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Sunday, February 5, 2012

WPS shutdown might mark the end of U.S. women’s pro soccer efforts

Well, it happened again: Just as American women’s soccer was enjoying the limelight, it was jolted by another major setback on the professional front.

In the fall of 2003, with the Women’s World Cup weeks away, Mia Hamm and the sport’s greatest generation were sidelined by the demise of the three-year-old Women’s United Soccer Association. On Monday, the day after the U.S. national team celebrated an Olympic berth by hammering Canada by four goals in the CONCACAF regional final in Vancouver, Women’s Professional Soccer announced it was suspending operations after three seasons.

Two strikes and you’re out? Perhaps.

League officials and investors say they will reorganize and hope to relaunch in 2013, but with each failure, the prospects of a top-tier women’s league succeeding in this country dims.

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WPS closed shop less than two months after the U.S. Soccer Federation granted it provisional sanctioning as a Division I pro league. The USSF agreed to it even though the league didn’t meet D-1 standards. The federation was inclined to reject the request, but in the best interests of women’s soccer, threw the league a lifeline. (Without sanctioning, a league doesn’t have access to game officials, among other issues, and imperils the standing of its players.)

So things seemed on course for a five-club league this summer and, under terms of the agreement with the USSF, a six-team circuit in 2013 and eight the following year.

But soon there were signs WPS might not even make it to opening day. The Insider reported last week that several U.S. national team players, including Hope Solo, were not going to play in the league this year. WPS believes it has plenty to offer fans beyond Solo, Abby Wambach and others, but realistically, the foundation of support isn’t strong enough in the league’s fragile development to thrive without marquee American players.

WPS was also hampered by legal action – and the subsequent financial strain – brought by Dan Borislow, the notorious MagicJack boss, who went to court after being booted from the league last season for violating terms of ownership.

“I’ve only been onboard for four months, and the bulk of my time has been spent on addressing a lot of these other negative issues regarding termination of MagicJack and the sanctioning issue with U.S. Soccer and resulting issues with sponsors and such,” WPS chief executive Jennifer O’Sullivan said during a media conference call Monday afternoon.

“It is unfortunate that the attention and focus that needed to be on the business, growing the business and developing the game and the sport just hasn’t been able to be there. Until this [MagicJack] situation is resolved, I don’t believe we can fully put our attention to it. It would’ve been unfair to put together a season while we would’ve still had this hanging over our heads.”

Even without the Borislow distraction, one has to wonder about the lasting power of women’s pro soccer. In the big picture, women’s soccer is still an “Olympic sport” – meaning it captures the attention of the general public every few years for major international competition (in this case, the Olympics and World Cup).

It’s the same for Olympic swimming and speed skating: The public cares very deeply and genuinely when national pride and gold medals are at stake but otherwise isn’t captivated. Wambach and Solo, meet Michael Phelps and Apolo Anton Ohno.

America celebrates her Olympians, and the absence of an affiliation with a pro team or league doesn’t diminish their accomplishments. Solo and Wambach are as popular (more popular?) in this country as Landon Donovan, who performed World Cup heroics and has won four domestic pro league titles in MLS. Clint Dempsey is American soccer’s most accomplished export, scoring goals regularly for Fulham in the English Premier League, but he only wishes he were as well-known here as overseas in order to secure an invitation to “Dancing With the Stars.” (No, not really. He’s couldn’t care less. But you get the point.)

On a daily-weekly-monthly basis, women’s soccer struggles to find an audience and sustain a business. To repeat, this is not a reflection upon the individual players, who are some of the most committed, caring and community-oriented athletes I’ve ever covered. It’s more a reflection of women’s soccer’s inability to bust out of the “Olympic sport” genre.

So what happens now? It’s unclear where the U.S. national team players will land this spring. Most are under contract with the USSF and could enter into long-term residency of sorts to gear up for the Olympics. Some could head to Europe. Some might play for Borislow’s barnstorming team in Florida. When asked if that were in the works, he told me: “I don’t want to speak for any of the players. Getting [t]hem happy and to the Olympics should be all of our goals.”

Said USSF President Sunil Gulati: “We have had discussions with the [U.S.] coaching staff and will be increasing our programming over the next six months.”

A gold medal would help the WPS’s cause in attracting new sponsors and investors for 2013 – or so the theory goes. After all, the buzz created by last year’s Women’s World Cup in Germany offered only short-term dividends.

So after watching franchises in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Chicago and the Bay Area fold within two years, the Washington Freedom move to Florida and MagicJack implode, it’s unclear whether Solo, Wambach and Co. will have the opportunity to perform in a top-level U.S. league ever again.

While that would be disappointing to aspiring players and American soccer in general, it reinforces the fact that pro sports are a business, not a cause. And if the business isn’t working, the cause will suffer.

View the original article here

Saturday, February 4, 2012

U.S. women’s soccer team crushes Dominican Republic, 14-0, in Olympic qualifier

We’ve got the video highlights from the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s record-setting 14-0 victory (the extra point attempts were good) over the Dominican Republic on Friday night in the Americans’ opener at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver.

The result was marred by an apparent serious knee injury to right back Ali Krieger, who was to undergo further testing Saturday. The initial diagnosis, I’m told, is a partially torn MCL but no major damage to the ACL. If that turns out to be true, she would be sidelined for weeks rather than the many months required for an ACL to heal.

The shot totals were 49-3. Unlike most sports, you can’t pull your starters off the field during a one-sided match: three substitutions, that’s it. The Americans will face another weak side, Guatemala, on Sunday evening before wrapping up group play Tuesday against a formidable Mexican team.

Top five goals from the match:

View the original article here

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Tianna Hawkins sets Maryland women’s basketball rebounding record in win vs. Wake Forest

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Tianna Hawkins sets Maryland women’s basketball rebounding record in win vs. Wake Forest

Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post - Wake Forest’s Mykala Walker does all she can to prevent Maryland’s Tianna Hawkins from gathering a rebound.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Gene Wang,

For a second straight game, the eighth-ranked Maryland women’s basketball team had to fend off a determined opponent, this time getting a record performance from junior forward Tianna Hawkins in an 86-58 victory over Wake Forest on Thursday night before 4,091 at Comcast Center.

Hawkins collected 24 rebounds to establish a school record and added a game-high 18 points, and Alyssa Thomas scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half. The sophomore forward also had 11 rebounds and seven assists to fall just short of her first triple-double. Three other Maryland players scored 11 points, including freshman point guard Brene Moseley, whose two three-pointers were a team-high.

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Hawkins’s record-setting rebound came on the offensive end with 32 seconds to play, capping a night in which the ACC’s leading rebounder also shot 8 for 15, made both her free throws and added one steal. In all, Maryland logged 24 offensive rebounds, its second most in a game this season.

Hawkins broke a record that stood since 1977, when Angie Scott and Debbie Jones each had 23 in separate games.

“Obviously you look pretty good when you’ve got rebounding machines like the two that we have here,” said Maryland Coach Brenda Frese, who sat between Hawkins and Thomas at the postgame news conference. “Just a special night to be able to see Tianna break the record. I’ve never seen anybody get 24 rebounds in a game.”

Three nights after outlasting Virginia, 68-61, Maryland (18-1, 5-1 ACC) limited Wake Forest to 21 points in the second half and held the Demon Deacons to 35 percent shooting overall. The Terrapins, meantime, outrebounded Wake Forest 56-38, owned a 40-20 margin in points in the paint and scored 18 more second-chance points.

The Terrapins’ front-line rotation of Hawkins, Thomas, sophomore center Alicia DeVaughn and senior center Lynetta Kizer combined for 46 rebounds, eight more than Wake Forest’s team total. Nine of those rebounds were offensive.

“That’s the best offensive rebounding team I’ve ever seen,” Wake Forest Coach Mike Peterson said.

The Terrapins couldn’t begin to breathe easy until an 8-0 run in the second half gave them a 58-47 lead with 13 minutes 16 seconds to play. Maryland followed that with a 19-2 flurry that secured its second win in row since its only loss and kept the Terrapins in a tie for second in the conference. It was Maryland’s 11th consecutive win over Wake Forest.

Maryland shot 55 percent in the second half, when it went to the free throw line 21 times and harassed Wake Forest into 1 for 10 from three-point range. The Demon Deacons had managed to remain competitive in the first half thanks to their three-point shooting, hitting 5 of 12.

Maryland had multiple opportunities to extend the lead to double figures in the first half, but Wake Forest stood its ground each time. The Terrapins opened a 22-13 advantage with 10:47 to play until intermission, and following a timeout, the Demon Deacons reeled off a pair of three-pointers to get back in it.

The Terrapins scored the next six points in a row to grow the lead to 28-19, but again, Wake Forest (11-7, 1-4) countered with 9-2 burst to draw within 30-28. The Demon Deacons then took the lead, 35-32, with 2:21 to play on consecutive field goals by Lakevia Boykin (13 points) before Maryland rallied to tie it at 37 during a first half in which Hawkins had 15 rebounds.

“I was just happy I was able to do something in a game to help my team out and to also go into history,” Hawkins said of her milestone. “So it means a lot to me.”

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