So the groups for the next edition of the men's CCL were drawn tonight, and it got me wondering: Which will happen first, a true women's USOC or a women's CCL?
Well how many semi-pro women leagues are there in concacaf? Mexico has one or two but they are not high quality. Any women CL would be small with a buch of forfits due to money. Basically like the old mens CL.
Not sure about the pro/semipro/proam/am status, but I know of at least four leagues in central America, two of which (CR and Nicaragua) I know fairly recent champions for, up to 2014. I thought Jamaica and T&T had leagues as well. But yeah, I think having money-forfeits wouldn't be a logistical limitation since there is precedent. That all said, I think that unless Canada gets its own women's semipro/proam league together, the women's USOC is a bit more likely than a women's CCL.
Anyway, I just checked the website today, since the tournament was supposed to happen over the weekend. It did, though the final for the women's open division doesn't have a score on it yet despite supposedly happening yesterday. Good news is that they did scramble a fourth team up for the competition, so the CO Sporting Fury joined Mothershuckers, United FC, and Olympic Club. They even didn't embarrass themselves, getting a win over Mothershuckers. But it's United FC and Olympic Club in the final, which makes sense to me with Olympic having already won the competition before and United FC, if they are in fact the same Atlanta team from a few years ago, at least having participated before. If the final wasn't actually played, which it might just not have been considering they've never played a final before when the group stage was just four teams, Olympic came in 1st. However, the USASA Twitter account called the third-round group game between Olympic and Sporting Fury a "semifinal", so I'm guess there should have been a real final played yesterday. I just can't find any info on it.
Schedule page has been updated, with the Olympic Club of San Francisco successfully defending their Open Cup title, defeating United FC 2-0 in the final on Sunday. They scored 14 goals and allowed just 2 in their 4 games. Olympic Club are the first team to defend their title since now-defunct Ajax America did so in 2003-2004. =EDIT= Okay, I just noticed that the links to last year's Open Cup are now 404'd, so just to make sure the record of this year is kept, I'm copying the schedule/results below. Code: Thursday, July 14 Pool Play – Pool A G Time Location Away Team Home Team Status 1 6:00p Field 8 Olympic Club 7 Mothershucker 1 Completed 6 6:00p Field 10 CO Sporting Fury 1 United FC 4 Completed Friday, July 15 Pool Play – Pool A G Time Location Away Team Home Team Status 4 4:00p Field 10 United FC 1 Olympic Club 2 Completed 3 6:00p Field 8 CO Sporting Fury 7 Mothershucker 0 Completed Saturday, July 16 Pool Play – Pool A G Time Location Away Team Home Team Status 5 8:00a Field 8 CO Sporting Fury 0 Olympic Club 3 Completed 2 8:00a Field 10 United FC 14 Mothershucker 0 Completed Sunday, July 17 Playoffs G Time Location Away Team Home Team Status 1 12:00p Field 14 United FC 0 Olympic Club 2 Completed
Blowing the annual layer of dust off this thread; I went to go check on the USASA site this year to see what, if any, news was there for the next Women's Cup. Currently there are two teams registered for this year's cup in Nashville - last year's runners-up United FC, and a club from Canada. Wut.
Welp, it looks like the USASA Women's Open Cup is truly falling apart now... This year's Adult SoccerFest website no longer lists an "open" division among the women's tournaments. Sad day. Someone really needs to step in and create a better-fun, higher-incentive competition for the women outside of the established leagues.
Okay, so I'm answering a question more than a year old. There will probably never be a women's counterpart to the LHUSOC. It's possible that there might eventually be a more limited "league cup" amongst pro teams, but there's just no interest or money there - and it would be a diversion from building the league brand. Remember, the original NASL teams ignored the USOC. The "NWSL" brand is what they're trying to make succeed right now, I doubt you could get the pro teams involved for the foreseeable future. A CCL could definitely happen. Especially if FIFA creates a women's CWC. FIFA has the financial wherewithal to create a money losing tournament. But a WCCL would likely not be the result for CONCACAF. Instead you'd end up with a neutral site Cup with 4 or 8 teams - like the old CONCACAF Champions Cup. and the Women's Gold Cup. Home/Away games are too expensive. Get the teams in a location and settle things over a week. At the 2011 WWC intercontinental playoff second leg against Italy in Chicago over Thanksgiving Weekend in 2010, I actually talked for a bit with Sunil about the possibility of any level of home and home series in CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying. He said that it didn't make any sense financially. The Gold Cup format was already a money loser, and adding the expense of home/home series would make things worse. And it's not just the women. Every time CONCACAF has tried to reform the CCC/CCL or Men's WCQ, the early plan ends up getting watered down with smaller groups with less games and less travel. It's always fun to draw up great and expansive plans, but once the budgeting starts... I guess the short answer is "neither". But I wouldn't count out a Women's CONCACAF Champions Cup. That said, I would not expect that to happen unless there's a FIFA Women's Club World Cup appearance on the line for the potential winner.
After a year of no Women's Open Cup, it sounds like it could be back on the table soon. (Maybe not soon enough for a 2018 tournament though? It'd be 4-5 months away from now.) Great discussions with the new owners of the @WPSL. We talked about bringing the Women's National Amateur Cup back and had a discussion about beginning talks for a US Soccer Women's Open Cup. Lots on new energy for Women's Soccer.— John Paul Motta (@JohnPMotta) January 27, 2018 =edit= Wow, despite the original tweet being from the other week, he responded quickly! You are correct, we did have both, but interest for them died a few years back. I want to bring them back, and actually, bring a Women's Open Cup for discussion like the Men have.— John Paul Motta (@JohnPMotta) February 5, 2018 I believe that there is lots of new energy around the top Women's Amateur Leagues and I am confident that we will put something together for 2019!— John Paul Motta (@JohnPMotta) February 5, 2018 Looks like it certainly is too late for a 2018 tournament to come around. Should I be surprised he gave me a sideways answer as to UWS involvement? X-D
No, you shouldn't be surprised about that sideways answer. That's what an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas for the WPSL AGM will buy you. Like the Trump supporter he is, he's recently been propping up a populist message while being inherently biased towards a specific avenue or entity. And like Trump, he's not very good at hiding that bias. Just another corrupt official at the head of a national soccer body.
....the "X-D" should have indicated that it was a completely rhetorical question and that the answer was definitely No.
he's the king of donuts...nobody should be shocked that he knows how to peddle to everyone both sugar and sprinkles.
...and, slightly over a year later, we get some more lip service: What an accomplishment! Great work by the League owners. The seeds that Gerry Zanelli planted are sprouting quite well today. We will work close with the @WPSL to get the Women's National Cup back in place by 2020! https://t.co/EgYGcYk6bb— John Paul Motta (@JohnPMotta) February 18, 2019 I'll believe it when I see it.