The 2010

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

season was the second season for the WPS, the top level professional

women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national ...

league in the United States. Regular season champion

FC Gold Pride FC Gold Pride was an American professional soccer club based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The club replaced the San Jose CyberRays of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association as the top-le ...

won the WPS Championship on September 26 with a 4-0 victory over the Philadelphia Independence.

Changes from the 2009 season

*Two franchises, based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, joined the league. * A potential Dallas franchise is pending upon finding a site at which to play, and WPS is constantly considering other expansion possibilities as well, such as Seattle. *The

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Blue Star, LLC and AEG, a subsidia ...

did not return, as that franchise was terminated January 28, 2010 after

Anschutz Entertainment Group The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), also known as AEG Worldwide, is an American global sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports even ...

returned their franchise rights and a buyer was not found. *The number of games in the regular season increased from 20 to 24. *On May 27, financial problems caused the

Saint Louis Athletica Saint Louis Athletica was an American professional soccer club that was based in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. Athletica started the 2009 season playing its home games at Ralph Korte S ...

to fold. Players became free agents on June 1.

Competition format and schedule

*The regular season began on April 10 and ended on September 12 with a bye week on May 22 (the date the

USWNT The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles (1991, 1999, 2015, a ...

hosted Germany's WNT in a friendly); the playoffs began on September 19 and ended on September 26. *Each team played a total of 24 games, evenly divided between home and away games. Under the following format, each team played three other teams four times each, two at home and two away, and the remaining four teams three times each, two at home and one away or one at home and two away. *The playoff format was identical to that of the 2009 season. The four teams with the most points from the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The third- and fourth-placed regular season finishers played each other in the single-match First Round, with the winner traveling to face the second-placed regular season finisher in the Super Semifinal midweek. The Super Semifinal winner then traveled to face the first-placed regular season finisher in the WPS Championship. *Games played against the

before they folded still counted toward a team's point total. 2010 schedule
/small>

Standings

Attendance

Average home attendances

Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.

Playoffs

WPS Championship

Leaders

Scoring

Fouls

Goalkeeping

''Minimum 60 minutes played per game average''

Awards

Player of the Week

Player of the Month

End-of-year awards

WPS announced its end-of-year awards on September 16.

Statistics

Scoring

*First Goal of the Season:

Lauren Cheney Lauren may be a given name or surname.The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurentius. ...

for

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

against

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

, 7th minute (April 10) *Earliest Goal in a Match: 2nd minute ** Lori Lindsey for Philadelphia Independence against

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

(June 6) *Latest Goal in a Match: 90th minute **

Christie Welsh Christie Renee Welsh (born February 27, 1981) is an American former soccer player who played as a forward. She previously played for the New York Power of Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) as well as the Los Angeles Sol, Saint Louis ...

for

against Atlanta Beat (April 18) *Widest Winning Margin: 5 Goals ** Atlanta Beat 1-6

(August 28) *Most Goals Scored in a Match: 7 Goals ** Atlanta Beat 1-6

(August 28) *First Hat-Trick: *Fastest Hat-Trick: *First Own Goal:

Allison Falk Allison Jane Falk (born March 31, 1987) is a former American professional soccer defender. She previously played for the Los Angeles Sol and Philadelphia Independence of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). She was a WPS All-Star in 2010. Earl ...

of Philadelphia Independence for

(8 May) *Average Goals per Match: 2.45

Discipline

*First Yellow Card: Fabiana for

against

, 44th minute (April 10) *First Red Card:

Jen Buczkowski Jennifer Rose Buczkowski (born April 4, 1985) is an American former soccer midfielder. She played for FC Kansas City in the NWSL. She previously played for the Philadelphia Independence and New Jersey Sky Blue of Women's Professional Soccer. E ...

for Philadelphia Independence against

, 86th minute (April 18) *Most Yellow Cards in a Match: 3 **

1-1 Philadelphia Independence - 3 for Philadelphia (

Caroline Seger Sara Caroline Seger (born 19 March 1985) is a Swedish footballer who plays as a midfielder and club captain for FC Rosengård in the Damallsvenskan league. She is the current captain of the Swedish national football team. Club career Linköp ...

, 2x

) (April 18) *Most Red Cards in a Match:

Related competitions

All-Star Game

WPS All-Star 2010 took place on June 30, a midseason date as opposed to the previous year's postseason All-Star game. It was played at the new

Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium Fifth Third Bank Stadium, known as Kennesaw State University Stadium until 2013, is a stadium near Kennesaw, Georgia, that is primarily used as the home for the Kennesaw State Owls football team as well as the KSU women's soccer and women's lacr ...

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

, home to the Atlanta Beat;. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

once again presented the game, which aired on

Fox Soccer Channel Fox Soccer (formerly Fox Soccer Channel & Fox Sports World before that) was an American television specialty channel specializing in soccer, owned by Fox Corporation, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australian r ...

again as well. The all-star selection process was the same as in the previous year, although twice as many players were selected. The top US vote-getter, Abby Wambach, and the top international vote-getter, Marta, then chose between the remaining 20 voted-on players to create their teams, with the 14 at-large selections being distributed by the league. Marta's XI defeated Abby's XI 5–2.

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Professional Soccer Season 2010 2010 1