WPS News

There is a ton to catch up on, especially since I've been gone for quite a while. In fact, I never even covered it this year! My sole focus was on WWC 2011, and I as away from the blog altogether after the Final, so I haven't done ANY WPS Week Reviews, no posts on the Play-offs, NOTHING! So disappointing. And now we're at the end of the season. The Final is just 4 days away. (Watch, I'll cover WPS a ton after the season's over...) So anyway, let's get down to business. Some quick recaps of the play-offs.

WPS First Round: MagicJack vs. Boston Breakers- MJ won 3-1, and it honestly should have been by more. Abby Wambach scored in the 5th minute on a rebound off of Huffman's shot. Later, Keelin winters of Boston equalized. MJ was knocking on the door, but they could not finish many of their chances. Huffman would eventually get fouled in the penalty box, and so a penalty was awarded to MJ. Wambach did what she does best and coolly slotted it away. Afterwards, Press fired down the 18 yard box, lured the keeper, turned back, chipped it towards the open goal and Rapinoe headed it in. MJ advanced to the Super Semifinals after a dominating and convincing display. Rapinoe and Huffman were on beast mode the whole game, and the same should be said for Abby. Rookie Press gave Naeher trouble all game, and the Boxx-Schmidt combo held down the midfield pretty well.


WPS Super-Semifinals: MagicJack vs. Philly Independence- This game proved to be quite an unlucky one for MJ. Philly started off better, but then MJ picked up the pace and started playing better. The 2nd half is when all the scoring happened. Only minutes after the opening whistle for the 2nd half, Kai scored, catching Loyden off guard and in a bad position. Now MJ, who had developed a good pace and finished the first half with the upper hand, was in a hole. Its not good to be down like that right after the 2nd half begins. So with some lost confidence, and lost concentration, MJ began their efforts to come back. MJ attacked constantly, and was playing better than Philly who employed what seemed to be an 11-man-defense at times. They were just unlucky. Between hitting posts and crossbars, it seems the team couldn't buy a goal. Later in the second half, A-Rod would score one from what looked to be 20-25 yards out (judging from memory), catching Loyden with her pants down yet again. 2-0 was the final score, and MJ was out of play-offs. Philly would be meeting up WNY Flash in the WPS Championship Final. This is sounding a lot like last year's FCGP vs. Philly, isn't it? Anyways, the Super Semi was lost by MJ because of fatigue (having to play that previous match) and a lack of finishing. Also, let it be noted that Philly's goals came off of 2 GK errors. Both the same one: bad positioning. Philly scored on the chances they had to. MJ couldn't. That's why Philly will be facing WNY.


Miscellaneous league news: Higher Attendances- As its been noted, WPS attendances have seen a massive improvement. A few stadiums have seen sell-outs (WNY's stadium reached a 15,000 capacity for their match against MJ- highest attendance in league history. MJ's FAU stadium reached a 3,000 sell-out [not bad for a team only getting around 500 each game previous to WWC]) And other stadiums have reached high attendances in general (Philly had a near sell-out with somewhere in the 4-5,000's, Sky Blue reached its second highest attendance at 5,065 [I was there], and Boston reached a 6,000 or so attendance). These numbers bode well for the league. But they need to capitalize on the new-found interest and keep these people interested going into next season.

Dan Borislow vs. WPS- Shortly after the WWC, a statement was released by WPS saying Dan would be taking legal action against them. It was said that WPS wanted to terminate his franchise. It was not made clear when, since Dan claims they wanted to do it in June, while the league maintains they stated they wanted to terminate it at the end of the season. The league's reasons for doing so was based on his breaches of the league's contracts and inability to follow the rules. Dan felt like he did nothing wrong and invested too much money to get booted in the middle of the season. The 2 have settled their differences and put the lawsuit to rest. However, this is only temporary, as I feel the situation is sure to heat up once again, in the off-season.

WPS Championship Final: WNY Flash vs. Philly Independence- You do not wanna miss this one folks! The game is on Saturday, coverage starting at 3:30 pm ET. This is sure to be a great match. WNY and Philly are 1st and 2nd in the league regular season table, respectively. There is a pre-game, and they'll likely be showing some background on the teams, as well as their Top 10 Goals of the Season segment. I'm so excited for the match, because it all comes down to these two teams, but I'm also very sad, because it means that after that game, we have to wait until April for more WPS action!

Really hope that you accept my apologies of not being around! I plan to be more diligent with the blog. I will be doing a post on the Championship Final most likely. Thanks for reading! By the way, maybe when I feel better about the WWC and its not such a sensitive topic, I'll give you all the recaps you deserve. Anyway, the WPS Final is in 4 days, an off-season full of happenings (Please be GOOD happenings) is upon us, and Olympic qualifiers are just around the corner. The blog will be buzzing again, you'll see!

Denise