USA WOMEN'S NEWS, RESULTS

[Frank Cunha]

USL Announces W-League Slate 19/12/03

United Soccer Leagues released the W-League schedule for the 2004 season, the league’s 10th anniversary season. The 259-game season is set to start play Saturday, May 8 with five matches, including one of the league’s inaugural clubs as the Long Island Lady Riders travel to Rhode Island to face the expansion Lady Stingrays in the opening game of the W-League season.

Opening night will also feature two other expansion clubs playing their first games with the Richmond Kickers Destiny traveling to take on the Carolina Dynamo Women and the Detroit Jaguars playing host to the Cincinnati Ladyhawks.

The New Jersey Lady Stallions will play host to the New York Magic and two-time W-League champion Boston Renegades hit the road to take on the New Jersey Wildcats on opening night.

The defending champion Hampton Roads Piranhas open their season on the road at Richmond May 14 before playing their home opener May 15 against the Northern Virginia Majestics.

The other 2003 semifinalists open their seasons after the Piranhas with the Seattle Sounders hosting the expansion Calgary club May 15, the Chicago Cobras hosting the West Michigan Edge May 21 and the Ottawa Fury facing the Ravens in Rochester May 23.

[Frank Cunha]

Wednesday, December 10, 2003


TAMPA, FL -- United Soccer Leagues announced today the official alignment for the 10th Anniversary season of the W-League in 2004. The league expands to 37 for the 2004 season with the addition of a dozen expansion franchises.

The W-League will maintain its three-conference alignment from 2003, but has split the newly-named Northern (formerly Eastern) Conference into three divisions for the upcoming season, the New England Division, North Central Division and Northeast Division. The Central Conference will still be comprised of the Atlantic and Midwest Divisions and the Western Conference will remain as one group.

Six of the 12 expansion clubs in 2004 will be in the Central Conference.

Half of the Midwest Division will be new teams with the Cleveland Internationals, Detroit Jaguars, Fort Wayne Fever and West Michigan Edge taking to the field with the Cincinnati Ladyhawks, Columbus Lady Shooting Stars, Windy City Bluez and 2003 league finalist Chicago Cobras.

Richmond, name to be announced, and the Bradenton Athletics, will join the Atlantic Division alongside the Asheville Splash, newly-named Carolina Dynamo (formerly Greensboro Twisters), Charlotte Lady Eagles, Northern Virginia Majestics and defending champion Hampton Roads Piranhas.

Four new teams will play in the Northern Conference.

The Rochester Ravens, Toronto Inferno and 2003 semifinalist Ottawa Fury will be joined in the North Central Division by the Sudbury Canadians, who played a handful of exhibition games last season, and a club in Montreal to be announced in January.

The New Hampshire Lady Phantoms and two-time W-League champion Boston Renegades will compete with the Rhode Island Lady Stingrays and the new Western Mass Lady Pioneers in the New England Division.

The Northeast Division will be comprised entirely of veteran clubs with the New Jersey Lady Stallions, New Jersey Wildcats, New York Magic, South Jersey Banshees and the W-League inaugural 1995 season champion Long Island Lady Riders.

The Western Conference adds two new Canadian teams for 2004 with the Edmonton Aviators Women and a new club in Calgary. They join the Arizona Heatwave, Denver Lady Cougars, Fort Collins Force, Mile High Mustangs, Vancouver Whitecaps and 2003 semifinalist Seattle Sounders.

[Frank Cunha]

U.S. WNT Prepare for 2004 06/01/04

The U.S. Women’s National Team’s road to Athens, Greece will start on Jan. 12 at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., as they kick off a busy 2004 schedule with a 12-day training camp followed by a trip to China for the annual Four Nations Tournament.

U.S. WNT head coach April Heinrichs has called in 27 players for the training camp and will choose a roster of 20 to travel to China where the USA will participate in a tournament that features three of the four semifinalists from the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In addition to China, who begins its preparation to host the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USA will face its first and last opponents from the Women’s World Cup, opening the tournament against Women’s World Cup runner-up Sweden on Jan. 30. The USA will then face China on Feb. 1 and finish the tournament on Feb. 3 against Canada, who the USA beat 3-1 for third place at the Women’s World Cup. All six matches of the tournament will be played in Shenzhen, China, located just north of the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong in southern China.

Of the 27 players named to the training camp roster, 18 are from the 2003 U.S. Women’s World Cup Team and the other nine are a combination of top WUSA players and young players looking to make their mark as the USA begins preparation for qualifying for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Following the Four Nations Tournament, the U.S. will return to action for the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament taking place in Costa Rica from February 25-March 7, 2004. Following that tournament, the USA will travel to the Algarve Cup in Portugal in mid-March.

The U.S. won the Four Nations Tournament in January 2003, defeating Norway and eventual Women’s World Cup champion Germany, while falling to China, a loss that was avenged in the championship game of the 2003 Algarve Cup. The meeting with China at the Four Nations will be the first for the two countries since that Algarve Cup and the meetings with Sweden and Canada will be the first with those countries since the Women’s World Cup.

The training camp roster includes all three U.S. players who made the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup All-Star Team in co-captain Joy Fawcett, midfielder Shannon Boxx and forward Mia Hamm, as well as veterans Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly and co-captain Julie Foudy. The roster does include two new names that belong to familiar players, as Christie Pearce and Kate Sobrero will now go by their married names of Rampone and Markgraf, respectively.

Of the young players called in, the roster includes four members of North Carolina’s 2003 NCAA Championship Team in defender Cat Reddick, who played so well in place of the injured Brandi Chastain at the 2003 Women’s World Cup, forward Heather O’Reilly, who was the Offensive MVP of the NCAA Final Four, forward Lindsay Tarpley, who scored 23 goals with 27 assists this year for the Tar Heels and is one of three finalists (along with Reddick and Penn State’s Joanna Lohman) for the 2003 MAC Hermann Trophy, and midfielder Lori Chalupny, who played a stellar match in the NCAA title game. U-21 and U-19 midfield star Leslie Osborne, the WCC Player of the Year from Santa Clara, gets her second call-up to the full National Team. O’Reilly (a freshman), Tarpley (a sophomore), Chalupny (a sophomore) and Osborne (a junior) were all starters on the USA’s 2002 Under-19 World Championship Team. In addition, defender Amy LePeilbet, who finished her eligibility at Arizona State last fall, gets her first call-up to th
e full national team after playing well for the U.S. Under-21s during the last two Nordic Cup championship runs, playing every minute of every match in both tournaments.

The 27-player roster includes four goalkeepers as Kristen Luckenbill and Jenni Branam join veterans Briana Scurry and Siri Mullinix. Luckenbill was the 2002 WUSA Goalkeeper of the Year for the Carolina Courage, while Branam emerged as one of the top goalkeepers in the league during the second half of her rookie season in 2003 for the San Diego Spirit.

Heinrichs has also called in former Philadelphia Charge defender Heather Mitts, who spent the 2003 Women’s World Cup doing TV commentary for ESPN and ABC, and Stacey Tullock, who gets her second call-up after proving herself as one of the top defensive midfielders in the WUSA for the Charge.

U.S. Training Camp Roster

GOALKEEPERS (4): Jenni Branam, Briana Scurry, Kristen Luckenbill, Siri Mullinix

DEFENDERS (8): Kylie Bivens, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Kate Markgraf (*nee Sobrero), Heather Mitts, Amy LePeilbet, Christie Rampone (*nee Pearce), Cat Reddick

MIDFIELDERS (10): Shannon Boxx, Lori Chalupny, Julie Foudy, Angela Hucles, Kristine Lilly, Leslie Osborne, Tiffany Roberts, Lindsay Tarpley, Stacey Tullock, Aly Wagner

FORWARDS (5): Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Heather O’Reilly, Cindy Parlow, Abby Wambach.

Press Release courtesy of www.ussoccer.com

[Frank Cunha]

:thumbsup:

[Frank Cunha]

Following that tournament, the USA will travel to the Algarve Cup in Portugal in mid-March.

:thumbsup:

[Frank Cunha]

Blatter Offends The Ladies 16/01/04

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has spectacularly come down with foot-in-mouth disease after suggesting that female footballers should sport more fetching uniforms on the pitch.

"Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball," he began. "They could, for example, have tighter shorts.”

”Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men such as playing with a lighter ball - That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?"

England keeper Pauline Cope was among the ladies distressed by Blatter’s comments.

"He doesn't know what he is talking about," she fired back. "We don't use a lighter ball for one thing, and to say we should play football in hot pants is plain ridiculous.”

”It's completely irresponsible for a man in a powerful position to make comments like this."

[BethlehemFC]

Blatter is a jerk.

[Frank Cunha]

I agree he should be replace immediately, a lighter ball?

[BethlehemFC]

He doesn't even know what's going on.

[Frank Cunha]

he just show his stupidity
his going to have to apoligize

[BethlehemFC]

Hopefully he has to resign!

[Frank Cunha]

that will be the best thing the could happen to Soccer
the money pocket million of dollars and get's away 8bo:

[Adalon]

Although i would like to see ladies in hotpants i dont think it is pratical!
I have a friend who would play for england if she wasnt injured and im sure that she would prefer people watching her fotball skills than her ass!

BLATTER OUT net:

[Jager]

Why stop at hotpants, why not bikinis! :mrgreen:

[Frank Cunha]

the worse remark he didn't know what size ball the women's use