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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But Torrance's Shannon Boxx is not among the 10 female players on the FIFA short list this year.

Marta has won the award three times in succession.

Here's FIFA's list of the male and female nominees as announced today.

And here's the WPS press release heralding the accomplishments of the players nominated who play in the league:

Sonia Bompastor FRA/Washington Freedom - Led the league in assists (6) while tallying four goals and was selected as WPS Player of the Month for May.

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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...

That's according to Brian Boswell, coach of the Rolling Hills Estates-based Women's Professional Soccer League club Ajax America (for years now one of the top women's teams in the nation and a WPSL finalist again last year) and a sometime contributor to this blog.

The revelations were contained in what is essentially a begging letter circulating via e-mail that seeks to ensure the continued existence of Ajax.

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Great video by the WPS! I only managed to interview one WPS player this year, Ella Masar and she was awesome, but next year I hope to do a lot more!

Loved the goal celebrations in this video and I love the fact that the girl's I coach have professional female role models to look up too!

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In a shock trade the Sol allowed central defender Allison Falk, an integral part of the L.A. defense last serason, and backup goalkeeper Val Henderson to leave for the expansion Philadelphia Independence today in exchange for the No. 5 and No. 22 draft picks.

I've received no notification from the Sol, but it's up on the Independence Web site.

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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...

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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It was a bad day to be Brazilian in WPS yesterday as teams around the league handed seven of their "Girls from Ipanema" their free-agency walking papers. The name on that list that perhaps raised the most eyebrows was Cristiane from the Red Stars, that team's leading goal scorer and the first and only player in WPS history to register a hat-trick. Click to continue reading...

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...

D.C. United finally broke through on CONCACAF Champions League play on Tuesday night, posting a 1-0 victory against San Juan Jabloteh in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Christian Gomez converted a penalty kick in the 14th minute after a handball in the penalty area by Noel Williams. D.C. goalkeeper Milos Kocic made the goal stand up with several crucial saves as D.

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They were Canadian international defender Sharolta Nonen, who started two games after joining the team in the wake of defender Christie Shaner breaking her leg on her Sol debut, and midfielder Katie Larkin, a BYU product who made five starts for the Sol.

Full details of today's expansion draft are here.

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Last season's Red Stars selected in WPS expansion draft
Defender Nikki Krzysik (top) and forward Danesha Adams (bottom) will continue their Women's Professional Soccer tenure in Philadelphia in 2010. This past season's members of the Chicago Red Stars were selected by the Philadelphia Independence in the first-ever expansion draft Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

Sunday
Long Beach State 0 UCLA 4
Sydney Leroux scored twice for the No. 7 Bruins, which also got goals from Lauren Cheney and Liz Zadro at George Allen Field.

USC 1 St. John's 2
No. 12 USC has started the season 0-2, a 54th minute penalty from Megan Ohai failing to stop the Trojans' first loss at home since 2006, snapping a 19-game streak at McAlister Field.

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WPS stars, execs and staff have all arrived in St. Louis for the WPS All-Star game this weekend. Thought I'd drop a note to share the events of the weekend. (Karina LeBlanc is my inspiration for posting something she blogged late last night after the All-Star Awards Dinner. Check out www.

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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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Not many surprises here.

The WPS awards were handed out Saturday night ahead of Sunday's WPS All-Star game in St. Louis.

The six award winners:

*Golden Boot Award - Marta (Sol)
*Defender of the Year - Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers)
*Coach of the Year - Abner Rogers (Sol)
*Goalkeeper of the Year - Hope Solo (Saint Louis Athletica)
*Sportswoman of the Year - Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC)
* Player of the Year Award - Marta (Sol)

Quotable:

"Each player in the league has it as their goal to try for an award like this," said Marta on being named WPS MVP.

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Click the link to the right for the complete, exhaustive listing of soccer on TV this weekend.

But here are my picks for the best of the games followed by a listing of the local games in and around L.A.

TV best bets Saturday:
4:30 a.m. ESPN2 Chelsea-Burnley
9 a.

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OK. I know a lot of you read that headline and either rolled your eyes, or muttered "dream on, sister."
I've been involved in a discussion on Big Soccer about Dan Loney's article, "Endless Summer". He opens with a reference to my post about the Galaxy/Barça game. Some Big Soccer readers have been baffled by my overtly political (feminist, Marxist) approach to the game (expressed in comments about Loney's article). Click to continue reading...

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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Soccer isn't immune to the rocky economic climate. Argentina's first division clubs are off to a late start and without a television licensing deal. Moreover, recent articles reported that a few clubs in the newly created Women's Professional Soccer league have lost up to $2 million dollars in its inaugural season. Click to continue reading...

"The fibers of this team are so close and so that that nothing was going to break us." Sky Blue FC's Heather O'Reilly (left, with Natasha Kai) on her team's triumph in the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer championship game. O'Reilly scored the game's only goal in the 16th minute and the New York/New Jersey franchise held on to defeat th heavily-favored Los Angeles Sol.

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                                                                                   Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

The highs and lows of the Women's Pro Soccer season were ever so present in the first WPS Championship.

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                                                                                   Photo by ISIphotos.com

By CHRISTA MANN

The highs and lows of the Women's Pro Soccer season were ever so present in the first WPS Championship.

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Congrats to Sky Blue FC for winning the first WPS Championship! Heather O'Reilly win's the MVP but she said it should have gone to Christie Rampone! Heather was first class for saying that because Christie is a big part of Sky Blue FC because not only is she the captain but she is also the head coach!

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Sky Blue FC beat LA Sol 1-0 to win the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) championship game on Saturday, thanks to a goal from Heather O'Reilly (pictured with Natasha Kai and Natasha Kai's tattoos) So WPS has survived its inaugural season (even after launching at the worst possible time, economically speaking) and - crucially -established the [. Click to continue reading...

ASN's Craig Bennett was at Home Depot Center Saturday afternoon gathering photographic evidence of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer championship match between Sky Blue FC and the Los Angeles Sol (read ASN's match report here).
Click here to visit the photo gallery.
All photos ©ASN/Craig Bennett, 112575 Media Inc. Click to continue reading...

Sky Blue FC spent its 2009 season embroiled in turmoil, both on and off the pitch. The New York/New Jersey-based franchise waddled near the bottom of the WPS standings for a good part of the season and saw two head coaches leave the organization. But the club clawed its way to two road playoff victories, then pulled off the mother of all upsets, as one strike off the foot of Heather O'Reilly coupled with some gritty defense and some timely breaks enabled Sky Blue FC to claim the inaugural WPS championship over the host Los Angeles Sol 1-0 Saturday afternoon at the Home Depot Center. Click to continue reading...

Walking into Carson stadium for the WPS final, I found myself thinking that a win for Sky Blue would be good for the league, and perhaps even good for the Sol. The WPS needs to get rid of the impression that there is one team that is far and away better than the rest. The playoff structure, which guaranteed a place in the finals for the regular season champs, did that by clearing a path to the final for the Sol, as if they deserved a free pass. Click to continue reading...

Sol 0 Sky Blue FC 1

A team that barely got into the playoffs has just beaten the dominant team of the regular season.

The Sol never got their attack in sync today; frankly there was more urgency in the line outside the women's restroom at half time.

FC Sky Blue outplayed them in virtually every facet of the game, especially with a defense marshaled by central defender Jen Buczkowski alongside player-coach Christie Rampone.

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Sol 0 Sky Blue FC 1

It's a well-deserved lead for the underdogs against a flat Sol. Coach Abner Rogers removed midfielder McCall Zerboni for defender Sharolta Nonen after the straight red, but the Sol will need to do more than that to come from behind. Which team had the most rest coming into this game anyway?

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A straight red for Sol defender Allison Falk in the 27th minute after she clipped an on-rushing Natasha Kai from behind.

A poor decision by referee Kari Seitz in a championship game this early that changes the complexion of the match; no way did that look deliberate. It was just a clumsy, almost accidental touch.

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Sol 0 Sky Blue FC 1

The improbable story of Sky Blue FC continues.

A 16th minute cross by Sky Blue midfielder Keeley Dowling that was nodded on by Natasha Kai and met by Heather O'Reilly from eight yards out provided the opening goal.

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By CHRISTA MANN

After a twenty game regular season and two opening rounds of the playoffs, today's Women's Pro Soccer Championship (4:00 PM EST on FSN and Comcast affiliates) features the L.A. Sol against Sky Blue FC (NJ).

One team was always expected to be in the championship game, while the other, well the other wasn't even expected to make the playoffs amid inner turmoil and early-season struggles.

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