That my cujoo agreement is good, they have a lot of games archived and I watched LAGOC v Houston Aces last night. Surprised to see someone like Natasha Kai with LA Galaxy rather than the NWSL.
Just like that, the 2017 WPSL and UWS champions have been eliminated, as have the 2018 UWS champions! I think Houston (UWS) and Chattanooga (WPSL) have suffered the same problem: their divisional competition was too weak and they weren't ready enough for playoffs. Here's what the brackets look like now: WPSL Red Stars 6-0 NJ Wizards / Motor City 6-0 Torch /// Tulsa 2-0 Salvo / UT Royals 2-0 FISC /// Pensacola 4-1 Surge / Charlotte 1-0 Chattanooga /// CA Storm 2-0 Golden State / SDSL 0-2 Sounders Red Stars 2-4 Motor City /// Tulsa 1-2 UT Royals /// Pensacola 3-1 Charlotte /// CA Storm 0-4 Sounders Motor City - UT Royals / Pensacola - Sounders UWS Lancaster 2-1 CT Fusion / Mutiny 3-0 LIRR /// IN Union 5-1 Detroit / Lansing 1-3 Grand Rapids /// Southwest bye /// West bye Lancaster 2-1 Mutiny /// IN Union 3-2 Grand Rapids /// Aces 1-4 LAGOC /// West bye Semifinal match-ups TBA So many storylines coalescing now... Can MCFC knock off two NWSL squads (and the MI Milk Cup)? Will the Royals get their first WPSL championship, (something they could never do as RSL Women,) or will the Sounders repeat? Mutinty, GRFC, and Aces all out in UWS, so now will it go to an MLS squad, a Canadian squad, or a minnow? And will the UWS championship go to extra time for a fourth year in a row?
UWS semifinals are now set: Calgary-Lancaster / Indiana-LAGOC MI Milk Cup final is also set, being squeezed in TONIGHT ( ) at 7:30
here's hopefully a streamed link to the WPSL championship game today Pensacola FC vs Utah Royals FC Reserves soon to come | mycujoo amazing, Pensacola, a squad compromised of mainly regional, small college players(D2-NAIA) taking on one backed up by a pro squad(Utah Rolyals) we'll see who wins!
The fact that the Royals are backed by a pro organization doesn't change the fact that most of their players are also regional college players. And why are you acting surprised when the Red Stars Reserves, the Breakers Reserves, and the Sounders Women have been/were in the league for years? And where were you when Fire&Ice SC won two years ago? Heck, when Pensacola reached the final last year as well? Nothing amazing about this matchup at all. Just two very good squads deservedly challenging for the title.
Congratulations Pensacola FC! WPSL National Champions for 2019! These lower leagues need more support. I saw videos from the final and the stands were empty.
quite an enjoyable game(especially the 2nd half), Can watch the replay over here Pensacola FC vs Utah Royals FC Reserves | mycujoo though played in Stillwater, OK, Pensacola did have the home advantage with the 104 degrees heat(I know, I live about 120 miles from Pensacola, lol) and then of all things, played on astro turf. dunno much about the Utah squad, but looking more closely dominant Pensacola's; several good international players like Canu(who played at this year's World Cup) the NAIA poy of the year, Santos, 3 European starters as well. Helping too is like Morris(the top scorer/U of S Alabama in Mobile) skips her hometown WPSL team to go & play over to P) which quite a lot of the others on the roster do as well WPSL teams can be really good; last year while visitng LA, I saw the SoCal play FC Barcelona(who ended up 2nd best pro team in Europe ala CL finalists) and was quite surprised as the locals held Barca at bay to a scoreless despite playing against superstars like their FIFA world poy, Lieke Martens. Baca was allowed to sub all 11 starters & take control with 5 goals in the last 15 minutes(there were only 4 subs on te SoCal bench I just wonder how the WPSL can make these strong teams as they can't pay salaries(would be against NCAA rules) and like for instance, my own daughter's club dont' even provide tranportation to away games
I think some of the apparent strength comes from the competition - when you're playing in a league of mostly college students, a semipro-level side can look like world-beaters. And with that in mind, a little bit of reputation can go a long way into attracting just that extra little bit of talent that you need. Of course, these DII sides can show up well on occasion, e.g. the SoCal-Barca first half, but if you had the eight national semifinalists play eight NWSL squads, I'd bet on at least 7 NWSL wins (assuming all teams took the matches seriously).
Also worth congratulating the Los Angeles Galaxy (Orange County) on the 2019 UWS title! It's also the first-ever UWS championship match to NOT go into overtime. The MLS-branded (though I don't think MLS-backed) side includes players like Catarina Macario - the reigning Herman trophy winner - and Natasha Kai of WPS fame. Here's the Foothills - LAGOC replay: https://mycujoo.tv/video/united-womens-soccer?id=69954 My understanding is that, while WPSL tries to keep every team NCAA-compliant, UWS welcomes pro and semipro teams; on LAGOC's website, it lists its UWS squad as semipro, but IDK who get paid or how much, or how that would even work considering still-in-college players like Macario are on the roster.
Game was played in Neal Patterson Stadium at OK State University in Stillwater Oklahoma.....and it was natural grass. I know it looked like turf on the stream, but it is a grass field that is like a putting green. It is an AMAZING facility and one of the best college venues in the country.
the commentator mentioned it was turf. probably he was fooled too? Or just put on the field during the off season? I watched the game, the Galaxy deserved the win. Definitely a powerful lineup. My one big gripe though is that those top players were 'marks'/looking at regular season players stats. can't find anything for Macario)in other words, didnt play during the regular season. Kai only played one game, Kim involved in just 3 LA Galaxy OC - 2019 Regular Season - Statistics enjoyed watching Taylor Kornieck, very agile for a 6 ft 1 mid except for Kai, most of the Galaxy were college players(as well for Calgary). It was mentioned that they started training May 1st(pretty much like the WPSL). I'ts ahsame that there's no real adult/after college. leagues out there except for the the 9 team NWSL(probably there is, but not on the same quality/standard as WPSL/UWS)
WPSL has rules that players must play in a minimum number of games in order to play in the playoffs to prevent "marks/ringers" coming in to play in just the playoffs. Deyna Castellanos from FSU was not allowed to play for Motor City as she only played one regular season game due to the fact that she was in France for WWC working for Telemundo. Letting ringers come in for playoffs is a bit "mickey mouse" of the UWS.
especially if that ringer happens to be the current Herman award winner, lol seems like Motor City's roster could be an FSU mini me! Watched a bit of of their semi-final loss to Utah, especially since I'm a fan of Malia Berkely, got excellent passing vision plus for a CB, has those lovely runs upfield(me thinking she's got a chance of making the senior USWNT). But in this game, a tad slow on defense
*blows dust off thread* So, I didn't even know that WPSL teams *had* Boards of Directors, but apparently Brandi Chastain and Leslie Osbourne just joined the BoD for the California Storm, perennial WPSL powerhouse. The Storm, who are based in Sacramento, have said these additions "are taking this franchise to the next level" in their Twitter announcement. Next level... Sacramento... Hmm...
Just a side note on the whole Sacramento stuff... When the trademark filing was revealed, and then when Osbourne stated the promotion intention publicly, it was very clear that an unfortunately large percentage of WoSo fans knew *NOTHING* about the Storm's existence in the lower division. It's only one of the longest-lived continuously-existing WoSo teams in the country, nothing significant or anything like that... [/s]
I was bored and went looking for lower division news today, and came across this rather long interview from the new WPSL pres back in August: https://www.protagonistsoccer.com/features/2019/8/19/sean-jones-interview It's a fairly good read, and offers a fair bit more transparency than we're used to seeing, especially with some monetary stuff.
Not sure whether I should start a '20 thread instead of posting here, but the OP is usually on top of that, so I don't want to intrude on that, since I am more casually into soccer. But I randomly went to the WPSL site just now, and there was news of the new San Diego Strikers WPSL team. It seemed to imply that Sea Lions folded, which is sad; they existed for a long while. https://www.wpslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1077971