News of Note: USWNT defeated China 4:1 in its Final Fan Tribute Series match of 2012… USWNT versus Scotland in Jacksonville on February 9th… The name of the new women’s professional soccer league is the “National Women’s Soccer League,” or “NWSL”… Player allocation for new league planned for late December... Sarah Hagen scores four goals in German Cup quarterfinal… Mexico falters, Brazil rebounds.
USWNT defeated China 4:1 in its Final Fan Tribute Series match of 2012: On Saturday. the USA finished their year with a 4:1 victory over China. Abby Wambach had her second-straight brace, extending her international goals tally to 152, just 6 behind Mia Hamm’s record of 158 goals. Other USA scorers on Saturday were Megan Rapinoe and Sydney Leroux. See also: U.S. Soccer match report, U.S. Soccer highlights, U.S. Soccer post-game reaction video.
USWNT versus Scotland in Jacksonville on February 9th: After rumors of the matches leaked out earlier this month, U.S. Soccer confirmed that the USWNT will play Scotland in at least one match — On Saturday, February 9, 2013, at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, with kick-off at 5:00 p.m. ET. The USSoccer.com news item specifically noted that “broadcast information will be released at a later date.” This will be the first official match for the USWNT under new head coach Tom Sermanni and will be part of the USA’s first camp of 2013. General ticket sales for the match begin December 21st.
The name of the new women’s professional soccer league is… The “National Women’s Soccer League,” or “NWSL.” See this post from earlier on Sunday for more information, including a sample of the new logo. Additionally, Bill Predmore’s POP Agency has been confirmed as the designer of the new league’s logo (Twitter).
Player allocation for new league planned for late December: Thad Bell, writing for Examiner.com, posted an article on Saturday which detailed the allocation process for the national team players from the NWSL’s three sponsoring federations: U.S. Soccer, Canada Soccer, and Mexico’s soccer association (FMF).Those three federations are expected to finalize their lists of subsidized players by the end of next week (e.g., December 21st). After that, the selected players and clubs will have about a week to submit their preferences to the league. The league plans to do the actual allocating in the final few days of the year. “The target date to announce the players is ‘right before New Years,'” which falls on a Tuesday.
Sarah Hagen scores four goals in German Cup quarterfinal: On Saturday, American Sarah Hagen netted four goals as her club team Bayern Munich defeated second division 1899 Hoffenheim 5:1 in the quarterfinals of the Women’s German Cup (DFB-Pokal der Frauen). (DFB box score, in German) Highlights, plus post-match interviews with BM players, including Hagen (in English), can be watched on the club’s website. Those 4 goals raised Hagen’s rookie year tally to 23 goals in all competitions (Bayern Munich statistics page for Hagen, in German).
Mexico falters, Brazil rebounds: Sunday, the final round-robin match day of the City of Sao Paulo International Tournament, saw Brazil defeat Denmark 2:1 off goals by Erika (7′) and Debora (89′), while #24 Mexico, fresh off its historic 2:1 victory over Brazil, fell 1:0 to #46 Portugal. In the Brazil match, FIFA Women’s Player of the Year finalist Marta had to leave the match in the first half due to a muscle strain. The tournament concludes on Wednesday with the placement matches which will see rematches of both Sunday’s matches as Brazil and Denmark finished as the top two teams, while Portugal and Mexico finished third and fourth, respectively. See also: Terra.com.br write-up on the Brazil/Denmark match (in Portuguese), FMF write-up on Mexico/Portugal match (in Spanish).
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