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]

Women's Professional Soccer

Season	2011
Champions	Western New York Flash
Matches played	54
Goals scored	150 (2.78 per match)
Top goalscorer	Marta, WNY; Christine Sinclair, WNY (10) [1]
Biggest home win	PHI 6-0 mJ
Biggest away win	ATL 1-4 BOS NJ 1-4 WNY
Highest scoring	PHI 4-3 NJ
Highest attendance	15,404 WNY vs. mJ (July 20)
Lowest attendance	864 mJ vs. ATL (May 29)
Average attendance	3,518
← 2010

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.

Abbreviation and Color Key: Atlanta Beat - ATL • Boston Breakers - BOS • magicJack - mJ Philadelphia Independence - PHI • Sky Blue FC - NJ • Western New York Flash - WNY Win  • Loss  • Tie  • Home
Club	Match
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Atlanta Beat	BOS	NJ	WNY	WNY	mJ	PHI	NJ	mJ	PHI	mJ	BOS	NJ	BOS	PHI	mJ	PHI	WNY	WNY
	1-4	1-0	2-2	3-0	2-0	1-2	3-0	4-0	0-0	2-3	0-0	1-0	2-0	0-1	0-0	1-0	0-2	2-0
Boston Breakers	ATL	WNY	mJ	NJ	PHI	WNY	PHI	NJ	mJ	NJ	ATL	ATL	WNY	PHI	mJ	WNY	mJ	NJ
	1-4	1-2	1-0	1-0	2-0	3-2	1-1	2-1	2-1	0-0	0-0	2-0	2-2	0-1	4-0	2-1	0-2	2-0
magicJack	BOS	PHI	ATL	WNY	ATL	BOS	ATL	PHI	PHI	NJ	WNY	ATL	NJ	BOS	NJ	BOS	WNY	PHI
	1-0	2-1	2-0	3-0	4-0	2-1	2-3	6-0	3-1	2-2	3-1	0-0	0-2	4-0	3-2	0-2	1-2	2-1
Philadelphia Independence	NJ	mJ	BOS	ATL	BOS	WNY	ATL	WNY	mJ	mJ	NJ	WNY	ATL	NJ	BOS	ATL	NJ	mJ
	2-2	2-1	2-0	1-2	1-1	1-2	0-0	0-1	6-0	3-1	4-3	2-1	0-1	2-0	0-1	1-0	2-1	2-1
Sky Blue FC	PHI	ATL	BOS	WNY	ATL	BOS	WNY	BOS	ATL	PHI	mJ	WNY	PHI	mJ	WNY	mJ	PHI	BOS
	2-2	1-0	1-0	3-1	3-0	2-1	2-2	0-0	1-0	4-3	2-2	0-2	2-0	0-2	1-4	3-2	2-1	2-0
Western New York Flash	BOS	ATL	ATL	NJ	BOS	mJ	PHI	NJ	PHI	PHI	NJ	mJ	BOS	NJ	BOS	ATL	mJ	ATL
	1-2	2-2	3-0	3-1	3-2	3-0	1-2	2-2	0-1	2-1	0-2	3-1	2-2	1-4	2-1	0-2	1-2	2-0

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Western New York Flash	18	13	3	2	40	18	+22	42	Advance to Championship
2	Philadelphia Independence	18	11	3	4	31	18	+13	36	Advance to Super Semifinal
3	magicJack	18	9	2	7	29	29	0	28[a]	Advance to First round
4	Boston Breakers	18	5	4	9	19	24	−5	19[b]
5	Sky Blue FC	18	5	4	9	24	29	−5	19[b]
6	Atlanta Beat	18	1	4	13	7	32	−25	7

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points, 2) goal difference, 3) head-to-head result.
Notes:

1. magicJack were deducted a point for various league violations.^[6]
2. BOS: 7 pts; SKY: 4 pt

Playoffs

Main article: 2011 Women's Professional Soccer Playoffs

	First Round August 17, 2011					Super Semifinal August 20, 2011					WPS Championship August 27, 2011
											1	Western New York Flash	1(5)
						2	Philadelphia Independence	2			2	Philadelphia Independence	1(4)
	3	magicJack	3			3	magicJack	0
	4	Boston Breakers	1

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[permanent dead link]
Week 2	Allison Lipsher	Atlanta Beat	11 SVS, SHO
Week 3[permanent dead link]	Allison Lipsher	Atlanta Beat	10 SVS
Week 4[permanent dead link]	Christine Sinclair	Western New York Flash	2 G, GWG
Week 5[permanent dead link]	Marta	Western New York Flash	2 A, 1 G, GWA
Week 6[permanent dead link]	McCall Zerboni	Western New York Flash	1 A, 2 G, GWG
Week 7[permanent dead link]	Caroline Seger	Western New York Flash	2 G
Week 8[permanent dead link]	Abby Wambach	magicJack	3 G, GWG
Week 9[permanent dead link]	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[permanent dead link]	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	1 G
Week 15[permanent dead link]	Christine Sinclair	Western New York Flash	1 A, 2 G, GWG
			BOS 2-2 WNY
Week 16[permanent dead link]	Verónica Boquete	Philadelphia Independence	1 G, GWG
			1 G, GWG
Week 17[permanent dead link]	Abby Wambach	magicJack	2 G
			2 G, GWG
Week 18[permanent dead link]	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

Player	Position	Squad
Ashlyn Harris	Goalkeeper	Western New York Flash
Whitney Engen *	Defense	Western New York Flash
Kia McNeill	Defense	Philadelphia Independence
Nikki Krzysik	Defense	Philadelphia Independence
Ali Riley	Defense	Western New York Flash
Veronica Boquete *	Midfield	Philadelphia Independence
Caroline Seger	Midfield	Western New York Flash
Jen Buczkowski	Midfield	Philadelphia Independence
Christine Sinclair *	Forward	Western New York Flash
Marta	Forward	Western New York Flash
Abby Wambach	Forward	magicJack

* – 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 (April 9)
• Earliest Goal in a match: 14 seconds by Lauren Cheney for Boston Breakers against Sky Blue FC (August 14) ^[8]
• Widest Winning Margin: 6 goals
  • Philadelphia Independence 6-0 magicJack (June 18)
• Most Goals Scored in a Match: 7
  • Philadelphia Independence 4-3 Sky Blue FC (July 6)
• 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
Abby Wambach	magicJack	Atlanta	4–0	May 28, 2011	9', 67', 89'
Natasha Kai	Philadelphia	Sky Blue	4–3	July 6, 2011	3', 38', 58'
Christen Press	magicJack	Boston	4–0	July 30, 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 (April 9)
• First Red Card: Allison Whitworth for Atlanta Beat against Boston Breakers (April 9)
• 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