Wpsl Elite - 2012

The Flash had their annual soccer clinic at Sahlens Sports Park in the days before the match -
the Friday one had 250 kids attending - they probably gave each kid two (one for themselves
and another for a parent) free tickets to the match. Then you figured the other parent and/or
a sibling would tag along and theres potential two more tickets sold there. My guess attendence
raise 250-500 because of that - if they did give free tickets away.

Taken from their FLASHcard that previewed the matchup vs the Charge.
The club hosted the annual Flash soccer camp at Sahlen’s Sports Park, inviting local youth to
train with Aaran Lines and the Flash team inside a professional facility. To cater to young fans
from Rochester as well, the Flash held a Friday clinic that featured an exhibition contest against
the Empire United Boys’ U-17 team followed by on-field instruction with the Flash players.
The effort benefited the charity Women Helping Girls, a one-on-one mentoring program geared
toward 6th to 12th grade girls in the Rochester area. “It was great to get out in the community,”
Lines explained.“We had 250 kids attend the [Friday] clinic.”

 

So we've already achieved the standard of European women's leagues in only one season?

 

How many European women's leagues have even four quality teams. I get the impression that for some of them there's just one or two (Umea, Frankfurt/Potsdam, Lyon, etc.).

 

Now if the top Euro teams would only be willing to spring for the WPSLE champ to fly over for a couple of friendlies...

 

Just saw this tweet from Our Game magazine:

Tonight's WPSL Elite match - Red Stars vs. Mutiny - cancelled due to cancelled flights out of Chicago.

Should have an interesting impact on the points race.

Here's the appropriate section from the WPSL By-laws (assuming Elite doesn't have separate rules on this):

The League Commissioner, Regional Commissioners, and Director of Operations will determine on a case-by-case basis whether or not a game is considered a cancellation or a forfeit. Any postponed game must be reschedule within 72 hours. If all possible attempts to get the game rescheduled fail then the unplayed game score will be reported as 0-0, and the standing points will be calculated by the average game points each team has received for the season.

 

SPRINGFIELD, MA (07/19/12) - Tonight's WPSL Elite match between the New England Mutiny and Chicago Red Stars at East Longmeadow H.S. has been cancelled. The Red Stars flights out of the Midwest were cancelled on Wednesday due to the horrendous weather that passed through the area, and all options for them to fly in for either Thursday's match or a re-scheduled game on Friday were unavailable.

New England plays F.C. Indiana at Northampton H.S. on Saturday in their season finale while Chicago has their final regular season match vs. New York on Sunday. Combined with the impending WPSL Elite playoffs hosted by the Western New York Flash that are slated to commence on Wednesday, July 25 and both teams decided to cancel the game.

"The airline informed Chicago at 4:30 AM that their flight was cancelled," said New England Mutiny owner Joe Ferrara. "I received a call from Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler at 7:30 AM stating the issue and that he spent all morning looking at flights out of the Chicago & Milwaukee region into the Hartford, Boston and New York areas but could not find availability. We collaborated on a remedy for the next two hours to no avail. It's an unfortunate situation, to say the least."

Pertaining the ramifications on the WPSL Elite standings, this match will most likely be considered a forfeit by the league office. In that case, a 1-0 victory will be credited to the Mutiny, moving their record to 5-5-3 while Chicago would fall to a 9-4-0 mark on the season.

 

Dang.... Sucks to be Chicago right now.... T_T Two forfeited games across the league in a row, both of which making it more and more likely that CHI finishes fourth.
Also kinda sucks to be the Mutiny. While this forfeit is good for them, they could still be in the playoff hunt still if the first one was played out and they hadn't given up that late draw to the Charge, so I think they may finish frustratingly close to fourth yet.

 

One of the Mutiny players blogged about the cancellation and Arnim Whisler replied:

http://girlscansocceradventures.wor...er-if-you-cant-do-it-right-dont-do-it-at-all/

 

http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/nyfury2.php?article_id=30893

 

- http://www.wpslelite.com/news/index.php?news_id=1614

 

Went to see Flash - Breakers today. Boston 1 WNY 0. Hot and humid. It was an entertaining game to watch - I would guess 70% was played in the Breaker's half of the field. It was project Pink day and probably 3800 fans were there. There was a Boston group in the NW corner. Several girls soccer teams were there.

Leslie Osborne and Angela Salem knocked heads, with Leslie more bloodied and Angela more woozy. After getting attention, both stayed in the game. I love my Flash, but if any other team comes out on top after the playoffs, I think it should be Boston. Good players, good play, good organization.

I did not get a good view of the Breaker's goal. I think it was a scrum in front of the goal after a Boston corner kick.

I think WNY had 11 or 12 corners - Zerboni took them all, and I remember only one that was poorly made. She was still running up and down the field at the 90th minute - she had a stellar game. WNY played good soccer, with the exception of finishing. Kudos to Binns for a very good game in goal.

I had forgotten this league has 6 subs. Coach Lines subbed two in the first half of the second half; however, he should have gone to his bench for fresh legs starting at the 70-75th minute. Both Frierson and Ochs ran out of gas by 75 minutes.

Back at it Wednesday - I am playing hooky from work and going to the Back Nine grill to watch the USWNT at noon, then later on heading to Sahlen's stadium for both semi final games.

 

Looks like the WNY broadcasters got a case of wishful thinking on the website for streaming:
*************************************************
WPSL Elite Semi-Finals
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - 5:00:00 PM Eastern Time
Free Webcast

First Semi Final match

#2 seed-Boston Breakers vs #3 seed-Chicago Red Stars
WPSL Elite Semi-Finals
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - 8:00:00 PM Eastern Time
Free Webcast

Second Semi-final match

#1 seed-Western New York Flash vs #4 seed-New York Fury
*************************************************
Those games should be reversed (and the seeds are all wrong), but at least the live stream will be free for the playoffs and final (though they originally said $2, so we'll have to see when we get there).

Streaming is at: http://www.livesportsvideo.com/golive/goliveevents.asp?q=WNYFlash

 

So, based on the fact I have less than half the official announced attendance figures for games this year, here's what my final numbers look like:

Boston - 2,225 average (all 7 games)
WNY - 1,358 (3 games)
New York - 1,300 (1 game)
New England - 833 (5 games)
Philadelphia - 782 (1 game)
Indiana - 430 (2 games)
Chesapeake - 400 (1 game)
League - 1,358 (20 games)

Any additions or corrections, as long as there's a source and not an eyeball estimate, are always appreciated.

 

Would love to know the numbers for W-league teams...Seattle seemed to have good turnouts. Where there any other teams that did well with numbers?

 

I did the W-League numbers earlier in the thread. They haven't changed significantly since then.

Seattle - 4,333 average
Vancouver - 949 average
DC United - 549
Charlotte - 517
Quebec City - 499
Northern Virginia - 427
New Jersey Wildcats - 425
Virginia Beach - 401
LEAGUE - 452 average

 

Those Northern Virginia numbers are completely imaginary. Their main stadium only has three rows and about four sections of bleacher seats, and they don't charge admission, anyway, so have no way of taking attendance.

 

Oh thanks! I didn't see it.

 

Wed, Jul 25, 2012
New York Fury at Western New York Flash 5:00 PM Sahlen's Stadium WPSL Elite Semi Finals
Chicago Red Stars at Boston Breakers 8:00 PM Sahlen's Stadium WPSL Elite Semi Finals
Sat, Jul 28, 2012
Semi Final Winner #2 at Semi Final Winner #1 1:00 PM Sahlen's Stadium WPSL Elite Championship
* Salt Lake United at Gulf Coast Texans 4:00 PM Pensacola, FL * WPSL Semi Finals
* Oklahoma Football Club at Aztec MA 6:30 PM Pensacola, FL * WPSL Semi Finals
Sun, Jul 29, 2012
* TBA at TBA 1:00 PM Pensacola, FL * WPSL Championship

 

The Breakers web page had a good write up of the game. bostonbreakerssoccer.com; also at wnyflash.com

It seems that the Flash had 16 corner kicks - and no goals (ouch). Also from the Breakers web site, Ellie Reed described her goal "I saw Shep (Katie Schoepfer) play the ball short to Bianca (D’Agostino), and Bianca played it back to Shep, and she hit in a really nice ball. The keeper got a hand on it, but then it hit another girl’s chest, and it was bobbling around, and I just hit it in," Reed said. "It feels great, especially since it helped get us the (regular season) title. I’m very excited. There’s a good energy amongst the team, and we’re feeling good going into playoffs."

Wednesday is supposed to be sunny with a high of 83. Humidity will remain high.

Normally I would want the Flash to play Chicago rather than NY; however - WNY beat Red Stars twice already - a third one is always hard. So I think from the mental side NY is the better opponent for WNY to have.

 

The final season point totals: BOS 33, WNY 30, NY 29, CHI 28, NE 21, CHE 9, PHI 5, IND 5. The forfeited NE-CHI game ended up having significance in the standings. PHI and IND tied on points and head-to-head record (IND-PHI 1-0, PHI-IND 2-0), but PHI won the tiebreaker by head-to-head goal differential.

In a WPSL Elite release, there is what appears to be a photo of a golden, WPSL Elite logo shield trophy. I'm not sure if it's the actual, physical trophy or just a representation of what a championship award might look like.
http://www.wpslelite.com/news/index.php?news_id=1626

Also mentioned in that league release, "Note: There is a schedule conflict between the WPSL Elite Championship Final and the U.S. Women's National Team match against Columbia at the 2012 London Olympics. The WPSL Elite and Sahlen's Stadium will provide a live feed of the USWNT match as well as live updates throughout the championship final."

I'm glad the playoff/championship games live video will be free. A day or so ago I seem to recall that the package was listed as being $4. It was great of the Flash to provide live and archived game video this season.

The New England Mutiny's pink jersey auction raised $1,562 for the Rays Of Hope Foundation. http://www.mutinysoccer.com/072112-mutiny1-fcindiana0.html

Though an amateur team, the Mutiny show up in the league-wide statistics top 10 lists a good number of times.
http://www.wpslelite.com/stats/

 

I'm a bit surprised they scheduled the game to conflict with the Olympics. And it's nice that the Olympics invited an Ivy League women's team. They don't get enough exposure.

 

I would be shocked if a certain network allowed this. They've been notorious about rebroadcasts without hefty licensing fees.

 

The NFL would shut them down in a heartbeat. I would guess NBC might have something to say about it, but how vehemently, I have no idea. But, yeah, if the WPSL Elite Final isn't on television, scheduling it against a USWNT game that, I don't know, your core audience might be interested in strikes me as a misstep.

 

Scheduling has been a head scratcher. It's surprising not to have the Flash play tonight at 8pm, and instead have it conflict with work schedules. Frankly, you could argue it's slightly advantageous for the higher seed to play the first game anyway and get a little extra rest between games.

In regards to the final, there is a ESPN3 televised lacrosse game that evening, and the Rhinos play Friday on a hall of fame/bobblehead game which should be a good draw. Sunday is open as far as I know, but from what I heard the league didn't want to keep the teams around another night.

Should be an interesting tournament, but I'd expect small crowds both days due to scheduling.