It occurs to me that most of you haven’t seen my argument that The Ultimate Fighter is suffering because of the lack of house shenanigans, even if hard-core fans would hate to hear that. Here it is:
The Ultimate Fighter: It’s the stupid reality, stupid … | Popdose.
Rankings may not usually shuffle unbeaten teams, but Pali Blues had an impressive road swing through Colorado to move up to #1. They still have to go through the rest of the stacked W-League Western Division, though.
Here’s what we have so far (at the bottom, check out the games to watch — or follow on Twitter — this week):
1. Pali Blues (7-0-0, W-League Western; Last Week: 3) – roster
Unscathed in busy week — 8-0 home win over Victoria, 2-1 win at Colorado Rapids Women, 3-0 win at Colorado Rush. Liz Bogus and Nikki Washington had first-half goals in the last of those wins.
2. Chicago Red Stars (5-0-0, WPSL Elite; LW: 1) – roster
Beat NY Fury 2-1 and wiped out Chesapeake 5-0 behind a Lauren Fowlkes hat trick. Big road test this week at Western New York.
3. Boston Breakers (6-1-0, WPSL Elite; LW: 2) – roster
Got back into action late Sunday with 1-0 squeaker at Philadelphia. Aussie Kyah Simon had the lone goal.
4. New York Fury (4-2-1, WPSL Elite; LW: 4) – roster
Fell 1-2 at Chicago; won 1-0 at FC Indiana.
5. Western New York Flash (2-2-1, WPSL Elite; LW: 5) – roster
Turned in a convincing 3-1 win against New England.
6. Seattle Sounders Women (4-0-1, W-League Western; LW: 6) – roster
Cruised in showdown with Colorado (3-0 at home) but lost perfect record with 0-0 draw against Vancouver when national teamers left. Still drew 4,500 fans.
7. D.C. United Women (5-0-0, W-League Atlantic; LW: 7) – roster
Turned back challenge in division, winning 3-2 at Fredericksburg with Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson starting.
8. Atlanta Silverbacks (5-0-0, W-League Southeast; LW: 8) – roster
Won 3-0 at FC Jax.
9. New England Mutiny (2-2-1, WPSL Elite; LW: 10) – roster
Still a good claim to be the “best of the rest” after the four WPSL teams with WPS ties, but lost 3-1 at Western New York.
10. Santa Clarita Blue Heat (2-2-0, W-League Western; LW: 11) – roster
Won 6-0 over Victoria.
11. Charlotte Lady Eagles (7-0-0, W-League Southeast; LW: NR) – roster
Three days in Florida, three wins — 4-1 and 3-1 over VSI Tampa Flames, 2-1 over FC Jax Destroyers.
12. New Jersey Wildcats (3-1-2, W-League Northeast; LW: NR) – roster
Two goals and an assist for Yael Averbuch in 4-1 win vs. New Jersey Rangers.
ALSO CONSIDERED (alphabetical order)
Beach Futbol Club (1-1-0 WPSL Pacific South) – roster
Lost 2-0 at home to San Diego. Too much talent to drop all the way out.
Colorado Rapids Women (2-2-1, W-League Western) – roster
Lost 3-0 at Seattle and 2-1 at home vs. Pali Blues.
Colorado Rush (3-2-0, W-League Western; LW: 9) – roster
Suffered a 3-0 home loss to Pali Blues.
FC Dallas (5-0-0, WPSL Big Sky South) – roster
Scored 31. Allowed 2. Scored 17 goals in two games over the weekend, apparently without Casey Nogueira or Kerri Hanks. Yikes.
Fredericksburg Impact (3-1-0, W-League Atlantic) – roster
Respectable showing in 3-2 loss against loaded D.C. United Women.
Hamilton FC Rage (3-1-1, W-League Central) – roster
Had the weekend off after 2-0 win Wednesday at Rochester Ravens.
Ottawa Fury (3-1-0, W-League Central) – roster
Routine 6-1 dispatching of visiting London Gryphons.
San Diego SeaLions (3-0-0 WPSL Pacific South) – roster
Big road win — 2-0 at Beach FC — could push them toward top 12.
Toronto Lady Lynx (3-2-1, W-League Central; LW: 12) – roster
Disastrous road trip — lost 1-0 at Quebec City Amiral and 3-0 at Laval Comets. Still leading division.
GAMES TO WATCH (times Eastern and possibly incorrect)
Wednesday, June 13
WPSL Elite: Chicago Red Stars at Western New York Flash; 7 p.m.; Rochester, N.Y.
Thursday, June 14
W-League Western: Santa Clarita Blue Heat at Colorado Rapids Women; 8 p.m.; Commerce City, Colo.
Saturday, June 16
W-League Southeast: Atlanta Silverbacks at Charlotte Lady Eagles; 5:30 p.m.; Charlotte, N.C.
WPSL Elite: New England Mutiny at Chicago Red Stars; 7 p.m. CHECK; Evanston, Ill.
W-League Western: Santa Clarita Blue Heat at Colorado Rush; 9 p.m.; Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Which teams are best in the post-WPS American women’s soccer scene? We’ll tell you (at least, we’ll give a consensus opinion) in our AmWoSo Power Rankings. This is a joint project of The Equalizer, All White Kit and SportsMyriad.
Comparing between the W-League and WPSL Elite — or even comparing WPSL Elite to regular WPSL — is difficult because teams don’t have many common opponents. One exception: The WPSL Elite’s Boston Breakers won 1-0 at the W-League’s D.C. United Women when the Breakers were nearly at full strength. United had just flown in Joanna Lohman and Lianne Sanderson, and Becky Sauerbrunn wasn’t available.
So to some extent, the rankings are based on players who have built reputations elsewhere. A team that has 7-8 players with WPS experience is going to be ranked higher than one built entirely on unknown players — until results convince us otherwise.
The results, though, can be confusing. Consider the W-League Northeast. The Long Island Rough Riders beat the New Jersey Rangers 10-0 and 7-0. Then the Rangers beat the New York Magic 2-0. Then the Magic beat Long Island. Go figure.
We do have one great resource on the W-League, though: AWK’s Chris Henderson did a lot of roster-crunching in the preseason and named seven favorites: Ottawa Fury, D.C. United Women, Atlanta Silverbacks, Pali Blues, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, Seattle Sounders Women and Vancouver Whitecaps. Vancouver has been disappointing, though its division is stacked. Ottawa suffered a surprising loss but should be watched the rest of the way.
The WPSL Elite is more clear-cut. Four teams are stacked with WPS talent. Four aren’t, though one of those teams (New England) has what appears to be a competitive squad. Yet we still have a question at the top — Boston has run off some terrific early wins but lost on the road to a well-rested Chicago team. Chicago takes the top spot for now, but Boston may easily claim it at some point.
Here’s what we have so far (at the bottom, check out the games to watch — or follow on Twitter — this week):
1. Chicago Red Stars (3-0-0, WPSL Elite) – roster
The Red Stars moved down from WPS after the 2010 season and kept a handful of experienced players. They also added WPS stars Lori Chalupny and Jen Buczkowski. The Boston game was their first real test, and they passed, winning 1-0.
We’re in the midst of travel tryouts, in between massive thunderstorms. That means a bunch of second-graders are out showing their stuff, hoping to make the cut for U9.
Of course, we’re not supposed to be doing that, according to … well, everyone. No one seems to be making the case for starting travel soccer at the U9 level, and yet everyone’s doing it.
Consider the U.S. Soccer “Best Practices” guide (PDF). They recommend “a few organized matches per season” and “little or no travel” through U10. (I’m not saying I agree with everything here. They say 9-year-olds should NOT be organized and hold their positions. The reality: Competitive 8-year-olds with a real interest in soccer want to play real games. They’re sick of “magnetball” — particularly if they’re little guys who don’t fare well in a scrum.)
SoccerIndiana.org did a neat state-by-state survey (PDF) asking when “competitive play” begins. Most states started around 10 or 11. Most directors surveyed said they’d rather start a little later.
Then there’s this essay based partly on the book Game On by Tom Farrey, which suggests that we Americans are the only ones pushing our kids to play such organized sports so early in life. (The English parent on my team would disagree.) It points to a real issue with having travel tryouts so early — the “early bloomers” could end up getting all the coaching attention. I think my club is trying to address this problem by having programs geared toward House players as well as Travel players, which is one reason I like my club!
I can see a couple of advantages to having tryouts and travel soccer early. Some kids really want that level of competition. And serious players can get serious coaching without being bogged down by the daisy-pickers who drive us U8 parent coaches to distraction.
But can we do that without putting 8-year-old kids through a meat-grinder tryout at an age in which it’s really difficult to spot the best players?
I think so, and the answer may be what some local clubs are doing at the U8 level. Offer additional programs to your House league. And don’t have tryouts for them. The most serious players — who, not coincidentally, will usually be the best players as well — will sign up.
Give everyone the “free play” so treasured by the youth soccer cognoscenti these days. Then give the most soccer-savvy players a chance to do a little more.
At least, that’s the hypothesis I’m sticking with for now. That might change tomorrow. These aren’t easy questions with easy answers. But the good news is that no one’s listening to me.
Yes, it’s time for everyone’s favorite news-gathering activity of the Olympics — counting condoms! We now have numbers from Durex on what they’re planning for London:
Now we’re talking! 150,000 condoms for just 16,000 athletes! That’s over nine condoms per athlete for a 16 day competition – that’s a lot of Olympic love.
via DailyHouse.com » You’ll Never Guess How Many Condoms Will Be Given Out In The Olympic Village..
But is that enough? Vancouver started with 14 per athlete (and “officials”), and they had to order more. Then again, maybe summer athletes are more focused — Beijing had plenty left over.
As far as I’ve seen, they aren’t handed out to the media. But the little supply shop at the Torino media center had several varieties of condoms — and nothing to help with cold symptoms. The managers missed Rule #1 of business: Know your customers.
Duresport.com 