The team website http://www.uslgauchos.com/ already has several articles up on significant signings, and of ties with the SD Surf club. Some of the signings include Carrie Dew & Molly Iarocci of Notre Dame; Kara Kabellis of Wisconsin; Rachel Rodrick and Mariette Boyce (formerly of Washington State University); along with Amy Epsten and Joclyn Williams of the University of San Diego. A number of the players have W-League experience, which is a far cry from the team of junior college players that were fielded last year.
Schedule Info A schedule is up now for the Women Gauchos. Looking at it, there are several things of note: They play Mile High and Ft. Collins 3 times – 2 away for Mile High and 2 at home (back to back days) with Ft. Collins. They play home-and-away games with Real Colorado, Vancouver, and Seattle. Two home games are listed as being at the University of San Diego Stadium; the other 4 are ‘TBA.' The first 4 games are on the road, the next 4 at home – then 2 on the road, with the last 2 at home (the Ft. Collins games.) 4 home games are on Fridays, 2 are on Saturdays There are no direct conflicts with SDWFC home games. Only once are the home games of the 2 teams on consecutive games (16 & 17 June.)
First Games of the Season The Women Gauchos will be playing their first two games tonight and tomorrow. These away games will be against Mile High and Ft Collins. The schedule still only has venues listed for two of the home games. The team roster has more info on the individual players and I can see from it that the team is much much stronger than it was last year. Good Luck, Ladies!
02 June Game vs. Whitecaps Form the Gaucho site: There's a photo there of Tiff & Christine holding up their jerseys. I'm assuming that this game will be much more competitive than last years .
Re: 02 June Game vs. Whitecaps It will be great to have the opportunity to watch Tiffeny Milbrett play again at Torero for the first time in almost three years. I'm also looking forward to seeing Christine Sinclair in action again a little over a year after I saw her play for Canada in a friendly against Norway. I really had no interest at all in watching the Gauchos play last season, but hopefully this will be a good match. I'm not sure what sort of a marketing budget the Gauchos have if any, but it would be really nice if they could get a reasonably good sized crowd this Friday.
It should be a competitive match. Vancouver is a long way from the sort of form that would worry the likes of the Ottawa Fury. To be fair, they have had different lineups in each game due to injuries, players arriving from school, and now national team duties. Coach Birarda was quoted as saying that the first half of the last game against Seattle was their best of the season by far so that is a hopeful sign. At least the defense seems to be settled, until the arrival of Candace Chapman.
Re: 02 June Game vs. Whitecaps Has there been any mention of this match at all in the San Diego Union-Tribune? (I cancelled my subscription over six months ago and usually only glance at the sports page when I am working out at my gym).
SD-Vancouver match in the U-T I was disappointed to see that the game wasn't listed in the Local Events section on page 2 of the sports section this morning, but then found this article on page 5 (the title is a bit much, though - guess when you start out 0-3-1 you have to talk about how tough the league is.) http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060602/news_1s2womsoc.html
Re: SD-Vancouver match in the U-T Thanks for posting this link Tsunami. It is nice to see women's soccer get any coverage at all in the U-T, but I have a few issues with this article written by Gigi Alford. In her opening paragraph she writes: "Nearly three years have passed since a women's soccer team this talented graced a San Diego pitch." I wonder if Alford has ever attended any of the matches that the San Diego WFC played at Hoover High during the previous two years? She must definitely have not been at Hoover on the 4th of July either of the previous two years to watch the WFC more than hold their own against the highly ranked California Storm.
Re: SD-Vancouver match in the U-T In the second paragraph Alford writes: "For fans who still yearn for the San Diego Spirit, the professional team that folded in 2003 along with its league, the time has arrived." During the 2004 WPSL season, the San Diego WFC had at least six former WUSA players on their roster all at the same time. I recall one especially memorable WFC practice I attended two years ago where former college player of the year Mandy Clemens was taking multiple shots on goal with former WUSA goalkeeper Melissa Moore making one spectacular save after another. Also participating in that practice were former Spirit defenders Amy Sauer and Margaret "Mags" Tietjen along with midfielder Jen Lalor-Nielsen and forward Ally Sullivan. Just because the U-T gave inadequate coverage to the WPSL since the WUSA folded doesn't mean that women's soccer hasn't been played at a high level in San Diego during the past three years. It would be interesting to see how well the new and improved Gauchos could compete against the WFC Sea Lions, but until the W- League allows their clubs to compete against WPSL clubs, we unfortunately won't have opportunity to see a San Diego women's derby.
SD-Vancouver game result The Gauchos have indeed improved a lot when compared to last years team, but the Vancouver team that I saw tonight was better than the one that came down here last year - and their 5-0 win over San Diego showed that. Lang scored twice but the first of those was a miss-hit cross (all of her shots and crosses in the first 36+ minutes were miss-hit) that just caromed of the far post and went in and the other was courtesy of a hard Sinclair shot that rebounded to her when the left back for SD got caught out of position. Sandwiched in between those 2 first-half goals was one by Milbrett - Tiffeny was able to chip one over the keeper. The 2 second half goals were by Sinclair. I'll try to put a little more on the game in a post tomorrow - gotta go!
More on SD-Vanc game First, a correction from what I posted last evening. Milbrett didn't score on her attempted chip, just hit it a bit too hard and ended up having it go over the bar. She did get the assist on the 3rd goal, hitting a hard long angular forward cross that was headed up and over the keeper from the top of the box by Franco. Both teams used 4-3-3 formations and there was a lot of up and down the field play. The Whitecaps controlled more of that play, especially after the first 20 minutes or so. Their passing was crisper, their defense more organized and aggressive. There weren't any programs, and the Gaucho uniforms (which were the same color of fluorescent yellow as what the Arsenal away uni was a couple of years ago) only had light blue numbers on the back - no names. The announced starters for them were: 1 Perez, 2 Brown, 3 Kakadelis, 4 Miyaki (but she actually wore 6), 5 Hawkins, 9 Laroki, 10 Epsten, 12 Carrera, 15 Liskawich, 16 Grogan, and 18 Boyce. I'm not sure on the spelling of a few of those names . The Whitecaps wore all Royal Blue with white numbers and names on the back (except for a few subs, who didn't have names.) Starters were: 5 Neil, 6 Andrews, 10 Smith, 11 Hermus, 12 Sinclair, 13 Franko, 15 Lang, 17 Timko, 23 Rolla, 24 McLeod, and 25 Milbrett. Vancouver was obviusly the better team - with so many Canadian national team members on it who have played together alot, they just meshed better on offense and defense. Milbrett fit right in with Sinclair, Lang and the midfield and had several chances to score - she also contributed to a number of good scoring opportunities for the others. Sinclair had several hard shots deflected wide of goal or blocked by Perez, including the one that led to Lang's second goal. She also appeared somehow to get faster as the game went on (Millie did most of the long runs in the first 60+ minutes of the game, maybe that contributed to Christine being fresh later). San Diego had players that looked well individually. On the back line that was Miyaki (sp?), who broke up a number of Whitecap attacks. Kakadelis and Hawkins had their moments (although Ali also had some problems corraling Lang), but the best attacking player for them was Epsten, who although was slower than the Vancouver defenders, did show soccer savvy and set up chances for other attackers. The Gauchos actually had several good opportunities to score, but either hit shots right at the keeper, or had them go wide. Stats on the scoreboard at the end of the game: Shots SD-7, Van-20; Saves SD-6, Van-4; Corner Kicks SD-3, Van-2; Fouls SD6, Van-12.
Just in case anyone besides Tsunami actually cares, the Gauchos finish off their disappointing 2006 season with a pair of matches against Ft. Collins Friday July 14th and Saturday July 15th with both matches scheduled for 6:00pm @ La Jolla High School. Anyone know why San Diego was scheduled to play Ft. Collins and Mile High three times while playing Vancouver, Seattle, and Real Colorado twice?
According to the W-League site the Gauchos lost to Ft. Collins 2-1 last night. http://wleague.uslsoccer.com/stats/2006/121811.html Even though the Gauchos website still has last night's match and tonight's match scheduled to be played at La Jolla High School the W-League site reports that the match was played before 228 fans at BALBOA STADIUM. To further add to the confusion, the W-League site also lists BALBOA STADIUM as the venue for tonight's match. Good luck to anyone who actually wants to go to tonight's match. When you go to he Gauchos website and click on Stadium information, all I saw there were two pictures of Torero Stadium and nothing else. http://www.uslgauchos.com/
The scheduling was done that way to help the teams lower travel costs. Seattle Played Vancouver 4 times and everyone else twice. The Colorado teams had it all mixed up and you guys were included in that mix. I hope the Gauchos will keep building. They've got some talent, but it sounds like they need some organization. Encourage your front office to get their act together. It will have an amazing impact on the team. The Sounder-Saints new management this year has made big improvements (although they still have some things to work on) and it has shown on the results on the field. If you're interested, you can listen to the Gauchos road match in Seattle through my website. Find them in the Sounder-Saints archive. Click Here
The San Diego Gauchos has been sold and is under new management. The new Team name is the San Diego Sunwaves. http://www.sandiegosunwaves.com/
The San Diego Lady Gauchos has been sold, The newteam name is the "San Diego Sunwaves" http://www.sandiegosunwaves.com/
Sunwaves There is an article in this morning's Union-Tribune about the possibility of a new professional league to replace the WUSA. A paragraph at the end of it says that the Sunwaves, and 'Marigol' being on the roster. It doesn't mention the website, but it will probably reach more people than a post on BS .
The San Diego Women Gauchos have been sold. The new Team name is the San Diego Sunwaves. www.sandiegosunwaves.com. It should be an exciting Year with the addition of a few new players notably: Maribel Dominquez, Sophia Perez, and Katie Miyake. Hope to see you all this season.
Men's team dropped from USL 2 to PDL in 2006 and then the team was sold to the same group who bought the women's team. That group disbanded the men's team and created the W-League's Sunwaves.
I am closing this thread since it is 2007 and the Gauchos do not exist anymore. Feel free to start a Sunwaves thread.