WPS: Saint Louis Athletica Shutting Down

Free Kicks blog @ STL Today

Official WPS statement

Goal.com

Fake Sigi investigates the Vaid brothers (I highly recommend, because it reads like True Crime.)

WPS says it thought Jeff Cooper was sole owner of Athletica

Athletica’s game this weekend versus Atlanta is all systems go. After that, it will likely be the end. Atlanta will not be playing a game this weekend, as there will not be a team to play against play the Tampa Bay Hellenic of the W-League this weekend.

WPS: Rumors Sell Like Peanuts, Popcorn, Cracker Jack

Pop Quiz!

Which is more likely?

Rumor #1: Jorge Barcellos has taken the Chicago Red Stars job.

Rumor #2: In order to stay afloat, Athletica will be playing all road games.

Rumor #3: The league will make an announcement about this tomorrow.

I think #3 is well out of the realm of possibility…

WPS: Hanging Out With Entitled Whores

So what most people are worried about this week in Women’s Professional Soccer Land:

1. The Chicago Red Stars needs a new coach. Emma Hayes was booted just now. I mean literally just now, because there wasn’t a peep about it to the unwashed masses over the weekend. If I didn’t love the Fighting Irish so much, I would encourage Marcia McDermott to hire someone to kidnap Randy Waldrum and make him the head coach of the Red Stars until Jack Bauer comes to the rescue.
2. Saint Louis Athletica might fold. I don’t care for Saint Louis as a team, and clearly their organization/ownership was generally shoddy, but it’s no good for the league at all no matter how much I wish it weren’t so. Already people are spreading rumors that a third WPS club is in trouble. If Ms. Marta is to blame, someone may have to storm the WPS headquarters in San Francisco and take hostages until we get sensible people into the business, or until Jack Bauer comes to the rescue again.
3. I suggest to the big whiners to carry out the strategy I outlined in #2. If they want answers that badly, then get them. Throwing snits in front of other people who have no say in the matter doesn’t help anything.
4. P.S. I don’t actually watch 24.

Úrvalsdeild, WPS: Disappearing Acts and Disappointments

I checked the Soccerway rosters after Stjarnan’s first game against Afturelding, and there was no sign of Hanks, although McCoy does appear (with an Iceland flag next to her name, what the hell).

The search for the two-time Hermann Trophy winner goes on.

On the WPS front, here are Five Things We Learned From Atlanta Beat vs. Washington Freedom Part II:

1. Allison Whitworth would’ve saved that. And that.
2. Forget the 19-year-old (although she has major skills); McCall Zerboni is Atlanta’s MVP. Once she bloodied up Bompastor and got concussed while doing so, Atlanta’s offense — compared to last weekend versus Sky Poo — was a shambles. No offense to Mundy or Rasmussen.
3. Jim Gabarra has secretly hired a Chinese coach to improve his players’ diving techniques. Wambach has benefitted.
4. Only very drastic measures will get Rogondino and Hildreth to shut up. Unfortunately these measures cannot be mentioned in polite company.
5. Stacy Bishop has the best sideways glare. Like a hawk.

Úrvalsdeild: Are You There, Hanks? It’s Us, Your Fans

If we look back at the WPS transactions page, we see that the player who was cut from Atlanta Beat’s preseason roster at the same time as Kerri Hanks was former Sacramento State Hornet Katie McCoy, who is Sac State’s all-time leader in assists.

Sac State had a news release stating that McCoy signed with Stjarnan F.C., the same Icelandic club that Kerri Hanks was possibly going to join. It is probably safe to assume that Hanks and McCoy, having both been released by Atlanta at the same time, probably traveled to Europe together with the same intent. Whether they both signed with Stjarnan is still unconfirmed, as there is obviously no mention of Hanks in the Sac State article. The news release is dated April 14, so if Hanks signed with Stjarnan, she would have signed at or around the same time as McCoy had.

Basically, the article is circumstantial evidence that Hanks may very well still be in Iceland.

Soccerway.com’s women’s football fixtures (the interface reminds me of a betting site) note that Stjarnan F.C. — also known as UMF Stjarnan — begins its season on May 13, 2010, against Afturelding.

UMF Stjarnan appears to be what we call an Athletic Club — that is, other professional sports aside from soccer are played under their name (e.g., handball). This site is their senior women’s soccer team’s section, the one we expect Hanks and McCoy to be on, but it has not been updated since November 2009.

The rosters on Soccerway are not updated either (their WPS rosters are higgledy-piggledy, with 2009 and 2010 rosters mish-mashed together), but I am hoping that will change after the 13th, when the Úrvalsdeild begins play. You can bet that I will be taking more than a passing glance at what goes on in the Stjörnuvöllur, should it be Hanks’ home stadium for the summer. That’s the way it goes.

P.S. The city where Stjarnan F.C. is based in is Garðabær, Iceland — the only city in Iceland that has an IKEA. Yay!

USA Women’s National Team: What The Hell Was That

This commercial doesn’t make any sense. Pretty much like Hope.

WPS: Let’s (Not) Play WPS Fantasy, Week 5

Nothing to say about WPS Fantasy. Didn’t change my team from last week.

Am pleased that FC Gold Pride won their Saturday game. And let me just say that Emma Hayes is an enigma. She might be crazier than Gabarra!

In the upcoming weeks I hope to address the Problem Of The Big Trade that I had earlier made allusion to. Although the trade was accomplished to the letter, various commentators in the WPS circle implied that Saint Louis was playing fast and loose with bargaining chips that they may not have actually owned. Another reason to hate Saint Louis!

By the way, I just watched the FSC broadcast, Atlanta vs. Sky Poo UNC. I feel terrible for Atlanta, although it just figures that Leigh Ann Robinson would be the goat. The “FC Gold Pride Curse” has not left her. (Also, I refuse to acknowledge that Brett Maron is in any way better than Allison Whitworth, even if she actually is. I SAY SHE IS NOT AND THAT IS THAT.)

WPS: The League Office Throws A Snit

Or it least it sounded like a snit.

Statement: Today’s trade between Saint Louis Athletica and Sky Blue FC has not yet been approved by the league office…

This is in response to St. Louis local media reporting the waiving of Daniela by Saint Louis Athletica, the exchange of India Trotter and a future draft pick to Sky Blue FC, and Athletica receiving Anita Asante and the injured Nikki Washington in return, as you may read in detail here. To little old me, the reaction it sounds like the league office got its panties in a wad, reminding the league’s dear devoted fans that “it ain’t a trade until we approve it.”

So, dear league office — be upfront. You released those (rather huffy-sounding) tweets in order to protect yourself from the outraged Daniela fangirls. Am I right?