Need your help: StoweStrong by Pat Mcstay

The Virginia soccer community was hit hard a few weeks ago when William and Mary graduate and FC Richmond youth soccer coached was diagnosed with Germinoma, a type of germ cell tumor typically resulting from a failure of germ cells to migrate properly in the body. He is currently at VCU Medical Center undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

He was a fantastic player for the tribe, an up and coming coaching with FC Richmond, but more importantly, he is a great person. Abby Wambach and Hope Solo even sent a shoutout to #stowestrong via Twitter. Abby Wambach went so far as to tweet, “the next goal is for you!”

His family needs your help. Go onto Facebook and like their page for more updates at #stowestrong. You can also go to www.stowestrong.com to donate and email stowestrong@gmail.com to order a t-shirt to help support their family and rising medical costs for this unforeseen illness.

100% of the proceeds for the shirts will go to the Stowe family.

Today is the day you help save WPS!

For 3 years Womens Professional Soccer has been showcasing the best female soccer players under one roof here in the US. For young girls across the country, this league not only provided great role models to follow but also provided a dream. A dream to someday become a professional soccer player and follow the footsteps of Abby Wambach, Hope Solo or Alex Morgan to name a few. Today, this dream may be crushed as WPS finds itself in crisis. U.S soccer requires all professional leagues to have a minimum of 8 teams in the league. Last year, WPS applied for a waiver from U.S Soccer to retain its status as a Division 1 professional league playing only with 6 teams. U.S Soccer agreed. This year, WPS has again applied for a waiver but only has 5 teams in the league, (Atlanta Beat, Boston Breakers, Sky Blue FC, Philadelphia Independence and the 2011 Champion: Western NY Flash. The final decision from U.S Soccer is set to be revieled this Tuesday December 6th. If you are wondering what happened with the 6th team: Magicjack, The league decided to terminate the team due to turmoil with its owner Dan Borislow. Now, the league is fighting for its survival and all we can do is wait for U.S Soccer to determine whether the waiver has been granted.

Alex Sahlen, Western NY Flash club’s president started a petition to present to U.S Soccer. Last Monday it had 3,000 signatures, now it has over 40,000 thousand signatures, from WPS players, Pro Soccer players around the world to little girls holding on to their dream. With your help, we can make this dream come true for the next generation of female professional soccer players. Today is the day you stand up for women soccer and let the world know, women professional soccer is here to stay for good. Today is the day you put women soccer players on a pedestal and give them the recognition they deserve. Today is the day you help save WPS!
Please sign petition http://www.change.org/petitions/support-womens-professional-soccer-wps-remaining-a-sanctioned-league



WPS blog written by Ana Raya

Japan Wins Shootout

By Bagga Wilks

The Women’s Soccer Team captured the imagination of a nation as they miraculously defeated the Brazilians in melodramatic fashion. What appears to be a team of destiny swamped the French 3-1 in the semi-final and was poised for victory in the final against Japan.

The melodrama ended in tragedy as in another shoot-out against the Japanese, the American soccer players initiated the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Going into shoot-outs, one was assured that the United States had the best goal-keeper of Women’s soccer in the world. But those selected to convert the penalty kicks, failed to convert. Much credit must be given to the Japanese goal-keeper whose saves made the Japanese Team for World Cup 2011, the team of destiny.


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