Hall of Fame and WPS News
Longtime national team players Jeff Agoos and Joy Fawcett have been elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Candidates needed to be named on 66.7 percent of the ballots submitted to make the cut: Agoos was at 67.9, Fawcett 66.7.
Preki was next at 60.4, Thomas Dooley at 53.5, Marco Etcheverry 49.1, Joe-Max Moore 42.1, Carlos Valderrama 37.1, Shannon MacMillan 32.1, Peter Vermes 31.4. Induction ceremonies will be Aug. 2 in Oneonta, N.Y.
Meantime, the Insider has learned that Women's Professional Soccer, the new USA league, will have a single table (it's just seven teams) and a unique playoff format. The first-place team at the end of the 20-game regular season will receive a bye directly to the championship game. The No. 4 seed will play at the No. 3 seed, with the winner facing the No. 2 seed. That survivor will go to the championship, which will be held in late August and hosted by the top seed. The WPS will hold its next draft Friday morning in St. Louis. With the first overall pick, Boston will claim Southern Cal star Amy Rodriguez.
By
Steve Goff
|
January 15, 2009; 9:19 PM ET
Categories:
U.S. men's national team
,
Women
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Posted by: timad26 | January 15, 2009 9:44 PM | Report abuse
The WPS is making sense with a single table format and Soda-Pop-Championship-like playoff. That alone should be enough to attract the soccer purists and Eurosnobs.
Nah.
Posted by: I-270Exit1 | January 15, 2009 10:24 PM | Report abuse
Maybe the MLS can take a que from the ladies!
Posted by: arswift24 | January 15, 2009 10:48 PM | Report abuse
They used to do something like this in bowling. Top 5 from the first round move on and get seeded for the second. 5 vs 4, winner vs 3, winner vs 2, winner vs 1. I think it would be a neat playoff format, if MLS split did it with each conference (I just think it might take too long).
Posted by: stancollins | January 15, 2009 11:31 PM | Report abuse
good call by Boston. Rodriguez is a...hmmm, for a mens player we would say "stud." I suppose we can do without the euphemism and just say Rodriguez is a great player.
I like the playoff format too. Winning the season should be rewarded. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I value DCU's Supporters Shields more than the MLS Cups.
I do wonder about WPS. Doesn't USL already have a women's league? Why didn't WPS organizers just put the money into increasing the status and pay of the USL womens teams rather than trying to create a new entity?
Posted by: troy6 | January 16, 2009 5:16 AM | Report abuse
Should we expect the Freedom to use this draft primarily to protect players who have been playing for them in the past few years, as they did in the earlier draft?
Posted by: universityandpark | January 16, 2009 9:53 AM | Report abuse
I do wonder about WPS. Doesn't USL already have a women's league? Why didn't WPS organizers just put the money into increasing the status and pay of the USL womens teams rather than trying to create a new entity?
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Probably for the same reason that MLS did not go this route when it got started. Rather, the league selected cities where there were willing investors and apparent interest in the new league among the general public, which bore no necessarly relation to where existing teams were located.
Posted by: universityandpark | January 16, 2009 10:05 AM | Report abuse
Is W-League a professional league?
Posted by: sitruc | January 16, 2009 10:11 AM | Report abuse
A long layoff could be a disadvantage for the best record team.
Posted by: sitruc | January 16, 2009 10:14 AM | Report abuse
Is W-League a professional league?
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Semipro, I think.
Posted by: universityandpark | January 16, 2009 10:38 AM | Report abuse
Playoff format is the same as Australia's A-League
Posted by: LAStory | January 16, 2009 10:50 AM | Report abuse
WPS champ game is Aug 22-23 weekend. WPS will play 20 game schedule, 10 home and away, primarily on weekends.
WPS is twittering, not sure if Goff is covering.
Posted by: OWNTF | January 16, 2009 10:54 AM | Report abuse
Can someone play devil's advocate and make a case for not voting for Earnie Stewart for the HOF, outside of outright stupidity?
3 world cups, former captain, all-time leading American scorer in Europe...
Posted by: IamAM | January 16, 2009 10:56 AM | Report abuse
Agoos; the giveaway at RFK against Jamaica still haunts me. Not to mention his fine play in South Korea. But, I guess he was around for a long time.
Dooley was way more important, as was Stewart. Weird voting.
Posted by: hacksaw | January 16, 2009 12:49 PM | Report abuse
Can someone play devil's advocate and make a case for not voting for Earnie Stewart for the HOF, outside of outright stupidity?
Posted by: IamAM | January 16, 2009 10:56 AM
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He has to wait until Robbie and Chip are elected. Oh wait, that's outright stupidity and a really old reference. Stewart should be in.
Posted by: I-270Exit1 | January 16, 2009 3:21 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
Interesting, its like the Page playoff system used by the Australian League only without the "Major Semi-Final"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_playoff_system