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A Blog That Chuck Hasn't Found...Until Now

Bill Fetty over at A-League.com, part of the MatchNight network, recently has started a blog all about the league and has gotten off to a good start. He's crunching some interesting numbers, talking about Utah and Minnesota Thunder GK Joe Warren and introducing himself. Best of luck, Bill... Can't believe Chuck hasn't spotted it ... until now.

Massive Women's Update

We must start by acknowledging the Rochester Ravens and the end of their 45-match winless streak going back to July 23, 2000 (0-44-1--the tie in the streak came last season). Nina Scalzo turned in a W-League player of the week performance with her goal and two assists in the Ravens' 3-2 OT win against South Jersey. Rochester received kudos from Ottawa even after a 5-0 loss to open the season.

Rochester has, by the way, a W-League franchise (Ravens) and one in the WPSL (Reign).

Despite the loss of the WUSA, the Boston Globe notes that women's soccer is alive and kicking. The article takes a focus on the upstart WPSL, which after being more-or-less a west coast league has expanded its women's horizon to the east coast.

The Ottawa Fury want to justify their automatic place in the W-League final four (as host, they're guaranteed one of the four slots) after finishing 11-2-1 in 2003 and making it to the semifinals last season in Hampton Roads. There are new opportunities for women players in West Michigan. Marionette Pichon recently signed with the New Jersey Wildcats. Her first game will be June 5. Mercy Akide scored twice in a 4-0 win over Bradenton, extending their winning streak to 16. They'll get a tough home test this weekend against Charlotte.

The Washington Freedom aren't going quietly if the WUSA is never to play again. They've lined up an aggressive slate of friendlies against various opponents. Having earlier taken on college opponents, they are now playing a combination of W-League, WPSL and international opponents this summer. However, it appears that they've got a collection of high-school age players in the mix with a few veterans, as this post from StarCityFan on Big Soccer notes about their win last night against the W-League's Northern Virginia Majestics:

Freedom win, 4-0, with goals from Meredith Beard and Jacqui Little, among others. Additional familiar faces consisted of Nicci Wright, Emmy Barr, Lindsey Stoecker, and Carrie Moore, who served as team captain (yay!). I was told that most of the other players were from a development team of 16-year-olds. It showed - the Freedom didn't dominate except for about the last thirty minutes of the first half and were almost totally incapable of maintaining possession for much of the second. The defense and Nicci Wright had to work hard in the second half to maintain the shutout.

A former Freedom and San Jose player, Michelle French, is biding her time by coaching youth teams in the Seattle area, and playing for the Sounders women.

The women's national team gets back in action Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky against Japan as they tuneup for the Olympics in Athens. Coach April Heinrichs has named her 18-player roster for the match. Heinrichs has brought back Joy Faucett and Shannon MacMillian for the match. Japan will be without their notable star, Homare Sawa (knee injury), but they have given the US fits in recent matches (0-0 in 2003 and 2-2 in 2000). US roster:

GOALKEEPERS (2): Kristin Luckenbill, Briana Scurry; DEFENDERS (6): Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Kate Markgraf, Heather Mitts, Christie Rampone, Cat Reddick; MIDFIELDERS (5): Shannon Boxx, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly, Lindsay Tarpley, Aly Wagner; FORWARDS (5): Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Cindy Parlow, Abby Wambach, Christie Welsh.

By the way, there's got to be some kind of irony in Nomar making an appearance in Louisville just days before Mia takes the field for the US WNT. Says Mia's hubby:

"This is a great stadium, and these are great fans," he said. "This was my first time in Louisville, so I thought I'd sign some autographs. When my wife comes in, I'm sure she'll sign some, too."

Garciaparra's wife, Mia Hamm, will be in town this weekend with the U.S. women's soccer team, which will play an exhibition game Sunday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Heather Mitts proved an inspiration recently for some Louisville high school girls.

The Olympics can't come soon enough for Mitts, 25. This has been "a lifetime dream.'' Even the security concerns in Athens don't dampen her enthusiasm.

"I know there has been a lot of talk about it," she said. "But for the most part, we're very confident. If they feel like it's fine for us to go over there and play, then by all means (we'll go). Our No. 1 concern is winning the gold."

In the meantime, there are high hopes for women's soccer in Israel. Three of their players have US collegiate experience and the team is ranked 69th in the world out of 115. Not bad for a team that's only been around since 1997. However, not all is rosy for them:

If the national team is on the up, the state of women's league soccer in Israel only seems to slide deeper and deeper into chaos. This season the league began in January after a delay of three months and even then it was stopped after the first round without a champion being declared because the players went on strike in protest at the sorry state of the league.

The success of the women's team comes without any institutional backing and Itzik Zeltzer, the team's assistant coach looks set to be axed because of cutbacks. Zeltzer doesn't receive a salary and all he gets from the Israel Football Association is reimbursement for expenses. Shimon Maimon, chair of State Cup holders Maccabi Holon says the chances of his team playing in the UEFA Women's Cup are slim. "It will cost us NIS 300,000 out of a budget of NIS 500,000 and we only get government support of NIS 25,000."

In September, South Africa will be the host for the women's version of the African Cup of Nations.

The Des Moines Phenomenon

I just posted this in the Blog Matchnight comments regarding my own previous post about attendance figures. This is specifically tied to Des Moines' PDL attendance figures and whether they have enough support for an A-League team:

How's this?

Menace averages from '01-'04 seasons:

2001: 2,703
2002: 4,401
2003: 3,971
2004: 3,695 (includes exhibition vs. Wizards).

The other encouraging thing about their attendance figures is that they don't seem to have a drop for back to back games. They've had 2 sets of back-to-back home matches this season:

5/15: 3,756
5/16: 4,065

5/29: 3,496
5/30: 3,440

They've generally been consistent that way in past seasons as well. Their attendance record is 6,312 in '02.

FYI: the 2002 season they went undefeated in the regular season. By the way, they'll get a Freddy Adu spike soon too, as he's flying to Des Moines after the DC United/Fire match and giving away autographed Freddy jerseys at a Menace match that night, and they had a contest for someone to fly to the Fire match and back on a private plane w/Freddy.

I had the opportunity to attend my first Menace match last week, albeit an exhibition against the Kansas City Wizards, which drew over 3,700 on a Tuesday night. In the process, I met owner Kyle Krause and director of operations Nate Van Steenvoort, among others, and from my own viewpoint, they run an A-League team already, and in that market, they're treated that way. TV crews and the Des Moines Register cover the home matches. The crowd seemed knowledgable and full of energy, and with the Menace's consistent performance on the field the last few seasons, the fans have good reason to perk up the attendance numbers as well. They, like many clubs, have giveaways and halftime contests, and Menace gear is readily available as well. Plus, they pass out a 20-page program with a color cover. Yes it's full of ads, but also has plenty of useful soccer information.

The match itself wasn't the highest quality (how often do exhibitions measure up anyway?), but neither team scored until Matt Taylor's goal in the 81st minute to give KC a 1-0 win. The Menace had played 2 matches the previous weekend, and KC one of their own, plus they had a training session and a 3 hour bus ride to Des Moines.

My visit to Des Moines was on the invitation of a couple of friends of mine I made during the 2002 World Cup in Korea, one of whom was the AR for the match--Doug Jotzke. I watched much of the match with his parents, and also had the opportunity to meet Terry Vaughn, who happens to be from Iowa as well.

All-in-all, a first class job by the Menace top to bottom. If ever a PDL city could jump straight to the A-League, they could. Plenty of A-League teams need to find out what's happening in Des Moines, bottle it up and bring it back with them.