W-League and WPSL 2013

http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/715412.html

 

Went to the Pali Blues home opener, and boy were their uniforms bright (and oddly not blue but a greenish yellow):

 

Oh, God, the throwball lines! What is this, DII???
kidding... I really have never understood why people get SO upset over the extra lines.

 

I have no problem with teams playing on them if it's the best option. I think a lot of the criticism is specifically about the NWSL because watching the streams it's hard to pick up the yellow lines whereas the white ones clearly stand out (I don't feel like it's as bad spotting the yellow lines in person, though). It also undoubtably related to the general anti-artificial turf sentiment that permeates soccer, and having the gridiron lines is a near guarantee that they are playing on artificial turf.

 

To me, if I see pointy ball lines on a pitch it assures me that the pitch doesn't meet FIFA standards, and the whining and Gnashing of teeth about turf burns are sure to follow.

No Current FIFA two star pitches in the USA have grid lines ( of course, there are currently only three 2 star pitches in the entire country in stadiums: Jeld Wen, Highland Park in Pittsburg, and Engleman Field at the univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organ...urf/pitchesproducts/search.html?cf=23914&st=2

 

Hmmm... Looks like CenturyLink's 2 Star rating expired May 2nd and they didn't recertify it. Really strange.

 

Yeah, Philly Stadium also, which I find really strange. One of the reasons that the NCAA Lacrosse tournament this Memorial day weekend chose Philly was the two star field.


Anecdotal experience shows stadiums do it to save money. It costs about. 50€ just to have the test done by FIFA. If you don't recertify every year, the pitch reverts to One star for four more years even if you don't do the recommended upkeep. But you can't play internationals on it. (isn't one coming to Century Link soon?)

By then, it's time to put in a new pitch. It could also be that Century Link is so worn out it couldn't be recertified. I don't know.

The Timbers pitch has been recertified twice now. It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

And Jeld Wen does have grid lines on it sometimes during Football season. It's done with a paint that washes off with an enzyme. Takes about six hours to revert back to soccer.

 

It seems that within the past week, St. Louis dropped off of the Midwest schedule and standings. The Midwest previously had nine teams an 36 games scheduled. Now it is 8 teams and 28 games (presumably the games with STL were simply wiped off the slate, and nothing has been resscheduled yet).

 

The MidWest

MIDWEST-GP-W-L-T-GF-GA-GD-PTS
Madison 56ers -2- 2- 0- 0- 7- 2- 5- 6
Kansas City Shock -2- 2- 0- 0- 5- 0- 5- 6
Ohio Galaxies -1- 1- 0- 0- 3- 2- 1- 3
Fire and Ice Soccer Club -3- 1- 2- 0- 4- 6- (2)- 3
Fort Wayne F.C. -0- 0- 0- 0- 0- 0- 0- 0
Quad City Eagles -1- 0- 1- 0- 1- 4- (3)- 0
Des Moines Menace -1- 0- 1- 0- 0- 3- (3)- 0
Indiana United -2- 0- 2- 0- 2- 5- (3)- 0

 

Watched Fire and Ice defeat Ohio 3-1 last night. It was a pretty good crowd, especially considering it was a small high school stadium. The stands were pretty full and the estimate was around 600, which I think seemed about right. Fire and Ice did very well with possession and at times, were quite skillful in their passing attack. They led 2-0 at the half and opened up a 3-0 lead, before surrendering a goal with about 10 minutes left. Illinois State star Rachel Tejada is one of Fire and Ice's forwards, although she didn't score in this match. I'm hoping to catch their home game next Saturday as well.

After watching them, I was really wondering how they lost their first two matches, although one was against Kansas City, who is apparently pretty good.

What I don't understand is that as far as I can tell, Fire and Ice had 8 games originally scheduled, two each against Ohio, Indiana, Kansas City, and the St. Louis Defenders. The Defenders have dropped out, so now we're only talking six matches. Why no games against Quad Cities, Madison, and Des Moines? Even Fort Wayne for that matter. They're surely just as close as some of the other teams, such as Ohio. It seems awkward playing three teams twice and the other four not at all.

 

I had been watching the WPSL Midwest schedule. I was going to post that they should have rescheduled all of St. Louis' old matches by now.

But, St. Louis' games are back on the schedule! (But all are listed as 3-0 forfeits). They're even back on the Standings page as "St. Louis (Forfeits)" [which is a pretty lousy team name if you ask me!] with a record of 0-8-0, 0 GF, 24 GA, -24 GD.

I guess they never did reschedule them. It pretty much blows away any chance of the Midwest having anything resembling an actual "champion" if the forfeits skew the results that much.

In the end, I'm not sure what is worse, the old Women's League Soccer of midwest-based teams (which barely qualified as a "league"), or this. Get yer' act together, WPSL.

 

Sounds like a hard team to support. But not as bad as "Losers". Seriously though, how can something like this happen?


On another note, Pali actually wore blue in their last game:

(not my photo, btw)

 

Fire and Ice/Indiana United game stopped for lightning about 9 minutes into the 2nd half. I decided to leave because the weather didn't look promising. Not sure if the game counts or not, if it ends where it's at. Fire and Ice led 3-1.

I think Fire and Ice goals were scored by Gayla Foster, Jessie Crabtree (pk), and Rachel Tejada. Give Crabtree a lot of the credit on Tejada's goal as well. Indiana's goal came about 2 1/2 minutes into 1st half stoppage. Still trying to figure out how you come with three minutes stoppage in a half with no injuries and only two goals, but it was a great run by the Indiana player right through the center of F & I's defense. Didn't catch who scored it though. That cut the half time lead to 2-1. Fire and Ice answered quickly at the start of the 2nd half and nearly put in a 4th off a corner kick just a couple of minutes later.

Once again, I thought Fire and Ice looked pretty strong, with nice passing, although probably not as sharp as last week. I'm actually pretty impressed, especially considering quite a few of the players just finished up their high school careers a few weeks ago.

Again, a decent crowd, though a little bit lighter than last week. I'm guessing in the 450-500 range.

 

For those interested, in the "Women International-Women league in Italy" thread we are following the AC Seattle performance in the WPSL Championship (Northwest division), with highlights of the matches and news, thanks to the team website: http://acseattle.com/ and Facebook page.

 

Fire and Ice shut out the Kansas City Shock tonight 2-0, to raise their record to 6-2. It looks like they will finish in a 2nd place tie with the Shock in the Midwest division, behind Ohio. I believe Rachel Tejada scored both goals, both in the 2nd half. I would like to see her take on some experienced defenders to see what she could do. She was a handful for the KC defense tonight.

Fire and Ice had the better of the chances for the most part. KC's chances were mostly long range with the keep out, one that rolled a scant few inches past the post. Fire and Ice keeper Hannah Poteet did make one very tough save in the 2nd half. But the Shock's goalkeeper was far busier.

First half was pretty quiet, but play got physical in the 2nd, especially following the first goal.

I'm not sure how the playoffs are set up in WPSL, but I think these two teams could easily meet again.

 

Yeah, WPSL has been rather mum about the playoffs thus far. I know in the East, two teams qualify from each of the four divisions, and the divisions pair up for a pair of 1v2 matches, then semifinals and finals. Apparently AC Seattle has qualified in the Northwest - Washington, but from what the standings look like, apparently they can be passed on GD? I'm just confused.

 

So in reading a couple of stories, it appears that four teams qualify for the divisional playoffs in the Midwest Division. Right now, Ohio leads with a 6-1 record and they are supposed to play Indiana today, a game they will probably win.

Kansas City and Fire & Ice tied for 2nd at 6-2, although I think Fire & Ice gets 2nd based on league goal differential. Des Moines finished tied for 4th with Madison, but also gets the final playoff spot due to goal differential.

So, I'm assuming 1 will play 4 and 2 will play 3, which means a Fire & Ice/KC rematch, with Ohio playing Des Moines in the other divisional semifinal. Of course, if Ohio were to lose to Indiana, that might change things.

It's a shame that there were a lot of forfeits though.

At the Fire & Ice games I've been to (3 home games), they have had decent crowds for all of the matches, between 400 and 600 I would say.

 

the New England Mutiny will host the 2nd-place side from the Mid-Atlantic Division - the Syracuse Lady Knights (6-2-2 WPSL Mid-Atlantic) - in the 1st Round of the WPSL East playoffs this Saturday, July 13 at ELHS.

The other 1st Round WPSL East playoff matches that were decided this weekend are:
Empire Revs WNY (8-2-0 WPSL Mid-Atlantic) will host Boston Breakers Academy (6-2-2 WPSL New England) this Saturday.
The ASA Chesapeake Charge (8-0-2 WPSL South-Atlantic) and Lancaster Inferno (6-1-2 WPSL South-Atlantic) have wrapped up the #1 and #2 seeds respectively in their division and are waiting the final results in the Tri-State Division.
If New England defeats Syracuse, they will either travel to face ERWNY or host Boston on Sunday, July 14

 

MIDWEST PLAYOFF TEAMS DECIDED
The Midwest Playoffs will take place on July 13 and 14 at Centerville High School in Centerville, OH.
(1) Ohio Galaxies, (2) Fire and Ice SC, (3) Kansas City Shock, (4) Des Moines Menace
http://www.wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=2193


ASA CHESAPEAKE CHARGE LOOK TO LOCK UP SOUTH ATLANTIC DIVISION
East Conference: The top two teams in the South Atlantic division advance to the first round of the playoffs to take on the top two teams from the Tri-State division during the weekend of July 13-14.... That winner will take on the remaining team from the divisional playoffs between the New England and MidAtlantic divisions on Saturday or Sunday, July 20-21 in the East Conference Final.
http://www.wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=2190


Women's Premier Soccer League FACEBOOK POST
East playoff picture coming into focus. MidAtlantic: Empire REVS & Syracuse Lady Knights are already in. New England division: New England Mutiny Women's Soccer finish first, Boston Breakers College Academy 2nd and 3-time defending East champ Aztec WPSL is out. South Atlantic: ASA Chesapeake Charge & Lancaster Inferno are in. Waiting on result from New York Athletic Club/Long Island Fury to know more about TriState division.
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