Here is a very nice story about the Lamorinda East Bay Power's (and former California Golden Bear) goalkeeper Katie Pittman, focusing on her taking over the varsity head coach position at Bishop O'Dowd High School: New era for O'Dowd girls soccer
By the way, congrats are in order to the Sol's Julia Schnugg for being selected to participate in the USASA National Select Team Camp at the Home Depot Center, which took place the weekend before July 4th. Here is a page listing all the players (men's and women's) who were selected to participate: http://usasa.com/xiglanews/templates/news.aspx?articleid=1207 I only see 34 listed although I thought they normally take 36. Interestingly, 14 are from Region IV (which includes California), 10 from Region I but only 5 each from Region II and Region III. From the Camp participants, a roster of 18 is selected to play games against the USA and Mexican National teams.
It looks like we are going to have to wait until after this weekend's matches are played before we find out when the SeaLions will finally play Ajax.
Re: WPSL West Playoff Are you sure about this? I haven't been able to find any information on the WPSL site about who would get to host this playoff match.
Congratulations! Congratulations to both Ajax and the SDWFC for their making the playoffs. Now all that is left is for them to decide who ends up in first place. I'm hoping that only 1 game will be scheduled to decide this, as playing 2 would tire both teams out for the championship tournament.
Re: Congratulations! The Storm won 1-0 at Santa Rosa against the Sol despite being heavily outplayed by the Sol. The Storm goal came on a PK in the 15th minute that was correctly called by the referee, but was an unfortunate play when Sol's keeper came in late on a Storm forward who was in the far left corner of the box right next to the goal line, moving away from the goal and toward the corner flag/goal line. The Sol keeper more than made up for it with an outstanding point blank save and otherwise excellent play during the rest of the game, however, and if the finishing had been better it would have been 3-1 or 4-1 to the Sol, so it definitely was a "team loss". The game should have ended 1-1 as the ball crossed the goal line into the Storm's goal in the second half but the assistant referee's view was blocked by a number of players in the goal mouth, so he did not see it. The Storm players admitted afterwards that the whole ball had crossed the line. In the second half particularly, the Sol dominated possession and had the ball in the Storm's half for more than two-thirds of the half, but the Ajax keeper was outstanding making several unbelievable saves and then several other one-on-one's or uncontested shots went just wide. All in all an excellent season for the first-year Sol team. We are all looking forward to next season.
Re: Congratulations! Congratulations to Sol on their very solid fourth place finish in an extremely tough division. Going into this last week of the regular season, Sol is still the only club that has managed to defeat the San Diego WFC this season.
Re: Congratulations! And the only club that has defeated Ajax. Thanks for the words, congrats on the Sea Lions' playoff spot and best of luck in the post-season!
The SeaLions have posted playoff info on their site: "SAN FRANCISCO -- San Diego WFC SeaLions will host WPSL-Southwest Division champ Denver Diamonds in the opening round of the 2006 WPSL Playoffs. The match will kick off Saturday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. PST at Manchester Stadium on the campus of Cathedral Catholic High School."
Will the "Final Four" be a true semifinal/final like the World Cup or is it a round-robin set of games?
I understand that the WPSL "Final Four" is a true semifinal/final like the World Cup - 2 games and the winners meet in the championship.
Re: Congratulations! Sol can continue to make that claim probably at least until July 29th when the SeaLions knock off their Southern California rivals and win the WPSL Championship And after the SeaLions raise the WPSL trophy, Sol can still proclaim that they were the only club to defeat the San Diego WFC SeaLions this season.
Re: Congratulations! Note: Ajax has not played with any national team members unlike their southern california counterpart (china). Also SOl beat them in Sonoma without Ajax full roster. AJAX # 1
Re: Congratulations! Was that a "wine??" Both Sol's home victories against Ajax and SeaLions came when the visitors were shorthanded. And it's not like Ajax has never used National Team players, i.e. last season they had a couple "minor" USWNT stars as I recall. So I hope the only "wine" will be after Ajax and SD play in the Title match!
Excuses....Excuses.... It sounds like you are getting your excuses for losing to San Diego prepared well in advance. You wouldn't by any chance still be bitter about Ajax not making it to the Final Four last season even though they had current national team players Abby Wambach and Shannon Boxx on their roster?
SD chose not to play AJAX for #1 spot, for fear of being too tired for Denver match, correct me if i'm wrong ... I give props to San Diego and Sonoma for making it an interesting season (unlike last year). It was nice to see teams beat up on Storm this season. Abby Wambach played only a few full games last season and she was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING to watch, it definitely would be unfair if she played regularly (much could be said about all National Team players playing regularly in wpsl, i think its good their national schedule limits their play)
Re: Congratulations! You beat me to the punch oldgoalie. Perhaps there should be an asterisk after Ajax's narrow 2-1 victory over the WFC last season when both current USWNT players played in the match for Ajax and Wambach even scored the winning goal as I recall.
Postponement of San Diego - Ajax Matches Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Ajax originally scheduled to play against San Diego both home and away the second weekend of this month? Was it San Diego's decision or Ajax's to postpone these matches?
Re: Postponement of San Diego - Ajax Matches Its not AJAX fault they were invited by international community to represent USA, WPSL, and Women's Soccer in Korea at beginning of season, causing schedule to be screwed up. There is a reason they are seeded #1 and why they got the invite to play abroad ... they are a great team. That of course isn't taking anything away from SD sealions.
I don't know why, or whether, SD "chose" anything! I do know that WHOMEVER lost between Ajax and SD would have been very tired after playing 2 games the prior weekend, and two latenight games this week (I recall that travel between LA and SD for a weeknight game would have been nearly 3 hours each way and a 2 hour soccer match)! I also know that AJAX was in fact in first place by 2 points there is some justice in them taking first place as if the "season ended now." The League agreed to accommodate Ajax's Korea trip, that's no problem it was a good thing. But neither should a team be penalized late in the year for having been accommodating. The fact is, time ran out to get the games played. No big deal! I agree, Wambach is fantastic and I certainly wouldn't want to have to play a team with her on it!!
By the way, it looks like there has been a TIME CHANGE in the SD v. Denver Playoff match. The SeaLion website says "7:00 p.m. game time." Maybe the lights and the noise will keep the neighborhood awake!!!
Right on schedule, here's the SeaLions' latest press release leading up to Saturday's Playoff match: "SEALIONS’ PLAYOFF FOE IS TOUGH AS DIAMONDS. SAN DIEGO – San Diego won't have an easy time getting through the first round of the 2006 WPSL postseason. As their name implies, the Denver Diamonds are hardened playoff veterans. Denver, 7-0-1 in 2006 after sitting out the 2005 season, has made 2 consecutive WPSL Final Four appearances (2003 and 2004) and boasts several WUSA veterans and top college players. And the last time the SeaLions played the Diamonds, in Denver in 2004, the result was anything but sparkling, as the Diamonds embarrassed San Diego 4-1. But this year San Diego is 10-1-1 and has outscored its opponents 31-8..." The full story is at www.sealionsoccer.com.
Diamonds - Mystery Guest? The Diamonds really are a mystery team, as they have only played one game in which you might be able to gauge their level of talent - that was the early 0-0 game against River Cities FC. I only recognize a handful of players from 2 years ago (including Ripmaster & Warren.) It also appears that they haven't had to do much in the way of traveling. That reminds me of that they didn't come down to play SD or Ajax in 2004 - and only had to forfeit one of the games, allowing them to sneak into the playoffs ahead of the Sea Lions. I hope that SD wins big, but who knows when playing against an unknown...