. Defender Brittany Taylor (above left) did buy a pair of slippers for her boyfriend (whoops, we hope that's not a surprise), but most players kept their yuan in their pockets.