With a number of Coaches announced or about to be announced the race is on to sign the players.

It's a national league and with TV exposure Sydney FC or Queensland Roar romping home with huge win margins would help no-one. So a cunning plan has been devised to spread the player quality across the League and the Country. Click to continue reading...

Nationally we have W-League Jets Coach and Under 17 Australian Women's Coach Gary Phillips, 442Editor Paul Hansford on why they want to talk to Graham Arnold.










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Locally we go in-depth with Woden Valley and ACT Rockets star Marcin Zygmunt. Click to continue reading...

Gary Phillips Coach of the Newcastle Jets W-League side will be on the Nearpost show tonight along with 442 Editor Paul Hansford.

Gary Phillips is also Coach of the Under 17 National Women's team which lost to an older Japan side 4-3 in Canberra yesterday.

Phillips was delighted with the result particularly pleased with stand-out performances from Nicola Bolger and Emily Van Egmond. Click to continue reading...

W-League is coming even if things have gone a tad quiet. I'm expecting the TV Deal with the ABC to be announced next Thursday...and..

in Canberra I'm expecting the Coach to be announced next week.

There have been a number of applicants, interviews were held last week, so an announcement any day soon. Click to continue reading...

Southern California now has two women's soccer national champions.

A day after Pali Blues won the W-League title, Rolling Hills Estates-based Ajax America Women took their first Women's Premier Soccer League crown Sunday night with a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over the Arizona Rush.

It was the team's first WPSL title since 2001.

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The day after the Pacific Palisades-based Pali Blues won the W-League title Rolling Hills Estates-based Ajax America Women will attempt to repeat the feat tonight in the Women's Premier Soccer League championship game in Sacramento.

Ajax America crushed the Madison (Wisconsin) Lady Blues Saturday to advance to tonight's final against the Arizona Rush.

Click to continue reading...

First-year W-League franchise Pali Blues capped a perfect 14-0 season with a come from behind 2-1 win in Virginia Beach, Va., that required two goals in the last seven minutes of the game to clinch the title.

It wasn't the Blues' best game, observed Coach Charlie Naimo, but it was enough:

"I have to give credit to FC Indiana for taking us out of our game.

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Brad Guzan finally secured the work permit he needed today to join Aston Villa of the EPL.

With all the money flowing into the game in England these days, Guzan has hit the proverbial jackpot, although he won't make as much as the 25 richest young footballers in England.

Closer to home, with the Galaxy and Chivas USA on the road there's no live local top-class soccer (I'll have a best of what's on the box below), but this is always a fun event:

And yeah, Rod will really be there this year.

Click to continue reading...

With José Luis López' addition, Ernie Merrick's off-season recruitment seems to have reached its end. But work on the Victory's W-League and National Youth League teams is still well underway. Melbourne has signed Matilda's goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri, who becomes the first signing for the Victory's inaugural W-League team. Click to continue reading...

Apologies, busy with a big project and not much time to blog.

A few things to pass along:

*Pacific Palisades-based W-League team Pali Blues defeated reigning champion Washington Freedom 2-0 earlier tonight earning a berth in Saturday's final against FC Indiana. Game reports here.

Click to continue reading...

The FFA are saying there is a salary cap of $150,000 for the W-League, but the teams are saying they won't be paying anyone!!!

Sure you can have a Salary Cap but if no-one has the money to spend then it's a tad meaningless. This one needs to be investigated for clarification. I'll make a phone call or three. Click to continue reading...

Mark your calendar. Set your TiVo. Here's your soccer week in Southern California.

Sunday:
*Real So Cal Boys Under-16 Team lost 2-0 to Dallas Texans Red at the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships.

*Also, the Galaxy Reserves drew 2-2 with Dallas through goals by Alan Gordon and Bryan Jordan.

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On Sunday I took a drive to Lafayette, Indiana, with Emma Hayes and Alyse LaHue to watch FC Indiana vs. Ottowa Fury. This was the W-League Central Conference Championship and it was played at Purdue University. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "W-League Central Conference Championships - FC Indiana vs. Ottowa Fury", url: "http://www. Click to continue reading...

The undefeated (13-0-1) Atlanta Silverbacks Women will host the W-League Eastern Conference Semifinals and Championship this upcoming weekend.

Along with the championship, a berth is on the line for the full W-League Semifinals and Championship in Virginia Beach.

Look for some tough football in this regional semi, as every team in the group has a shot at the Championship. Click to continue reading...

*The alleged MLS All-Star game is 4 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2. I'll have more on that in Tuesday's column.

*The Galaxy play at 4 p.m. Sunday in Dallas (live on Prime).

*Chivas USA plays next Aug. 2 in Chicago.

*From the Women's Premier Soccer League:

Saturday at Esperanza High (Anaheim):
5:30 p.

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Another soccer-filled weekend is on tap, so let's get to it.

*The Galaxy are out of town in New York where Claudio Reyna retired this week and the Red Bulls signed two South American midfielders who could make their debuts Saturday.

The game airs live at 3:30 p.m. on Fox Soccer Channel and a crowd of more than 45,000 is expected to turn out largely to see David Beckham who continues to prove why he's nicknamed Golden Balls.

Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA moves into a new era this evening without star goalkeeper Brad Guzan in their SuperLiga opener at 7 against Pachuca (live on TeleFutura).

Said Coach Preki of the culmination (hopefully) of the drawn out trade:

"I won't say it's a relief because now we've got to see what we have with the other young goalkeepers we have.

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The second edition of SuperLiga begins today with a 5 p.m. game on TeleFutura between CD Guadalajara and D.C. United.

The Houston Dynamo-Atlante game follows at 7 p.m. on the same channel.

The MLS Players Union is apparently not pleased with that alleged $1 million in SuperLiga prize money figure the league throws around.

Click to continue reading...

Tied for first place in the Western Conference, the Galaxy and Chivas USA resume hostilities 8 p.m. Thursday on ESPN2 before the Red & White play Sunday in their opening SuperLiga game against last year's winner Pachuca. (That game is live at 7 p.m. on TeleFutura). I'll have a preview of the tournament in Tuesday's column.

Click to continue reading...

The U.S. Women's National Team beat Sweden 1-0 Saturday with Torrance's Shannon Boxx going the full 90 and USC striker Amy Rodriguez getting a few minutes late. The U.S. now returns home for its final two Olympic warm-up games.

If you want to get caught up on the Chivas USA win Saturday read the previous post; for game reaction and video highlights of the Galaxy's 2-1 loss to New England Friday go here.

Click to continue reading...

As readers of this blog learned Wednesday from beat writer Scott Wolf, neither David Beckham (sore hamstring) or Landon Donovan (flu) practiced with the team yesterday and could miss tonight's game against the New England Revolution, who will have Taylor Twellman on the bench.

So possibly no stars for the Galaxy, but there will be fireworks after the game.

Click to continue reading...

The Galaxy announced today they are selling tickets for Friday's game against the New England Revolution on the grass berm at the north end of the stadium - for $36 a pop.

Considering the cheapest seats in the stadium are $15 for the game that seems more than a little pricey, especially considering you have to bring your own blanket.

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Needed a deep breath after the weekend (and spent the day writing Tuesday's column), so late blogging.

Chivas USA is one of 16 teams participating in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup at 7 p.m. Tuesday playing a game in Seattle against the Sounders you can see here. Chivas USA lost at this stage of the competition last year to Seattle.

Click to continue reading...

Here are the essentials for tonight's Chivas USA-New York Red Bulls game at Home Depot Center:

*NYRB are without Claudio Reyna, Juan Pablo Angel (both injured) and, of course, one Senor Altidore (sunning himself in Spain).

*Fear not. Chivas USA has Justin Braun.

*The Red Bulls are playing their fifth game in 15 days tonight, which could help Chivas USA avoid losing twice to New York in one season.

Click to continue reading...

Goals aplenty are expected Sunday when the Galaxy plays D.C. United on the road in a rare nationally televised MLS game on ABC that precedes the Euro 2008 final.

The official Galaxy blog has a video preview.

Speaking of Euro 2008, sports media columnist Tom Hoffarth had more today on the broadcast snafu that frankly ruined the first semifinal Wednesday between Germany and Turkey.

Click to continue reading...