Year end rankings

1. Germany - World champions
2. Brazil - Ready to overtake Germany?
3. USA - New coach, new expectations

Naimo Returns as Wildcats Head Coach

The New Jersey Wildcats have re-signed head coach Charlie Naimo for the 2006 W-League season. The most successful coach in franchise history, Naimo will be seeking a repeat performance of the 2005 season when the Wildcats captured their first-ever W-League Championship.

American women are starting over

From their sublime pedestal atop the American soccer world after winning the World Cup in 1999, the women's national team believed that the sky was the limit and that the future of soccer in the United States was feminine.

Fab Five move on to other activities

Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett retired from soccer a year ago, breaking up the Fab Five. So what are they doing now?

Aside from promoting an upcoming HBO film about them, Foudy will be working for NBC Sports at the Turin Olympics, Fawcett is a soccer mom and Hamm is touting fitness to youngsters across America.
Brandi Chastain, infamous for her celebratory jersey twirl, spent last season as a MLS commentator. Kristine Lilly is the only active player among the Fab Five, and she'll suit up with the U.S. national team in China next month.

They all remain involved in soccer in some way, and are hopeful a new women's professional league is on the horizon. The eight-team Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) folded in 2003 after a three-year run.

Soccer Buzz 2005 National Honors

Soccer Buzz Magazine announced its tenth annual postseason awards today for the 2005 women's college season. In voting open to all Division 1 head coaches and Soccer Buzz staff, all 308 Division 1 programs were eligible for the awards that have been presented since 1996. Three College Cup teams collected the top three awards as NCAA Champion Portland produced the National Player of the Year in Christine Sinclair, Notre Dame's Kerri Hanks was voted National Freshman of the Year and Mark Krikorian of Florida State was named National Coach of the Year.

Kristine Lilly and Lori Chalupny awarded Female Athletes of 2005 awards

It is the second time for Lilly, she was given the award of U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year first in 1993.
Lori Chalupny was named as the U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of 2005

W-League 2006 schedule

United Soccer Leagues announced the W-League regular season schedule for 2006. The season begins with the Atlanta Silverbacks visiting the Carolina Dynamo Saturday, May 6.

The season really gets under way the following week with 11 games the following weekend, including matches featuring three of the four 2005 W-League semifinalists. On Saturday, May 13 the semifinalist Central Florida Krush play host to the Dynamo, the defending champion New Jersey Wildcats visit the Long Island Lady Riders and the 2004 champion Vancouver Whitecaps host the rival Seattle Sounders.

Wambach returns from Africa

Recently I traveled to Africa. Rwanda and Uganda, more specifically. I recommend to anyone who has ever thought about doing foreign aid work, or just wants to see this amazing continent, that you should go and do it.

Heinrichs returns to college coaching

April Heinrichs, one of the most prominent figures in the history of the United States women, was named coach at California-Irvine today.

Not many view women's sports as must-see TV

For years now, soccer player Brandi Chastain has been approached by wide-eyed little girls asking when her league is coming back, and former WUSA president Lynn Morgan has gotten heartbreaking letters.
After the women's professional soccer league ceased operations in 2003, Morgan got handwritten notes from little girls, begging her to bring back Mia Hamm and Briana Scurry. Some soccer teams even held bake sales for the WUSA.
In front of 90,185 fans in a packed Rose Bowl and a television audience 11.3 million strong, Chastain converted the winning penalty kick for Team USA in the 1999 Women's World Cup. Flush with triumph she pulled off her jersey, propelling women's sports onto the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines.

Iowa State Soccer Coach Will Face Disciplinary Action After OWI

Iowa State soccer coach Rebecca Hornbacher will face disciplinary action following her arrest Thursday for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, ISU athletics director Jamie Pollard said Friday. Hornbacher just completed her third season as the Cyclones' head coach.

Portland crushes UCLA, 4-0

Portland became the first team besides North Carolina to finish the NCAA Division I women's season undefeated when the Pilots crushed UCLA, 4-0, Sunday in the Women's College Cup final.