2011 Women's Professional Soccer season

The 2011 Women's Professional Soccer season is the third season for the WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The season started with the opening match on April 9, with the 2011 WPS Championship scheduled for the weekend of August 27–28.^[2]

Changes from the 2010 Season

• Defending champions FC Gold Pride will not return for the 2011 season.^[3]
• Also not returning for the 2011 season are Chicago Red Stars, which were given a month's deadline to find investors after the original announcement of the teams, but failed to achieve so.^[4] The Red Stars will spend 2011 regrouping in the WPSL.^[5]
• New to the league are the Western New York Flash, who are playing in Rochester, New York.
• Due to a change in ownership, the Washington Freedom were renamed "magicJack", and also moved from the Washington area to Boca Raton in South Florida.

Competition Format/Schedule

• The regular season will begin on April 9 and end on August 14, with most teams playing few games during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. The playoffs will be held during the last two weeks of August and end with the WPS Championship presented by Citi on either August 27 or 28.
• Each team will play a total of eighteen games, two at home and two away against every other team minus one home game for one opponent and one away game for a different opponent.
• The playoff format was identical to that of the 2010 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.

Standings

Classification rules: 1) points, 2) goal difference, 3) head to head result. Source: soccerway

• (P) = WPS Premiership (best regular season record); (A) = Advances to 2011 Women's Professional Soccer Playoffs
• ¹ - magicJack were deducted a point for various league violations.^[6]

Playoffs

Awards

Player of the Week

Week	Player of the Week	Club	Week's Statline
Week 1	Allie Long	Sky Blue FC	NJ 2-2 PHI
Week 2	Allison Lipsher	Atlanta Beat	11 SVS, SHO
Week 3	Allison Lipsher	Atlanta Beat	10 SVS
Week 4	Christine Sinclair	Western New York Flash	2 G, GWG
Week 5	Marta	Western New York Flash	2 A, 1 G, GWA
Week 6	McCall Zerboni	Western New York Flash	1 A, 2 G, GWG
Week 7	Caroline Seger	Western New York Flash	2 G
Week 8	Abby Wambach	magicJack	3 G, GWG
Week 9	Meghan Klingenberg	Boston Breakers	1 A, 1 G, GWG
Week 10	Alyssa Naeher	Boston Breakers	6 SVS, SHO
Week 11	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	3 A, 1 G
Week 12	Casey Nogueira	Sky Blue FC	1 G, GWG
Week 13	Natasha Kai	Philadelphia Independence	3 G
			1 G
Week 14	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	1 G
Week 15	Christine Sinclair	Western New York Flash	1 A, 2 G, GWG
			BOS 2-2 WNY
Week 16	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	1 G, GWG
			1 G, GWG
Week 17	Abby Wambach	magicJack	2 G
			2 G, GWG
Week 18	Lauren Cheney	Boston Breakers	2 G, GWG

Player of the Month

Month	Player of the Month	Club	Month's Statline
May	McCall Zerboni	Western New York Flash	2 G, 2 A in 5 games; Flash 5-0 in May
June
July

WPS Year End Awards

Award	Player	Club	Notes
Michelle Akers Player of the Year	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	Also earned league’s top honor as MVP
WPS Defender of the Year	Whitney Engen	Western New York Flash	Started and played the full 90 in all but one game
US Coast Guard Goalkeeper of the Year	Ashlyn Harris	Western New York Flash	Led the league in regular season goals per game average (1.00)
US Soccer Federation Rookie of the Year	Christen Press	magicJack	First-ever hat trick scored by a rookie on July 30, 2011
WPS Coach of the Year	Paul Riley	Philadelphia Independence	Led his team to a seven-game unbeaten streak and playoff final
Citi Sportswoman of the Year	Nikki Krzysik	Philadelphia Independence	Team captain selected by her peers for exemplary leadership
PUMA Golden Boot (Top Scorer)	Marta	Western New York Flash	Scored ten goals, earning her third consecutive award

Source: 2011 WPS Year End Awards^[7]

2011 WPS Best XI

* – unanimous selection
Source: WPS Announces Best XI of 2011

Statistics

Scoring

• First Goal of the season: Jordan Angeli for Boston Breakers against Atlanta Beat, 18th minute (9 April)
• Earliest Goal in a match: 14 seconds by Lauren Cheney for Boston Breakers against Sky Blue FC (14 August) ^[8]
• Widest Winning Margin: 6 goals
  • Philadelphia Independence 6-0 magicJack (18 June)
• Most Goals Scored in a Match: 7
  • Philadelphia Independence 4-3 Sky Blue FC (6 July)
• Fewest Scoreless Games: 1 - Western New York Flash
• Most Scoreless Games: 13 - Atlanta Beat
• Average Goals per Match: 2.778

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Minutes
Wambach, AbbyAbby Wambach	magicJack	Atlanta	4–0	000000002011-05-28-000028 May 2011	9', 67', 89'
Kai, NatashaNatasha Kai	Philadelphia	Sky Blue	4–3	000000002011-07-06-00006 July 2011	3', 38', 58'
Press, ChristenChristen Press	magicJack	Boston	4–0	000000002011-07-30-000030 July 2011	36', 76', 83'

• ⁴ Player scored 4 goals
• ⁵ Player scored 5 goals

Discipline

• First Yellow Card: Katherine Reynolds for Atlanta Beat against Boston Breakers (9 April)
• First Red Card: Allison Whitworth for Atlanta Beat against Boston Breakers (9 April)
• Most Yellow Cards: 4
  • Carli Lloyd (Atlanta Beat)

Streaks

• Longest Winning Streak: 6 games
  • Philadelphia Independence Games 8-13
• Longest Unbeaten Streak: 8 games
  • Western New York Flash Games 1-8
  • Western New York Flash Games 11-18
• Longest Winless Streak: 16 games
  • Atlanta Beat Games 3-18
• Longest Losing Streak: 5 games
  • Atlanta Beat Games 4-8
• Longest Shutouts:
  • Individual: 325 minutes by Valerie Henderson for Philadelphia Independence
  • Team:: 392 minutes for Philadelphia Independence
• Longest Drought: 757 minutes for Atlanta Beat

Home Team Record

(Regular season only)

• 30 wins, 14 losses, 10 ties - 1.852 PPG
• 92 goals for, 58 against - +34 GD

References

External links

• Official Site
• women.soccerway.com; standings, results, fixtures, topscorers