• For those of you trapped in a start of school blues-induced haze, head coach Gareth O’Sullivan has been fired by the Atlanta Beat organization. James Galanis will serve as interim manager.

• Atlanta’s remaining fixtures are pretty unkind. They meet the New Britain Breakers this weekend then will face FCGP, the Boston Breakers, SBFC and the Washington Freedom.

• Amy Rodriguez has been selected as WPS’ Player of the Week for the third time this season.. A-Rod scored the first goal and assisted in the tying and winning goals in PHIINDY’s comeback win over the Beat this past weekend. A-Rod is now second in goals for this season and third in assists.

• Two playoffs berths are up for grabs this weekend. Philadelphia will qualify for the postseason if Washington lose or draw tomorrow. Boston will complete the first stage of their dream run with a tie between Chicago and Washington tomorrow and a win on Saturday.

• No word on when Washington will clinch fourth place, however.

• The Philadelphia Independence has officially scored more regular season goals than any team in WPS history. The Washington Freedom scored 32 goals in 20 games while PHIINDY has scored 35 goals in 20 games. They still have four games to play.

• Watch three of those goals here:

• And FC Gold Pride/Freedom:

• Here’s video of Duisburg tonking of Bayer Leverkusen. You would think that video of a match that ended 9-0 would have a few goals in it. But no such luck.

• If you really want to see some Frauenbundesliga goals, check out the link for highlights of the Frankfurt/Wolfsburg game. You can also re-watch the entire match. http://tv.dfb.de/index.php?s=1&c;=29&p;=1

• ESPN’s Graham Hays explains why Boston College are legitimate contenders for the College Cup this year.

• Striker Lianne Sanderson has retired from the English National Team at the age of 22 after a dispute with Hope Powell. The Guardian has all the details.

• Sanderson may not be included in England’s squad for the team’s final WWC qualifying game against Austria but Kelly Smith and Karen Carney are. The WPS-based duo have been recalled after missing England’s decisive qualifying match against Turkey a few weeks ago.

• The squad is as follows – GK: Brown, Chamberlain. D: Bassett, Bradley, Houghton (any relation to Chris?), Johnson, Rafferty, Scott, Stoney, Susi, Unitt, White. M: Carney, Chapman, Clarke, Scott, E. Smith, Yankey, Williams. F: K. Smith, Aluko, White

• England have already qualified for the World Cup play-offs, along with Italy. However, the six remaining play-off teams will be determined over the next week as the first leg of UEFA WWC qualifying will come to a close. This will be explained in detail on Friday but here are the basics:
• Group 1 – France only need a point against Iceland on Saturday to win the group. Les Bleues have won eight straight games and have scored 42 unanswered goals (!!!!!!!) so that shouldn’t be an issue. Sorry, Ms. Magnusdottir.

• Group 2- Norway need just one point from two matches so they’re through. Sorry, Ms. Koster.

• Group 3 – Denmark also need just one point to qualify. However, if Denmark lose its final match and Scotland grabs six points from its remaining two games, Scotland will advance.

• Group 4 – In the most contentious of all the groups, Poland will hope Ukraine lose to Romania on Saturday. But if Ukraine does indeed win, the winner will be determined when Poland/Ukraine meet next week.

• Group 5 – England.

• Group 6 – Switzerland are on the verge of qualifying over Ireland and Russia. They will confirm their place in the play-offs with a win against Kazakhstan this weekend.

• Group 7 – Italy.

• Group 8 – Sweden will go through unless they proceed to lose to both the Czech Republic and Wales and the Czech Republic can beat Sweden and Azerbaijan. Sweden’s going through. In other words, Sweden will be going through.

• More on this in a bit but the draw for the Knockout Phase of the Women’s UEFA Champions League will take place tomorrow.

• These are the teams that have advanced through the qualifying stages: Denmark’s Brondby, England’s Everton, Cyprus’ Apollon Limassol, France’s Jusivy, Italy’s Bardolino, Russia’s Rossiyanka and Germany’s Duisburg. The two best runners-up also qualified. This includes Iceland’s Breioablik and Slovenia’s Krka.

• Happy belated birthday to Leigh Ann Robinson who turned 24 yesterday.

View Original Post at allwhitekit.wordpress.com

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