Well, rumors have been floating around and here seems to be some confirmation of a WPS All-Star game. Apparently, a WPS all-star team will play Umea possibly the week after the championship game in Saint Louis. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/fr...9/06/wps-all-star-game-is-coming-to-st-louis/ Obviously, with the Euros going on there will be a lot of players missing if that is the case. I guess we'll hear more details shortly...
St. Louis confirmed, format confirmed, opponent not... http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4801-NY-Soccer-Examiner~y2009m6d25-St-Louis-to-host-2009-WPS-AllStar-Game
If it wasn't going to be held at Toyota Park then St. Louis was my next choice. Within reasonable driving distance from Chicago. Maybe those fans who are supporters of their various WPS teams and who are planning on going to the All-Star game can sit in one section and combine our "cheering power" for the WPS side.
It will be an 18 player WPS squad against an international club opponent. 11 of the players will be chosen by vote- 25% fans 25% players 25% coaches 25% media 7 at large players to be chosen by commissioner and all-star head coach. Too bad the best European players won't be able to play in this game. http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/news/press_releases/090625-all-star.aspx I would love to see a full house at Soccer Park for that game. Hope you can all make it!
Unless something family or work related happens unexpectedly, I will definately be there. One of the best times I ever had watching a soccer game was the WUSA All-Star game in Cary, NC. The day before the game they had a skills competition which was so cool. One of them was where they had a wall in front of the goal and players had to put the ball over the wall and into the goal. I believe Maribel Dominguez won that one. I hope they make it a full weekend event with a skills competition day.
Apparently the league has truly realized what a beautiful gem of a facility <ahem> we have here in St Loo. Should give everyone directions to CVille KC's house and we'll haul everyone over to save y'all the $10 parking. Hell I dunno if there is enough parking beyond 4,000 fans.
Don't know why they call the format 'unique', MLS has been doing this for years and Antonucci even acknowledges that later in the release. I'm not sure this will work as well for WPS though, how many women's club teams have history and prestige that will be a draw for fans here? Not many, if any - MLS has many men's clubs to choose from that would be a draw here. This may be the dumbest 'all-star' game ever - WPS all-stars will be missing half of its starting lineup in Finland. If the opponent is Umea or Frankfurt, THEY will be missing all their best players as well. If this game had been played in July it could have been good, now it's just an over-glorified friendly scrimmage of reserves.
It's altogether possible that the host city may have been decide some months ago, before Athletica even moved to this venue. They may have just waited now to release the information. On the WPS site they have talked about the ALL-Star game a couple of months ago, they just never revealed the host city.
yeah the timing is all wrong for me. No matter what international club they bring in from Europe half of their star players won't be there. They will be at the Euros. Whether is Umea of Sweden, Arsenal or Everton of England, Lyon of France or 1 of the German sides...all their best & well known players are away in Finland. Ohhh well!
My personal opinion is instead of scheduling a European team that may not have all its players, why not schedule the Mexican National Team. That would be more logical. They don't have any of their players in the WPS, are not in any competitions at the time and maybe we can get some Mexican fans to check out the WPS.
Yeah, the timing's a bit off, but with the crammed schedule most teams (besides LA) have from this point on, this is probably the best for the players. The cynical side of me is thinking that WPS choose one of the smaller venues precisely because they knew they would be missing so many star players from both sides.... and will have a 'real' All-Star game when they schedule things better so the game doesn't interfere with anything international. =-P Heck, my house is less than 10min from the stadium. Albeit a little hard to find, but quite close. And I think, between Soccer Park's lot and the remote lot, we could fairly easily hold more people in cars in the lots than people in the stadium.
Let's just remember that Cville KC's house is not in the vicinity of the stadium. Considering it takes 40 minutes to get there, we would have to start shuttling people the previous week. Certainly not the best timing and maybe not the best format, but at this point, it would be hard to do much else, unless they wanted to wait until the middle or late September and by that time, a lot of club teams are starting up in Europe. The best all-star game and one that might have lit up the rivalry boards, would have been WPS vs. Damallsvenskan or WPS vs. Bundesliga. Now that would have really been something. But this is it, so hopefully we can make the best with what we've got, which still isn't bad.
Britta Åkerlund, Umeå's General manager, has confirmed that Umeå were invited to participate in the All-Star game, but have been forced to decline the offer. She says the squad would be decimated because of the EUROs. If you look at the player pool, those likely to be available would be Hanna Ljungberg (retired from national team play), Mami Yamaguchi (Japanese), Ramona Bachmann (Swiss), Karolina Westberg (who Dennerby doesn't seem to think much of) and a handful of youngsters. While these are very impressive players individually, it really would be akin to a B-team with sprinkles. Too bad you won't be getting a chance to see Bachmann in action, though: she's being touted as "the new Marta".
Why not schedule a W-League team? It seems that the WPS is not that much better. I think people were saying in the preseason it is normal for pro teams to lose or tie amateur teams. Well now its midseason and the same thing is going on. Remember the roster sizes are only 20 and it takes 11 to play. So please don't tell me the best don't play in these games. Why are they playing these games anyway? The WPS needs to worry about bigger things then an all star game.
It's gonna be hard to get an A-team from any of the major European clubs. They all have a fair amount of players on their respective national teams: Duisburg - 6 players on the national team FFC Frankfurt - 4 Umea IK - 5 Arsenal - 4 Everton - 7 Lyon - 7 I would almost say it'd be better to bring in a national team, like the Red Stars are doing with Ireland soon, but we couldn't get a European team that way. Which IMO isn't a problem, we can nab an Asian team (Japan, Korea, Australia, China) or Mexico instead.
Bayern München? Silvia Neid doesn't seem too fond of Bayern players and only Melanie Behringer is likely to be missing for the EUROs. They were top of the German league for most of the season and only lost the championship to Postdam on goal difference (one goal!) after the final match of the season. No big names, though (at least for the uninitiated) and no "legendary" club status from a succession of Women's Cup wins. Otherwise, here's a potentially silly question. Japan or Australia isn't a bad idea, but is it obvious that the Japanese/Australian players in the league would play on the WPS team if chosen? When Umeå played Brazil last year, Marta played one half with each team . And is Brazil out of the question in that case, because most of the Brazilians are expected to make the All Stars?
I wonder if the WPS would have to pay part of the cost for bringing in a foreign team for the All-Star game? I still say Mexico WNT would be the best choice if they want to play an international team. Or, have an East vs. West type of game where best players from LA Sol, FC Gold Pride and Athletica play the best players from the Breakers, Freedom, Red Stars and Sky Blue FC. That way we see more WPS players and they can have a whole weekend event with a skills competition on saturday like the WUSA did.
How about having the WPS all-stars (what's left) play the USWNT - hardly any of them will make the all-star squad anyway.
I totally agree. I've never heard of Umea or whatever and neither have most others plus many of the best players will be gone anyway with the Euros. Plus why St.Louis?? The Soccer Park is hardly the best facility in the league. If they wanted a central location then why not Chicago? There are much better SSS in the league and places that get better attendance. Maybe they just want the stadium to look full. LOL!
That sounds like a good idea but I don't know how much Mexicans themselves care about women's soccer. Plus I don't think they are very good and it might not even be a close game especially with Solo or LeBlanc in goal.
I like the East/West idea. I'll pass on another meaningless US All Stars vs 3rd Tier international club/national team. Don't really care to see Urethra Von Wienerschnitzel from Verblinsk or whoever else they'll trot out here either.
I wish the women were more competitive against the men since I'd really like to see how they'd do against a young men's team but the only "men" they can compete against are the U15s so that would be pretty silly to have them play a bunch of junior high kids! What about playing the wheelchair soccer world champions? LOL!
Don't laugh - there's probably a lot of truth to that and one reason why RFK Stadium never hosted a WUSA championship or all-star game.