WPS Debuts, Marta Shines, AP Report Doesn’t

By: Daryl | March 30th, 2009

Women’s Professional Soccer kicked off in the US yesterday. A better than expected crowd of 14,832 turned up at the Home Depot Center to see Los Angeles Sol beat the Washington Freedom (can’t decide if I like those team names yet) 2-0.

The big draw was Brazilian maestro Marta, pictured above signing autographs for the “Marta Maniacs”. And she did the business on the pitch too. You can catch a glimpse of her selling a stepover, accelerating away and playing teammate Camille Abily through to score Sol’s second goal in the video below:

Seems to me that Marta is exactly the player WPS needs. She’s easily the most recognizable name in women’s soccer – like David Beckham in a way. But unlike Beckham she’s also extremely exciting to watch when she has the ball, because she attacks at pace and with a bag of tricks.

I’d even argue that MLS would do well to ditch the policy of signing aging male superstars to fat DP contracts, and offer Marta a contract instead. I doubt MLS defences would give her too much trouble to be honest. But that’s an argument for another day.

As you may already know, Melissa is following the league for us on WPS Offside, but we’re still looking for team bloggers. So if you’re a fan of Mart and the LA Sol, and would like to follow the team with an Offside blog, then email daryl[at]theoffside.com and we’ll see if we can set you up.

Two other interesting things from the WPS opener. The Sol had GM Charlie Naimo and sub Aly Wagner Twittering from the bench while the game was on. Nothing particularly fascinating in their Tweets, but a nice idea anyway. File it under harmless fun/good PR.

Bit of a tangent here, but not so harmless was the Associated Press report on this game (published here in the New York Times). Not sure who the AP sent to cover this story, but my guess is that they’re new to soccer.

For the record, I have no real problem with American soccer terminology. Just because words are different, doesn’t mean they’re wrong. So I can happily live with a game being tied instead of drawn, players wearing cleats instead of boots, and teams playing offense instead of attacking. Because at least those words and phrases make sense.

But these words don’t:

“Marta was aggressive from the start, diving and dodging for open gaps.”

Diving for open gaps? Then she should have been booked for simulation.

“She did not score a goal — she assisted on Abily’s goal in the 87th minute — but she gave the Sol opportunities when she drew fouls in the box.”

So… she was fouled in the box multiple times? How many penalties did the Sol miss in this game?

It’s great that the AP covered WPS, because a fledgling league needs all the attention it can get. But maybe next time they could send someone who’s seen at least one football match.