Breakers fans are going to like Melissa Henderson. She will be a great combo with Courtney Jones, Osborne and DaCosta.
Well, it will put the seats at premium which will probably sell more season tix or flex pacs as they speak of. And I think the atmosphere might be better without the mausoleum effect.
Schedule details haven't yet been released, but the home game dates were: http://twitter.com/#!/BostonBreakers/status/182558365224939522
Boston Breakers name Kristine Lilly assistant coach. http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/NEWS/611410.html As I said in other threads, this may actually be a fun season. It may be a 3 horse race between Breakers, WNY Flash and Chicago Red Stars (kind of like European pro leagues), but there are some good players signing up with these teams.
The 2012 Boston Breakers WPSL schedule has been posted. I don't think that any of the other teams' schedules are up yet. From what I've read, I think the full WPSL Elite schedule may be up by Monday. http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/home/611513.html http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/SCHEDULE/index_E.html May 10, Thu, CHE vs. BOS, TBA May 18, Fri, BOS vs. IND, 7pm, Dilboy Stadium May 24, Thu, AZT vs. BOS, 6pm May 26, Sat, BOS vs. WNY, 6pm, Dilboy Stadium Jun 1, Fri, IND vs. BOS, TBA Jun 3, Sun, CHI vs. BOS, TBA Jun 10, Sun, PHI vs. BOS, TBA Jun 20, Wed, BOS vs. MUT, 7pm Dilboy Stadium Jun 23, Sat, BOS vs. AZT, 6pm Dilboy Stadium Jun 30, Sat, BOS vs. CHI, 6pm Dilboy Stadium Jul 6, Fri, BOS vs. CHE, 7pm Dilboy Stadium Jul 7, Sat, MUT vs. BOS, TBA Jul 14, Sat, BOS vs. PHI, 6pm Dilboy Stadium Jul 22, Sun, WNY vs. BOS, 4pm, Sahlen Stadium (The May 24 and June 30 game times are per the schedule web page. However, the announcement lists these times as "TBA" so I'm not sure about them.)
It was just announced that Aztec MA dropped out of the WPSL Elite league and that the NY Fury joined the league in their place. I'm not sure if the Boston Breakers schedule might be changing as a result.
Recent Boston Breakers news: - The Boston Breakers vs. Western New York Flash game on May 26th has already sold out. The capacity of the stadium is about 2,500. (I'm not sure how they are accounting for season flex tickets. For example, what happens if someone shows up at that game and wants to redeem 10 tickets out of the single flex pack they purchased?) In any case, the Breakers say: - The Boston Breakers played an exhibition match against Boston College on April 11, 2012. Here are some photos from the match. From the team web site: - Assistant Coach Kristine Lilly ran this year's Boston Marathon, finishing with a time of 4:27:45. http://www.nesn.com/2012/04/olympic...athon-for-childrens-hospital-boston-team.html http://espn.go.com/espnw/athletes-life/7819117/soccer-player-kristine-lilly-running-boston-marathon http://www.potomacsoccerwire.com/news/459/21233 - I'm considering live audio broadcasting the home games via telephone conference call if the Breakers don't otherwise have their own official audio or video game broadcasts. I'm not sure how well it would work or how worthwhile it would be (compared to getting game updates via Twitter or Facebook).
Updated roster, from Our Game Magazine: Boston Breakers Defenders: Cat Whitehill, Taryn Hemmings, Elli Reed, Emma Thomson, Julie King, Lindsay Massengale, Katherine Donnelly Midfielders: Leslie Osborne, Tameka Butt, Bianca D’Agostino, Amanda DaCosta, Heather O’Reilly (will train with team), Jessica Luscinski, Furtuna Velaj Forwards: Katie Schoepfer, Kyah Simon, Courtney Jones, Melissa Henderson, Veronica Napoli
Velaj was one of the best young players for the W-League Freedom. She'd have been picked up in this year's WPS draft if there'd been one.
I'm lucky enough to know her personally. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=5623820
Yeah, my bad. My not having a team any more makes me forget when the league decided to suspend the season. But, yeah, I'm a little surprised she wasn't picked up - maybe if there'd been another round or two.
Does anyone know if Melissa Henderson is on the team? I see that she has signed and is on the roster, but is she in Boston training or is she still at Notre Dame till Final Exams are over?
No sign of her at tonight's match. She definitely didn't play. Will try to ask properly if I get the chance on Saturday.
Yeah, I believe in her twitter she said that she still had 10 days left at ND, and that was a few days ago. So I'm assuming there are still exams to be taken before she can start playing. I'm flying back to Chicago from Seattle for the week of June 3rd through June 10th and and will be at all three Red Stars games that week. I'm looking forward to the CRS Breakers game on June 3rd in Chicago and hope that Mel Henderson will be on the Breakers squad for that game to play against some of her 2010 NCAA Championship teammates, like Lauren Fowlkes. But any more info would be appreciated. She is a dynamic forward with speed and cutting style of play. Should be exciting for Breakers fans to watch.
Yeah, asked the Breakers coach about her this evening, and she said Melissa's still at Notre Dame. Too, after that they're expecting her to be called into U-23 WNT camp, so they're not expecting her for several weeks yet. Meanwhile, Boston looked pretty good in a 1-0 win over a tough DCU Women's team - tremendous game from the DCU keepers kept the match close.
Writeups on the match: Mine - http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=9147 DCU's - http://www.dcunitedwomen.com/home/625644.html Boston's - http://www.bostonbreakerssoccer.com/home/625598.html
And one more from a real journalist: http://www.sportsmyriad.com/2012/05/d-c-united-women-and-boston-breakers-a-w-leaguewpsl-friendly/
DCU has put together a really nicely done highlight reel from the match - it includes every notable moment I remember: (And that disembodied left hand holding the portable recorder in the post-game interviews? That's me!)
The Friday, May 18, 2012 opener home game against IND is sold out. So is the May 26 game against WNY. Since this year "season tickets" are actually season flex packs, it sounds as if "season ticket holders" might need to arrive at the stadium early enough to avoid getting shut out. I'm not sure how things will work-- how many seats have been withheld per season flex pack (since theoretically one season flex pack holder could use anywhere from zero to all 12 tickets at each game) and when no-show, season flex pack seats might be released to day of game purchasers. FYI, regarding how the flex packs work per the letter that came with them, "Upon arrival to the stadium please have your season flex book with you. Breakers ticket staff will tear once stub for our records and the other stays in your book. You cannot gain entry without your season flex pack." This will be somewhat inconvenient as the ticket books are 14 glossy pages thick and will probably need to be folded in half to fit in a pocket. It also sounds as if parking may be problematic this year. Dilboy has a finite amount of parking (from looking at a satellite photo I counted perhaps 220 spaces), and I'm not quite sure where street parking might available or what the below-mentioned restrictions are. I'll try to do a drive-by tomorrow to research this and to also check out what traffic is like in the late afternoon and early evening. Here's some gameday information from the Breakers, copied below: https://www.box.com/s/18315eebf2daaad03fa8