She's out of your League

Originally, I was going to post some more on strikes, failed mediations, and shattered dreams. Well, at least the first two. The broken dreams part was the remnant of listening to Eighties radio this morning. Oh, Eighties music: it's all fun and games 'til Johnny Hates Jazz camps himself in your brain for the morning.

ANYWAY, after diving into the first three lines (of the post, not the song), a wave of depression came over me. It felt eerily similiar to what those disembodied smilie faces experienced in that Zoloft commercial before they started chasing those butterflies. At least, that's what I guess.

But before I hit up the medicine cabinet, I had a moment of clarity. Something clicked inside of me. 'Hey', I heard myself say. 'There's more to life than MLS.' I initially scoffed at the idea. However, the mind works in mysterious ways. I felt a spirit inside me. I suddenly decided to turn my attention in a different direction. What's that I hear? Birds chirping? And wait - is that sun coming out?

Oh, my dearest Women's Professional Soccer. It's so good to write about you again!

Now, my last post about WPS - the one about the LA Sol closing its doors - was not a happy piece. There were no butterflies roaming fluttering around the laptop on that one. So here's the first, cheery WPS piece of 2010.

***

The trees are still bare here in Boston, but the air is shedding its frosty bite. And while MLS players and the League are battling over guaranteed contracts, player options, and free agency - all worthwhile causes, mind you - the women of the WPS are quietly gearing up for the upcoming season which will, for sure, commence April 10th.

And by "quietly," I do not mean "passively." By no means. They're doing the same preseason drills as their MLS counterparts. The same crazy games of soccer golf and "Butts Up." And they're definitely getting in some good, healthy scrimmages as the calendar nears the official start of spring.

By "quiet," I mean they are simply going about their business. There is no labor strife in WPS. In fact, Commissioner Tonya Antonucci recently announced that the average player salary has increased this season. This, of course, is excellent news given the dire predictions unleashed when WPS was born three years ago.

Anyway, aside from all the off the pitch patter, WPS looks like it's finding more solid ground, despite the loss of its regular season champion Sol. They added Atlanta and Philly as expansion teams in a true-to-life, one step back, two steps forward move. The US Women's National Team just collected another Algarve Cup championship last week. And nearly all of the league's flagship players - Marta, Abby Wambach, Kelly Smith and Eniola Aluko (who, by the way, is probably one of the most technically gifted players I've ever seen) - will return.

Some of this year's storylines: Can Sky Blue FC defend the title it pretty much stole from the Sol last summer? Will the supremely-talented Breakers finally play up to expectation? How will MVP Marta adjust to her new teammates in the Bay Area? And how many times will Tony DiCicco get fined for post-match criticisms of the officiating?*

(*After one interview with Tony DiCicco, you wish every head coach or manager was as honest and blunt as him. He has little use for diplomatic language, and his pressers often have reporters trading "he didn't just say that" glances with each other. That guy. No filter at all. And it is awesome.)

All in all, it's not such a bad time to be a soccer fan here in the States, despite the sour soundbites spewing from the MLSPU.

So while a strike looms in MLS, the show will go on in another first division pro soccer league. And there's nothing depressing about that.

Awesomeness: WPS releases its 2009 schedule

It may be hard to believe amid all the steroid talk and the ubiquitous post-Super Bowl hangover*, but there actually exists some positive developments in the world of sports. No joke.

(*It's been - what - eight days since Super Bowl XLIII and we're talking about the condition of Ben Roethlisberger's ribs. Obsessed much, America?)

Yes, Women's Professional Soccer has released its 2009 season schedule, and with it, the hope and promise of even more pro soccer for us to savor.

In a way, I'm actually looking forward to the WPS season than the MLS season. Call me crazy. But there's something about the first season of WPS that appeals to my journalistic antennae. It could be the whole idea that each of these players carries a common goal: to help the league succeed. And there's something admirable in that, not unlike the mission set forth by the first MLS players 13 years ago.

Okay, I won't lie. It's also because I want to be part of this first season in some shape or form. To tell my grandkids that Vovô was there when it all began. Call me a media gadfly. I won't apologize for that. Besides, I missed the first seasons of MLS because my journalistic sense was, shall we say, pretty awful.* Hey, I was still bumming rides to school and eating cafeteria ravioli back then.

(*Yep, I failed tenth grade English. Real journalists just don't fail English. Ever. That's like an actuary failing math. Or a soccer player failing free period.)

So to me, there's something remarkable about watching this first season of WPS. For many of these players, this is their first taste of pro sports. Alot of them probably won't be good with cliches.* In addition to training and travelling, they also have the task of trying to covert the women's soccer Gentiles. It isn't just an ordinary season - it's a crucial five-month stretch that will likely determine whether this league will succeed in years to come or fall flat on its face.

(*Thank God. During the course of my very first MLS player interview, the player - who will remain anonymous - unleashed the cliche hounds on me. It wasn't one after another. It was like six dozen followed by six dozen more. At the time, I was too nervous to even notice. But a few years later, in hindsight, I noticed that he couldn't provide me a single original thought. Thanks alot. Flake.)

On a personal note, I cannot help but root for these women. I'm sure the vast majority of them would likely earn far more utilizing their college degrees. However, they're playing doing this for something greater. Something far more rewarding than a 9-5 office job. Perhaps they're doing this in the spirit of a concept that has been lost - even tarnished - by many of today's professional athletes. For love of the game.

It's funny, because upon reflection, WPS is already an escape for me. A great way to duck all of the persistent evils in modern sports. Drugs. Cheating. Gambling. Arrests. It's a list that never seems to end. And luckily, WPS will serve as more than just a soccer league. It'll serve as a safe haven for those of us who've lost our faith in today's professional athlete.

For I highly doubt you'll find any steroid scandals, criminal endeavors, or public mudslinging in WPS. For the most part, it will just be about the game. It'll be about discovering some of the world's best female soccer players - which, in case you haven't noticed, are pretty darn good. It'll be about the return of an innocence that so many professional (even college) sports have lost during the course of my lifetime. WPS, to me, is a league with a host of players that I can believe in, much like MLS.

Belief. Remember when it was easy to believe that an athlete valued this wonderful concept called honor? That it went without saying. The honor of playing with integrity. Honesty. Fairness. Let me tell you, that belief hasn't died. I'm optimistic that such a belief will not only live, but thrive in WPS.

And because of that, I couldn't be more thrilled about this league.

I HEART the WPS playoff format

Something that definitely didn't receive a great amount of press - but should have - was WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci's announcement regarding the league's playoff format in the "Commissioner's Update" release.

I've pasted the pertinent text here for your review.

The WPS Playoffs will feature the top four teams from the WPS regular season, in a unique format that rewards regular season success while offering the post-season drama which American fans are accustomed to in their sports season:

-- The winner of the WPS regular season will automatically advance and host the WPS Championship Game at their home stadium.

-- The No. 4 team will play at the No. 3 team in the first playoff game with the winner advancing to play at No. 2 in the semifinal game.

-- The winner of the game at No. 2’s host venue will advance to the WPS Championships game on the weekend of August 22nd-23rd.

Wait. It gets better.*

(*I love this league more and more each day. I have a feeling this will be a really fun league to cover come spring.)

By selecting the winner of the regular season to host the Championship Game, we stay true to soccer’s roots and genuinely, and generously, reward the winner of the season table. It also provides for a venue with an exciting championship atmosphere and rooting interest, while giving teams and the league several weeks of preparation and opportunity for ticket sales.

This means that the race to the regular season crown will have added meaning for the public, the media and the players throughout the late part of the 20-game schedule.

By having No. 4 play at No. 3 we offer a home game to another team and reward the second place finisher in the league with a first round “bye”. Similar to Champions League or UEFA Cup qualifications in the European leagues, we wanted the final placings in the league table to have real meaning in WPS.

Lastly, we finish with a winner-take-all one game final like most major Cup competitions – but one that is heavily skewed toward the home team. To win the league title means either a great season performance capped by a final game victory or an incredible run of play in the post-season to overcome the odds. I like those storylines.

I do to. Astonishing. A playoff format that rewards regular season results? What will they think of next: a soccer ball that doesn't need to be filled with feathers? Psshht!

I'll say it right now: this is the best thing to happen to American sports' postseasons since the advent of the wildcard. No diggity. No doubt.

See, you can have an American soccer league without a watered-down, it's-anybody's-title-to-win playoff format (*cough*MLS*cough*). It shouldn't be easy to win an MLS Cup. It should be difficult from First Kick to the Cup, not from late-September until mid- November.

If I'm Don Garber, I'm going to give serious thought as to how MLS can adopt a similar format for its postseason.

Because I don't know what was worse about last season's playoffs - the fact that it took 11 matches to tell us that, yes, our suspicions were confirmed, that Columbus was the best club in MLS, or the fact that New York Red Bulls managed to claim the Western Conference Championship.

Unreal.

The Good A-Rod comes to Beantown

It's really not fair for Amy Rodriguez.

Of all the places she could have started her professional soccer career, she ends up in locale where she get booed and hissed at right from the start.

Yes, I know that she was just selected first overall in the very first WPS Draft yesterday in St. Louis. I also know that she's easily one of the best American players, by virtue of her gold mdeal earned last summer with the Women's National Team, not to mention her outstanding collegiate career at University of Southern California, where she and her teammates clinched the 2007 NCAA Championship. The 21-year-old has pretty much done it all.

But, I'm telling you, that stuff doesn't mean anything when you're nicknamed "A-Rod." Not in Boston, at least.

Take a summer stroll down Boyleston Street and you'll see the sidewalks littered with unflattering tees that say "A-Rod SUCKS", "Jeter (Heart) A-Rod" and a couple of other "colorful" slogans that aren't exactly PG. Poor Amy.

She can score bushels of goals like Leo Messi, deliver Beckham-quality crosses, and dribble like Cristiano Ronaldo, but that moniker will doom her in Beantown. No doubt about it.

So with that being said, I feel compelled, both as a soccer lover and a citizen of Red Sox Nation, to propose a solution. On behalf of all sports fans this side of the Hudson River, I publicly welcome Amy Rodriguez to Boston.

Now, to avoid any negative connotations to much-persecuted Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, I suggest the following qualifier to Amy's nickname: "The Good", as in "The Good A-Rod." Henceforth, by decree of no one but myself, Amy Rodriguez, the newest big-name athlete in the Hub, shall be known as "The Good A-Rod" among the sports masses in and around New England.

When the WPS regular season fires up in April, shower The Good A-Rod with hearty cheers and applause when she races onto the pitch at Harvard Stadium. I don't want to hear the Bronx (no pun intended)-inspired "AAAAAAA-ROOOOOODDDDDD...AAAAAAAA-ROOOOOOOODDDDDD!" No, that mocking proclamation is reserved for The Bad A-Rod - yes, the aforementioned Alex Rodrigruez. We're talking about The Good A-Rod here.

Besides, The Good A-Rod is not at all like The Bad A-Rod. The Good A-Rod is actually pretty good in pressure situations. Her assist on Carli Lloyd's game-winning goal against Brazil for the gold during the last Olympiad? Yeah, pretty darn clutch. Winning the 2007 NCAA Title? I didn't see any choking in that one, either.

So, please, soccer fans, Beantown sports fanatics, Red Sox Nation, Sons of Sam Horn, and all other circles where the term "A-Rod" is a dirty word: let us all make a clear distinction.

There's a new A-Rod in town, and she's a heck of alot better - not to mention cuter - than that overpaid Madonna seducer in the Bronx.

Women's Professional Soccer is almost here

I definitely haven't given WPS as much love as I would have liked to lately. I have no one to blame but myself...and the orangutang that shot me a death stare at the zoo when I was six years old. Creepy.

For now, here's a clip of the WPS Player Combine.


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Breakers roll back into Boston April 11

I rarely get excited about press releases. I suppose it's because 95% of my inbox is filled by them. That, and heck, how often are releases in general that exciting?*

(*Granted, I haven't been a journalist for that many years, but is there such thing as an "exciting" press release? I can't think of one. However, I have a nagging feeling that there are many examples of exciting press releases. Feel free to dispel the above premise in the comments section.)

But last night, I opened my inbox to find a release from the Boston Breakers announcing their home opener, which has been set for April 11, 2009.

YAAAAYYY!

Why do I find this exciting?

Well, I've actually been looking forward to the Breakers home opener since the announcement of Women's Professional Soccer was made back in early-2007. This is largely due to the fact that the very first soccer game I attended was a U.S. Women's National Team match in Foxboro in 1999. Ever since, I've always held women's soccer dear to my heart.

Unfortunately, that sentiment wasn't enough for me to take the train to Boston for a Breakers match. Thus, I missed the first Breakers run back in the early-2000s. I have excuses. None of them are good. So, I never got to see Kristine Lilly and Angela Hucles don the Breakers kit and scurry around Nickerson Field.

After WUSA folded in 2003, my time machine began to malfunction. A missed the opportunity. Sigh.

Luckily, the Breakers returned. They came back in the recently-formed Women's Professional Soccer. Not only were players like Lilly, Hucles, Abby Wambach and Shannon Boxx given a second chance to help women's pro soccer succeed, but I was given the opportunity to cover them this time around.

At first, 2008 was the projected timetable for WPS' inaugural season. But eventually, it was pushed back to 2009, presumably to grow stronger roots and build better infrastructure. That move seems to have paid off, as WPS just announced a $10 million partnership with Puma this week.

I've already calculated the number of days (114) until Opening Day. It'll be a thrill for me to see Lilly, Hucles and, this time around, Heather Mitts in Breakers blue. The fact that they're all sticking around New England, rather than the occasional, once-every-three-years World Cup Qualifier or friendly that the WNT plays in Foxboro is just awesome. I love covering the WNT. Now, I get to cover many of them throughout the summer.

Exciting? You bet.

***

This story is worth more than a passing comment, but I figured something is better than nothing.

How the heck did Toronto get Dwayne DeRosario, one of the league's best offensive weapons, for a rookie defender and allocation money? Moreover, how - why - did Houston allow this? 01010101!!!!

I understand that the league's single-entity structure played a role in this. I also understand that DeRosario, who hails from Canada, likely expressed a desire to play in his home country.

But come on. Trades in MLS are often about as fair as Rod Blagojevich. Rarely does a trade occur in which both sides truly benefit. In this case, Houston got twenty cents on the dollar in this trade - unless, of course, the allocation money approached seven figures.*

(*It probably didn't.)

How fair was this trade? Let's disregard the allocation money and look at what we know: the stats.

2008
James: 13 G, 1 G, 0 A, 1 SOG

DeRosario: 24 G, 7 G, 2 A, 34 SOG

I know what what you're saying: James is a defender. Obviously, the disparity in offensive output is going to favor D-Ro. I'm cognizant of that. Even so, why would Houston trade one of its best players - nevermind, one of the league's best players - for a rookie defender and some cash?

Why? Because that's how MLS rolls.

***

Contrary to what many of my friends think, I had absolutely nothing to do with the Rhode Island Stingrays change of home venue next season (scroll to the bottom half of the page).

Trust me. I've got alot more people to pay off before I can even imagine wielding that kind of influence.

WPS Allocations

It's been far too long since I've written about the women's game, so here's some fodder for that anticipated water cooler discussion.

I expected the returns of Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly to Boston. No surprise there. With another recognizable name like Heather Mitts on board, the Breakers have positioned themselves well with their selections. If the matches were played on paper, I already like the Breakers' chances.

I can't tell you how excited I am that the Breakers - and women's pro soccer as a whole - are finally back. Without going on a full-bore tangent, I can't overstate how great this is for not only soccer fans, but girls who play sports. Their dreams of becoming professional athletes can only be enhanced with WPS now in place. I've stated before that if I'm blessed to have a daughter/daughters someday, I'll want her/them to look at the Breakers as sports role models. In fact, one of the things I look forward to as a parent someday is taking my daughter(s) to a Breakers game up at a soccer-spec stadium TBA.

I cannot wait until their season starts in April. As a reporter, I'm excited at the chance to cover them and give them as much press as possible. My interactions with the U.S. Women's National Team have been nothing but the positive, and they are all more than willing to speak with the media. Stuff like that goes a long way for us media types. Needless to say, I hope WPS will be a smashing success for years to come.

******

On a sad note, I was hoping that Carli Lloyd, my favorite Jersey girl, would be traveling up I-95 to play for the Breakers. Alas, she was selected by Chicago, thus depriving me of the chance to see her play regularly.

Perhaps a mid-season trade to Boston could be orchestrated?