• The latest WPS player transactions include Tasha Kai, Leigh Ann Robinson and Kia McNeill to Philadelphia, Cat Whitehill to Atlanta and Yael Averbuch to Western New York.

• All Western New York needs now is a decent winger or two. Once that’s been taken care of it’s a toss-up between the Flash and Sky Blue FC as to which WPS club has amassed the strongest squad ahead of 2011.

• Abby Wambach has been named U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year for the fourth straight time. U-20 goalkeeper Bianca Henninger claimed the Young Female Award.

• Pia Sundhage will select 15 of the 26 players called into a January training camp for the Four Nations tournament in January. New faces include Whitney Engen, Jordan Angeli, Meghan Klingenberg and Kristie Mewis. It’s well and good that new players are getting a run out but one has to wonder whether a tournament that will feature competition of the caliber of Canada, Sweden and China is the right place to experiment. Additionally, Morgan and Klingenberg are the only two players eligible to be drafted on January 14. It will be interesting to see if they make it out to Baltimore the day after camp concludes. And as Chris Henderson mentioned earlier, it’s funny how eight veterans were given an extended break but Kristine Lilly is not one of them. And she’s probably just fine with that.

• Notre Dame senior Melissa Henderson won the Honda Sports Award. The honor was determined by ballots sent in from 1,000 NCAA member schools.

• Moncton is among the Canadian cities hoping to become a host venue for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. We should know exactly how many cities are serious about bidding come December 24 when each city is to make a $25,000 non-refundable deposit to Canada Soccer and thereby FIFA. There’s a lot more information about prospective bidding cities in this article.

• Birmingham City has released its roster ahead of the new FA WSL and former Chicago Red Star Karen Carney looks to be among the players included.

• Bad weather disrupted Frauen-Bundesliga fixtures for the third week running. The league is set to take its annual winter break and will resume on February 6th. Turbine Potsdam holds a slim one point lead over Frankfurt but the challengers have a game in hand. Meanwhile, Herford are relegated and Jena are also in the drop-zone but Saarbrücken, Essen-Schönebeck and Bayer Leverkusen are all less than 3 points from joining them.

• Fixtures in France’s Feminine Division have also been ravaged by the winter weather. Olympique Lyonnais have not yet dropped a point and are six points clear of both Juvisy and Montpellier. Play resumes January 9th.

• As for the supposed new content for this week – well, I either lied or neglected to remember that’s it’s Christmas season. This being the case, new stuff including year-end reviews of the Canada WNT, the Frauen-Bundesliga and other happenings are due out next week. In the meantime, thanks for the continued support and readership. Have a wonderful, happy and fulfilling holiday.

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