We all worked long and hard--and with excitement--for the Sky Blue Summit meeting of soccer club presidents which was held Wednesday evening at the Marriott in Bridgewater. So imagine our satisfaction when a full room of passionate fellow soccer people accepted our invitation. The evening's script featured inspirational videos and speeches by Head Coach and GM Ian Sawyers, CEO Thomas Hofstetter, Julie Foudy and Heather O'Reilly. What was notable about their brief comments was each of their personal stories, and how their involvement in soccer created their devotion to both working in and playing "the beautiful game."

An entire array of Sky Blue programs was debuted. A CD of the presentation was given to all participants. We knew the event was a success by the immediate offers of support and desire to become concretely involved with us. Our offer to them is the same we make to all of you: become Affiliates of Sky Blue. Let us tell you how, if you want to know. Just pick up the phone, or email, and we will be glad to have a discussion with you on how you can become a part of our team.

This leads me to the central theme of the evening. If you are reading this, by definition you are interested in Sky Blue, WPS, and women's soccer in general. I am personally asking you to consider making a gesture of support for our cause, by investing in a ticket purchase. I know it is early; I know there are questions you might have. But do this for the reason some of our ticket buyers have already expressed: simply to say, and to show: I'm with you; I believe in you; I will step up and support you.

You could feel the energy in the room at the Summit following the speeches. Trust me, you would have plunked down your ticket payment right then and there. Thomas made us understand how he and Francesco Prandoni have invested in Sky Blue with the love of their European roots in the game; Julie told us what it was like for herself as a young girl, with only male athletes to emulate, and how the league will mean so much to little girls who can look toward women athletes; Heather is happy to be home in New Jersey, and to play and work hard to promote her new team.

Perhaps Ian expressed it best when he said: This game has given Julie and me so much. Now, we want to give back. (And they moved to to New Jersey from California to prove it).

So, for everything the game gives you--your players, your family, your coaches--give back. Invest in us. Tickets are only a phone call, or an email click, away.

Yours in Soccer,

SBS Blogger

Sky Blue FC has been in the new a lot lately. In addition to Christie Rampone Day at her alma mater Monmouth University last Sunday (which Sky Blue FC staffers attended in support of Christie), here is more news on our Olympic gold medal drafted players. In addition, following the round of the draft this past Monday, Sky Blue FC and Ian Sawyers quotes are featured on college women's soccer websites such as the University of Portland and the University of North Carolina.

SBS Blogger

Google News Alert for: "Heather O'Reilly"

10/5: Natasha Kai to appear on "L.A. Ink" - Star-Bulletin

10/5: Kai still draw in alumnae's 2-2 draw with UH varsity - Honolulu Advertiser

10/5: There's a new, more mature Natasha in town - Star Bulletin

Sky Blue was in the news a lot this week with the Allocations and the USWNT game. Here are some links to read up about Sky Blue's week so far.

9/18: U.S. women win without much fanfare - Star-Ledger
9/18: U.S. national team treats Morris residents to women's soccer win - Daily Record
9/18: Busy Day of Role Modeling for O'Reilly - USWNT Blog
9/18: Big job ahead for women's soccer league - Jersey Journal
9/18: Women's Professional Soccer latest to roll in NYC - am New York
9/17: Meet the "New" Jersey Girl: Hawaiian-born Kai wins over local fans - Big Apple Soccer
9/17: Sky Blue FC's roster will hold 3 gold-medal winners - Daily Record
9/17: New women's soccer league - Varsity Aces
9/16: W-Leaguers among WPS allocations - USL
9/16: New League for Women Seeks Longevity - New York Times
9/16: Top Soccer players coming to NY-NJ - The Record
9/16: Women, Gold, Blue - Allocating WPS-NJ - Pink Standard
9/16: Natasha Kai allocated to Sky Blue pro soccer team - Honolulu Advertiser
9/16: U.S. women's team to play Ireland at Giants Stadium Wednesday - Star-Ledger
9/16: Women's Professional Soccer U.S. national team allocation results - Examiner
9/16: The Original Three: Rampone, O'Reilly, Kai join to Sky Blue - Big Apple Soccer
9/16: Rampone allocated to Sky Blue FC - Asbury Park Press
9/15: East Brunswick's O'Reilly, Point Pleasant's Rampone to play for Sky Blue FC in WPS - Star-Ledger

Here's a great shot of Natasha Kai celebrating her game-winning goal against Ireland last night at Giants Stadium with her Sky Blue scarf (photo: Robyn McNeil)

Heather O'Reilly against Ireland (photo: Howard C. Smith/isiphotos.com)

Christie Rampone avoids the tackle of Ireland's Michele O'Brien, who played for Sky Blue's W-League team this past summer (photo: Howard C. Smith/isiphotos.com)

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati honors Christie Rampone for earning her 200th career cap (photo: Howard C. Smith/isiphotos.com)

Natasha Kai talks to reporters after the game with her Sky Blue scarf (photo: Howard C. Smith/isiphotos.com)

Sky Blue FC was officially allocated its first three players today - Olympic gold medalists Heather O'Reilly, Christie Rampone, and Natasha Kai. The press conference at the Sports Museum of America was a great success with Steve Nash helping MC the festivities. After the announcement, the three new Sky Blue FC players made a trip up to the top of the Empire State Building for some pictures.

Sky Blue FC's allocations were considered among the best in WPS - the starting US center back and team captain (Rampone), one of the team's top midfielders (O'Reilly), and a dynamic scoring threat (Kai). Boston and Chicago and can definitely challenge Sky Blue FC for top allocation honors. The Breakers got one of the all-time greats in Kristine Lilly, a breakout performer at the Olympics in Angela Hucles, and a starting defender in Heather Mitts while Chicago got three USWNT starters in midfielder Carli Lloyd and Lindsey Tarpley and defender Kate Markgraf.

Stay tuned for more updates from the allocation event including Sky Blue FC video and reactions from the players and head coach Ian Sawyers.

Frank Giase - the soccer writer for the Star-Ledger newspaper - provides some insight into the WPS allocations in an article in today's edition. Among the notes of interest are:

• The US Women's National Team players have submitted their preferences for which team they would like to be allocated to in the new league. These preferences will be shared with the teams, which will submit a preference list of their own to WPS. The league will then award three players to each team to complete the process.
• Carli Lloyd shunned New Jersey in her selections for preferred locations choosing to pick just two teams instead of the three allowed to each player. Her top choice was Chicago, followed by Washington DC.
• As a result of Lloyd's picks, Heather O'Reilly and Christie Rampone will almost surely be allocated to Sky Blue since NJ is their top choice.
• The final list of allocations will be revealed on Sept. 16 at a press conference in New York.

While Lloyd's decision to omit New Jersey is a pretty big surprise, Sky Blue can't lose if it gets two out of the three NJ girls. Lloyd may have scored the winning goal in the gold medal game at the Olympics but O'Reilly had a very consistently strong tournament and Rampone was the leader of the US defense that shut down Brazil and made Lloyd's overtime goal possible. Now for Sky Blue's third player ........ let the spectulation begin!

Lloyd's choice to leave NJ surely won't be the only surprise as far as allocations go. As Sky Blue owner Thomas Hofstetter says in the Giase article, there are so many considerations in the process and what may seem obvious to some is not always the case. Besides the player preferences and the team preferences, the league also has to take into account competitive balance and marketing advantages as factors in which players go where. Nevertheless, the excitement is starting to build for WPS fans that can see more and more the reality of the new league as we get closer to kickoff in 2009.

Despite putting in the third and fourth goals by accident, the United States fully deserved its 4-2 victory over Japan in the semifinals. The game obviously didn't start off that well with Japan scoring first, but two goals in three minutes at the end of the first half put the US in good shape to take the game over in the second half.

Of course the final two goals were accidents - bad crosses that turned into great shots. Unless Heather O'Reilly meant to volley the ball inside the far post from out on the wing, and unless Ang Hucles meant to chip the keeper with side spin from the endline, then the US was definitely the beneficiary of a couple of lucky plays. Those two goals became meaningful when Japan willed the ball into the goal in the closing seconds, but you would have to think that the US would have been playing differently if they were sitting on a one-goal lead.

O'Reilly was solid as always and Hucles has gone from non-existent in the opening games to a solid contributor which makes sense when you consider that she's more accustomed to playing as central midfielder and not a front-runner. Chalupny's shot was perfect - the textbook example of a flank player cutting inside and ripping a shot. She has to be the best left back in all of women's soccer.

While making the final is a great accomplishment for a US team that was written off after the opening-game loss to Norway, the Americans will have to gear up a few more notches in the final against Brazil or risk getting stomped on like last year in the World Cup. Except for the opening 15 minutes or so, the Brazilians were on fire against Germany. They made one of the best teams in the world look foolish and at times it looked as if there was nothing Germany could do to stop Brazil.

The former Sky Blue player Formiga's goal was total class - Cristiane megging the defender in the corner, Marta keeping the ball moving across the box, and Formiga with the finish. The other goals were just as nice - Marta setting up Christiane perfectly off the quick counter attack, Marta single-handedly making the German defense look foolish capped by a perfect toe poke, and Cristiane blowing through and over the entire German defense with one quick run. Germany hadn't allowed a goal in a major tournament since the 2004 Olympics and, like I said, it looked like there was nothing Germany could do to stop Brazil.

With a little help from Japan, the United States was able to restore the natural order to the women's soccer world and, at least for the moment, force all the doomsday media writers to find another angle for a few more days. The 4-0 win over New Zealand was no surprise of course as the US usually beats the "Football Ferns" by lopsided margins. Japan's whipping of Norway was the big stunner - the Nadeshiko are for sure a quality team, and yes Norway was already through to the knockout rounds, but a four-goal decision that forced Norway into second place? Not expected.

So the US wins Group G as predicted before the tournament and while that doesn't erase the opening-game performance against Norway, it surely allows the US players to put that bad game behind them. The bonus is that the US avoids facing its date with destiny against Brazil until at least the final, if ever. A second-place finish in the group would have put the US into a quarterfinal matchup with Brazil with the winner of Germany/Sweden waiting in the semifinals. Instead, the US has to be ecstatic with the road ahead - quarterfinals against Canada and semifinals against the China/Japan winner. That's a great opportunity to make a return to the gold medal game.

Congratulations to East Brunswick's Heather O'Reilly for setting an Olympic record for the fastest goal scored ever, starting off the US rout while leaving the only criticisms the rest of the game to the commentary and Brandi Chastain's pedantic tendencies.

Stop the panic attacks already! (that's for the media, not the players). The US got the result they needed with the 1-0 win over Japan. The team played better of course because it would have been pretty hard to get worse than the first game against Norway - the effort was better but there still needs to be improvement if the US wants to win a medal.

A great strike by New Jersey's Carli Lloyd was all the US needed but it could easily been more if not for some weak finishing by Amy Rodriguez. The USC striker got herself into some great positions but three times all she had to do was beat the keeper and couldn't. Her first was a poor chip, the second was rushed too quickly, and the last was from an angle but still missed the goal. Credit her for gettiing the chances but one good finish would've changed the second half of the game completely.

Pia Sundhage should consider giving her team a second scoring option up front because Hucles was mostly ineffective and for the most part invisible in the attack. Why not start Rodriguez and Kai? To me that would be a much bigger handful for the other team.

It was interesting to watch Japan's methodical approach to going forward and it would be nice for the US to learn a little from watching. They weren't that far off from finishing a couple goals and a little more accuracy in the final pass would've been trouble for the US.

On the plus side, I may be biased for the local girl but I think Heather O'Reilly put in a second-straight solid game. She's one of the few that always looks composed with the ball at her feet and her decisions always looked calculated in contrast to some of the other US players that look like they don't figure out what to do with the ball until it's too late.

And thanks to another NJ girl in Tobin Heath for snaking the Japanese defender on the left side after coming in off the bench (even if Brandi Chastain chastised you for trying to meg someone in your own half of the field a little later).

If Norway beats New Zealand as expected then the US is in good shape to advance to the knockout stage although they better have things sorted out by then or it could be an early exit at that point.

In case you haven’t seen the US vs. Norway game, I wanted to point out that in the second half of the game, the US lineup had FOUR girls from New Jersey on the field (Christie Rampone, Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly and Tobin Heath). It was especially great to see Tobin, who is one of the youngsters and who played for Sky Blue in our inaugural season last year.

We shouldn’t take it for granted to see four NJ girls in the lineup. I think this is evidence of the long and hard work of our youth program in NJ. With roughly 180,000 registered youth soccer players in NJ, we have one of the biggest youth player pools in the country. Over the past 10 years, the development of youth players in clubs across the state improved drastically and the dedicated ODP program goes hand-in-hand with the clubs. I want to send a big THANK YOU to all the coaches in the NJ youth development program to the ODP program and to all the dedicated parents and managers that make it happen every week.

Our new professional league will be another important stepping stone in the development of soccer in the US. The Norway team showed what impact a league can have on a country’s national team. All of the Norwegian players play in European leagues where they are exposed to different styles, different coaches and different philosophies. Furthermore, they are playing meaningful, competitive matches in their leagues on a weekly basis. I think this is evidence for how important the new WPS league is for the future of United States women's soccer.

100 Olympic athletes to watch: #15 Heather O'Reilly (Time)

Monday, July 28, 2008
By: Sean Gregory, Time

Soccer
United States
Age: 23

She wears the "Next Mia" label, and wears it well, thank you. She even dons Hamm's No. 9 jersey. In Athens, the then 19-year-old O'Reilly was the youngest player on the team, and scored a winning goal in the semifinals for the gold-medal winning team. She followed her Olympic run with a brilliant career at the University of North Carolina (just like you-know- who), where she scored 59 goals and won two national titles. O'Reilly is switching positions for the Olympics, from forward to midfield, to take advantage of her size and speed; after the U.S. women finished a disappointing third at the '07 World Cup, she is seeking redemption in Beijing.

View the full article: 100 Olympic athletes to watch: #15 Heather O'Reilly

Cool Q & A with Julie Foudy on her Leadership Camp

http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=26821