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 ...

season was the second season for the WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. Regular season champion FC Gold Pride won the WPS Championship on September 26 with a 4–0 victory over the

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played ...

Changes from the 2009 season

*Two franchises, based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, 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 association football, 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 Anschutz E ...

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

Anschutz Entertainment Group Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (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 ...

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 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 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 Saint Louis Athletica before they folded still counted toward a team's point total. 2010 schedule
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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 for

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's 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 defu ...

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

against

Sky Blue FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 un ...

(June 6) *Latest Goal in a Match: 90th minute ** Christie Welsh for Washington Freedom against Atlanta Beat (April 18) *Widest Winning Margin: 5 Goals ** Atlanta Beat 1-6 FC Gold Pride (August 28) *Most Goals Scored in a Match: 7 Goals ** Atlanta Beat 1-6 FC Gold Pride (August 28) *First Hat-Trick: *Fastest Hat-Trick: *First Own Goal: Allison Falk of

for Saint Louis Athletica (8 May) *Average Goals per Match: 2.45

Discipline

*First Yellow Card: Fabiana for

against Washington Freedom, 44th minute (April 10) *First Red Card: Jen Buczkowski for

against

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

1-1

- 3 for Philadelphia ( Caroline Seger, 2x Jen Buczkowski) (April 18) *Most Red Cards in a Match:

Related competitions

All-Star Game

WPS All-Star

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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 in

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 i ...

, home to the Atlanta Beat;. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

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 21st Century Fox, which operated from 1997 to 2013. It formerly broadcast rugby and Australia ...

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 Mary Abigail Wambach (born June 2, 1980) is an American retired Association football, soccer player, coach, and member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. A six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, Wambach was a regular on ...

, 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