From what I remember there is also change in what divisions are in what conference. It used to be that the Midwest and Atlantic were in one conference and Northern and Northeast were in the other. Now I belive that it's the Atlantic and Northeast in one and Midwest and Northern in the other.
Forgot to post the scores from Wednesday. Fort Wayne Fever 1:6 Cleveland Internationals Minnesota Lightning 1:1 FC Indiana Lionesses Saw the hightlights that someone else posted. Might buy USLLive, just so I can watch the entire game. New Jersey Wildcats 1:2 Jersey Sky Blue Vancouver Whitecaps 2:1 Los Angeles Legends Toronto Lady Lynx 1:1 Hamilton Avalanche Seattle Sounders 1:1 Real Colorado Cougars
Scores from Saturday and Sunday. http://www.uslsoccer.com/schedules/2008/8630105.html Fredericksburg Lady Gunners 0:2 Boston Renegades Chicago Gaels 0:1 Minnesota Lightning Richmond Kickers Destiny 0:2 Charlotte Lady Eagles Long Island Rough Riders 2:1 New Jersey Wildcats London Gryphons 0:6 Ottawa Fury FC Indiana Lionesses 9:0 West Michigan Firewomen New York Magic 1:2 Washington Freedom Cleveland Internationals 4:0 Kalamazoo Outrage Connecticut Passion at Jersey Sky Blue no score listed Hampton Roads Piranhas 2:1 Carolina Dynamo Sunday Cleveland Internationals 2:1 Michigan Hawks Carolina RailHawks 0:1 Tampa Bay Hellenic Hamilton Avalanche 0:2 Rochester Rhinos London Gryphons 0:3 Laval Comets Vancouver Whitecaps 0:4 Pali Blues I thought this might have been the Blues first real test of the season. Not sure if there is anyone that will challenge them out west. Fredericksburg Lady Gunners 1:2 Connecticut Passion Toronto Lady Lynx 2:1 Ottawa Fury A trip up for the Fury. It seems like they have a younger team this year. They are missing some of their players with the Olympic team. Northern Virginia Majestics 1:1 Washington Freedom Another some what trip for the Freedom.
Ottawa lost players to the Canadian Olympic team in 2007. This year their veterans are scattered to other teams in the league. Check out the roster of FC Indiana for example.
Here's the team of the week. http://wleague.uslsoccer.com/home/257178.html Week 9 W-League Team of the Week Pos Name Team Highlights GK Kate Milstead N. Virginia 23 saves in 1-1 tie at Washington D Sue Weber Long Island Provided great defense and added assist on GWG D Jill Bilbeau Washington Had GWG off the bench D Ciara McCormich Ottawa 1 goal and helped keep a clean sheet against London D Jennifer Anderson-Hammond Chicago GWG and helped preserve shutout M Amanda Cinalli Cleveland 2 goals and 1 assist in wins over the Outrage and Hawks M Domenique Esposito Jersey Sky Blue 2 goals in win over New Jersey M Joy Nsubuga Hampton GWG against the Carolina Dynamo M Natalie Martineau Rochester GWG against the Hamilton Avalanche F Tiffeny Milbrett Vancouver 2 goals and 1 assist in win over Ventura County F Lindsay Brauer Tampa Bay GWG against the Carolina RailHawks Reserves (Honorable Mentions) GK Kati Hutlin Seattle 11 saves and shutout against Fort Collins F Amy Vermeulen Vancouver 2 goals in 2-1 win over the Legends D Danielle Kot Boston Solid defensively in clean sheet against Fredericksburg
Here are the scores for the weekend. Sorry, I missed the games in the middle of last week. http://www.uslsoccer.com/schedules/2008/8630105.html Friday Michigan Hawks 0:1 Fort Wayne Fever Carolina RailHawks 0:1 Charlotte Lady Eagles Hamilton Avalanche 1:2 Laval Comets Bradenton Athletics 0:4 Atlanta Silverbacks Cleveland Internationals 0:0 Minnesota Lightning Fort Collins Force 4:1 Ventura County Fusion Saturday Ottawa Fury 5:1 London Gryphons New Jersey Wildcats 0:1 Boston Renegades Fredericksburg Lady Gunners 0:0 Northern Virginia Majestics Rochester Rhinos 3:0 Vermont Lady Voltage West Virginia Illusion 0:4 Richmond Kickers Destiny Hampton Roads Piranhas 1:4 Carolina RailHawks Fort Collins Force 1:1 Los Angeles Legends Carolina Dynamo 0:4 Tampa Bay Hellenic Sunday Carolina Dynamo 5:2 Bradenton Athletics Ottawa Fury 3:1 Hamilton Avalanche West Michigan Firewomen 0:1 Michigan Hawks Kalamazoo Outrage 0:0 Fort Wayne Fever New Jersey Wildcats 1:2 New York Magic Cleveland Internationals 0:5 Chicago Gaels
They had a typo with that one - It's Gilbeau, actually (Bilbeau is a French Hobbit). Meanwhile, Milstead's honor was well-deserved.
Is there any predictions on who will make it to the finals? Is there a "stronger" bracket? First time looking at this forum...Where is the best place to look at teams and players. I assume there are lost of top players from NCAA playing in this league over the summer..Everyone can't be on the national team
There are two basic categories of W-League teams: ones that play local girls home from college for the summer, and some who do serious recruiting and take in top players from their region if not the whole country (or the whole world). The top teams in the latter category would include FC Indiana, Atlanta, Washington, and Pali, with honorable mentions for Toronto, Ottawa, Boston, Jersey, and Vancouver. Pali and Atlanta are the only teams still undefeated, so odds are one of them will be seeded into the four-team final tournament as the regular-season champion. Even if Pali doesn't make it that way, they're practically a shoe-in to be the Western Conference representative as they're the only elite team in that conference since Vancouver seems to have fallen on hard times after winning the championship two years ago. If Atlanta has to battle for the Eastern Conference championship, that could get interesting as they'll probably have to get past Washington, who beat them solidly in the W-League final last year. Washington, meanwhile, has to deal with the Northeast Division, which is far and away the most competitive division in a generally uncompetitive league. Boston is currently in first place but has two losses, which is one more loss than all the other division leaders combined. Washington and Long Island are very good teams with two games in hand on Boston, and Jersey is only a little further behind. (Having four competitive teams in a division is very unusual in this league - two is more typical, and the Western Conference, as this year, frequently has just one.) Meanwhile, FC Indiana is the class of the Central Conference, though they're currently out of the running for the regular season championship because Minnesota somehow managed to hold them to a draw. The only other competitive teams in that conference are probably Toronto and last year's regular-season champion Ottawa. But if you want to see rosters with some "names" on them, check out Pali, FC Indiana, or Washington. Atlanta's not bad, either.
Jersey made a mistake by not retaining Charlie Naimo, now they will most likely miss the playoffs. Not sold on Ian Sawyers coaching the WPS team either. But you reap what you sow... Some Pro team will get Naimo...
I was shocked when Naimo went to Pali - I thought he'd be a shoe-in to be the coach of Sky Blue's WPS team.
Can anyone explain the playoff brackets as shown on the W-League site? Why are there 3 spots in the Northern division and only 2 in the Midwest?
That is weird. They do the same thing with the Northeast and Atlantic divisions in the Eastern Conference - and there are actually more teams in the Atlantic division than the Northeast division. They must think that those divisions are more competitive than the others or something.
Playoff formats are determined by each individual division. Travel usually plays a factor. Northeast and Northern division teams are closer together.
I think Pali Blues have the regular season championship just about sewn up - Tampa Bay held Atlanta to a tie on Independence Day, leaving Pali as the only team left with a clean sheet. Unfortunately, this means that the conference with the fewest teams (by half) will have twice the representation of the other conferences. Oh, well.
Is that correct? If Atlanta and Indiana sweep the rest of their games they would both have one more win than Pali (since they both play more games). Pali would only have 36 points and both Atlanta and Indiana would have 40 points. What criteria determines Regular season champ? From the WLeague website, the first tiebreaker is head to head; the 2nd tiebreaker is most wins: Standings tiebreakers The breaking of ties in the final league standings, playoffs and finals is accomplished by applying the following criteria, listed in order of importance: The following two guidelines will be followed during the implementation of USL tiebreakers for all ties involving three or more teams: 1) The tiebreaker will determine the winner first. 2) The tiebreaker will continue to be followed in order to determine the ranking of the remaining teams without restarting from the beginning. 1) Head-to-head record based on total points in League games.* 2) Total wins in League games 3) Goal difference in League games. 4) Goals scored in League games. 5) Total points within smallest grouping. If number of games is unequal, then point percentage will be used. 6) Ranking based on points earned against top four group finishers. This tiebreaker will not be used if four or less teams comprise the group. If number of games is unequal, then point percentage applies. 7) Point percentage outside/smallest division or conference in League games 8) Total points in all regular season and Open Cup Qualifying games combined. If number of games is unequal, then point percentage applies. 9) FIFA Fair Play – Team with fewest disciplinary points in League games. (If number of games is unequal, points will be divided by games played to arrive at a common basis for comparison.) 10) Lottery conducted by USL at League office. League games: refers solely to games that count towards the regular season standings. Open Cup qualifying specific games are NOT “League games” when it comes to determining placement in the League standings. (When utilizing these criteria to determine tiebreakers for Open Cup groups, “League games” should be interpreted as all games that count toward the Open Cup group standings.) * Should more than two teams involved have played each other an UNEQUAL number of times, this tiebreaker will be skipped. Group: term used to describe the primary unit in which a team competes (i.e. PDL – Southwest Division) Point Percentage: number of total points earned / maximum possible points (3 per game)
I'm assuming it's the same as last year, point percentage: "Point Percentage: number of total points earned / maximum possible points (3 per game)" Ottawa Fury was named regular season champion even though they only had 34 points to the Freedom's 37, but Ottawa had gotten theirs in only 12 games while it took the Freedom 14. 34/36 is better than 37/42.
Here's the team of the week for week 12. http://wleague.uslsoccer.com/home/261414.html Week 12 W-League Team of the Week Pos Name Team Highlights GK Mallori Lofton-Malachi Tampa Bay Stopped PK in shutout against Atlanta D Elizabeth Speck Long Island Instrumental in 3-3 comeback at division leading Boston D Allison Fries New York Played shutdown defense in 1-1 draw against Sky Blue D Kelli Smith Seattle 1 goal and solid defense in 4-2 win over Legends M Tina Murphy Charlotte 2 goals in 3-0 win over RailHawks M Joy Nsubuga Hampton GTG in 1-1 draw at Tampa and assist in win at Athletics M Ahna Johnson Connecticut 2 goal week including GWG in upset over Sky Blue M Brittany Kinmond Rochester 1 goal and dangerous all game in 3-2 win over London F Ella Masar Washington 3 goal week including GWG in 1-0 win over Majestics F Shay Powell Ottawa 3 goals in 3-0 victory at Laval F Christine Latham Atlanta 3 goals in 6-0 victory over Athletics Reserves (Honorable Mentions) GK Valerie Henderson Pali 7 saves and shutout in 1-0 win over Seattle M Jessica O’Dwyer Richmond GWG in 1-0 win over Hampton F Stefania Marra Toronto 1st half hatrick against Rochester
Chicago beat Minnesota last night 1 - 0. The game was supposed to be last thursday but got canceled because of bad weather. I was trying to go to the game last night, but couldn't figure out where it was. I think this gives the Gaels the edge to pass the Lightning into second place and the playoffs.
Seattle Sounders Women face two must win matches this week. Check out the coverage from SeattleSoccerShow.com