Please can someone explain to me How the W league can be second rated to the WPSL. I am certain the New Jersey Team could beat the winners of the WPSL. All be it I never watched the WPSL. But looking at the player pool of the top teams in WPSL vs. The player pool of the W - league and I draw a blank. Take the for exanple the player pool of the Vancover White caps the Ottaw Fury and the New Jersey Team. Its 80% National team players either Full Womens side or U19/21 players. How can this be secondary to the WPSL. I understand that W-league is Amatuer and this alows the NCAA talent to dwell there. but other than that?!?! Also have a secondary question since WPSL is a pro league how can NCAA players still be present. There are a few Notre Dame players on the Indiana team.? Anyone know why?
at www.women.soccerway.com there is a WPSL thread: www.women.soccerway.com/board http://women.soccerway.com/board/index.php?board=10.0
1) WPSL is not a pro league. It is amateur just like W-League. 2) You are absolutely right. The WPSL is not even close to the W-League in talent level. Of course if you're referring to the Women's World Football rankings, they're bogus anyway. There's no way in hell that FC Indiana is the #2 team in the world. And the funniest thing is that site put them up there after they won the US Women's Open Cup - a mostly meaningless tournament because the W-League teams don't even enter it.
Is that because the W-League is afraid its teams might have to play against, and lose to, a WPSL team? The best WPSL teams could beat the best W-League teams on any given day, and vice-versa. You can't measure the two leagues by talking. But the W-League has a rule that no W-league team is allowed to play a WPSL team. I don't see many ways to interpret such a rule, except to maintain an illusion of superiority that an actual game might destroy. One could argue that the W-League is more diluted, and that, top to bottom, the WPSL is the overall better league. I bet the last-place WPSL team would defeat the last-place W-league team this past season.
Wow, that would be a game I would want to see. Not. This "W-League is afraid of the WPSL" thing gets old. Did the the two women's professional basketball leagues play each other? Did the NFL play the USFL? Did the NPSL play the WISL? It is a shame that there isn't just one league, but the original WPSL organizers just didn't fit/believe in the USL system. Basically, this "who is better" is for discussion purposes only and it will never happen. The W-League hasn't nothing to gain by taking on the WPSL. Seems that the WPSL people are always the ones asking why the two leagues don't play each other.
No, I think the WPSL people are actually saying, "let's play!" And actually, the NFL did play the AFL. The NL began playing the AL. And they were not always happy about the results (See Chicago White Sox). I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to watch Abby Wambach and So Cal Ajax, or Brandi Chastain, Sissi, Shannon Mac and the Sac'to Storm, play any W League team. Before you laugh off the Indiana squad, you'd better go watch them play. That's a first-rate coaching and playing staff they've got. Why would you greet such a suggestion with sarcasm? A true soccer fan would relish the thought! On the field the W League is no different than the WPSL. The WPSL teams are just as well-run (i.e. San Diego WFC; Utah Spiders; New England) as any in the WLeague. If the best 10 teams in each league played each other 10 times, you'd likely find the results pretty close to .500. Finally, I think a true fan of women's soccer wouldn't spend time shooting-down one of the leagues, especially when there's no factual or evidentiary basis to do so. Both leagues, and teams therein, consist of players, managers, coaches, and supporters who "do it" because they love the game. So what's your point?
Please go back and reread my post. No where did I "shoot-down" the WPSL. My point, again, is that the W-League will not let this happen, especially since the WPSL was originally started from a renegage west coast group pissed off at the USL. My sarcasm comes from the idea of watching the last place W-League team play the last place WPSL team. Playing for the love of the game is one thing, watching a match to support the teams is another thing, but I would not be entertained by watching the likes of the South Jersey Banshees play the Lamorinda East Bay Power. My point: You can scream "lets play" all you want, the leagues playing each won't happen and all the fans can sit around the camp fire discussing these so called "world rankings". You can put the "true fan of women's soccer" card back in your pocket.
Right. And the fact is, the WPSL was rated higher than the W-League. You can challenge it all you want, but that rating is just as valid as your own "rating." The fact that you, for some reason, don't like that rating, and wish the opposite were true, doesn't make it so. And the fact is, the best teams in each league are fairly evenly-matched, which you haven't disputed. I think you know that I wasn't suggesting that a match featuring the last place teams in each league would be a big crowd-pleaser. You can go to whatever game you want and support any team you want, just like a true partisan. But if you compare the 2 leagues objectively, rather than as a partisan, you could only come to the conclusion that they are comparable in every respect except the fee paid by the teams to the league. It's too bad we can't put this effort into having one big women's league made up of many teams that have plenty of sponsors and fans and support.
The thing that I find interesting is that the WPSL has a champion that only playd 4 regular season games. I've never heard of a league that doesn't have all of the teams playing the same number of games. Only in the western division did all of the teams play the same amount of games. I agree that it is hard to compare the two leagues since the teams don't play each other. I would be interested to see how they determined the criteria for the rankings.
That is because if a W-League team tries to play a team from WPSL, they can get fined by the league... (Merrill Ring article is my source) The W-League is scared of the Upstart that left them The W-League will does not want this to take place, a loss to a WPSL team would be seen as confimation for the WPSL. Too many politics and not enough talking -
True, that the USL does not let the W-League teams play the WPSL teams. I don't see this as a league being scared of the other, or having a result against them being shown as a confirmation for the WPSL. I see it as the W-League saying "what do we have to gain from playing the WPSL?" If they play, and they win, they were expected too. If they lose, then all of the WPSL screams "here we are, we have arrived". Why can't they do that now? They have built a league on their own that is successfully moving from a West region league to a national league. And if they were to play, who would play? Most of the WPSL teams are in areas without an W-League team. Why would Vancouver pay for travel to play Sacramento? Or visa versa? The only current teams that are within a non-budget busting travel distance are NJ (W-League) and Philadelphia Pirates (WPSL) or the Boston/Springfield teams. If people are going to hang their hats on the "for the love of the game and the fans" then all of my statements are moot. Fans would love to see good team play, no matter the league affiliation.
ButlerBob makes an excellent point here, and goes back to what my original point here was, and that was these particular rankings are a joke (not that the W-League is better than the WPSL). How do you rank a team that only played 4 regular season games as a World Number 1 team? If the California Storm, or Ajax out West was ranked #1 I could have more respect for this ranking. I will also add this. Even though I am through and through a USNT fan, do I trully believe the US is the 7th best team in the World? Ahead of England? Italy? Turkey? Spain? I will certainly stick it to my UK friends that according to FIFA my team is better than theirs, but I don't trully respect these rankings either. But they do one good thing: drive discussion.
They are no.2, and per their website, beat Australia 1-0 and Trinidad 3-0 beat California twice and beat Ajax 2-0.
Not until they play and the USNT wins does it justify the ranks, more reflects the level of competition over the last couple of years than actual merit FC Indiana played 14 regular season games, someone typo'd the 4
San Diego Has Clubs in Both Leagues What about San Diego where we have both the San Diego Women's Football Club of the WPSL and the San Diego Gauchos of the W-League? Last year when I first heard about San Diego getting a W-League team I was really looking forward to the possibility of us having some sort of a local derby between the two leagues. Unfortunately I later found out that the USL won't allow this to happen.
Re: San Diego Has Clubs in Both Leagues The Washington Freedom played teams in both leagues: https://www.teamsportsinfo.com/wfsc...CVis=0&tcLCVis=1&uc=ftext&fn=2005schedule0405 Of course, they're only ranked 10th, so who knows.
I think the only way to really answer this question would be if both leagues entered the national cup for women. Does anyone know when the final was last year? But to me the leagues have slightly different models and going after different types of owners. I think there is a place for both leagues, although I would prefer that they work together. But people being people that's not very likely to happen. I just find the expansion to Florida by both leagues to be very interesting. We will be going from 2 teams last year to 5 teams this year. And three of those teams will be in about the same area (central Florida / Orlando). It will be interesting to see how many there are the following year. But for this next season, there will be plenty of opportunity for women players in that state.
That's probably why they don't take part. I checked after I posted and saw that it was in August. I know that they like to finish up in late July / early August because of the college players. It would be nice if they could work something out with their scheduling so that they could take part.
Re: San Diego Has Clubs in Both Leagues Same thing on the men's side. The USL won't allow its PDL teams to play the NPSL ( www.nationalpremiersoccerleague.com ) teams in exhibitions/pre-season. Fortunately, the USL does allow its PDL teams to play in the (men's) U.S. Open Cup. And in the U.S. Open Cup, teams from NPSL and its immediate predecessor (the MPSL) are 2-1 versus teams from the PDL.
Here is why. The W-League does not allow its teams to play vs. WPSL teams. I wonder why? I will answer my own question. When you are afraid of the results, you choose not to play. Because the two leagues do not compete against each other lets see how each league fared in international competitions. WPSL 2002 California Storm 1, Nigeria 1 2003 California Storm 0, USA 2 California Storm 0, Ghana 0 2004 New England Mutiny 3, China 4 Indiana 2, Mexico 0 Las Vegas 1, Mexico 1 Indiana 1, Australia 0 2005 Indiana 3, T&T 0 Indiana 8, T&T 3 As you can see WPSL teams compete very well against international opponents. Now lets se what international competition has New Jersey, Ottawa, Vancouver faced....NONE! Its easy to play against nobody and claim you have the best league. I think many W-League owners would question expending $16K per year in league fees alone if they knew that WPSL IS the more competitive league, for a fraction of the cost. International results SAY SO.
In 2005 I believe San Diego WFC played 2 games in Mexico against the Mexico WNT, losing one and winning one; then played the Mexican team again in San Diego and lost 1-0 in front of a very large crowd.
But those teams pretty much ARE international teams. Don't those three teams account for a sizable chunk of the Canadian national side? New Jersey has been bringing over the best players from England. Besides, what can you really tell from international scrimmages? Was that the top team China has to offer at the moment? Did California have its best players, or did they manage those results without their stars? Same problem with comparing the results of each team against the Washington Freedom. Some days, the Freedom can field a team with a bunch of players from their WUSA championship days. Some days, they're just a bunch of kids. I've only seen one game featuring a team from either of these leagues, and it was the 2004 New Jersey Wildcats (with Pichon and Smith) against a moderately strong Washington Freedom side. The 1-1 score was unfair to the Wildcats, who dominated. But if Pichon and Smith (especially Smith) were unavailable, it might have been a different game. And when the Freedom went up to NJ without, as I understood it, most of their ex-WUSA players, the Wildcats routed them. The bottom line is that these teams are essentially summer avocations for some of the best players we can bring into this country and the rough equivalent of summer internships for high school and college kids. Unless you could get the teams to commit their best players to a structured competition, this is like comparing 1966 England to 1998 France.