Female soccer players ponder lost season
Karina Leblanc was still in shock Monday, hours after owners voted to suspend the 2012 Women’s Professional Soccer season.
The stunning development means the Canadian goalkeeper and several other national team players are without club teams, just six months before their first game in the 2012 Olympics.
“We really needed the league to help us prepare for the Olympics,” Leblanc said. “I’m in shock and a lot of us are in that what-do-we-do-now stage, trying to figure out the best possible move. My agent will make some calls about the possibility of playing overseas.”
Leblanc plays for WPS side Sky Blue FC while national team players Christine Sinclair, Kelly Parker, Lauren Sesselmann and Candace Chapman also play in the struggling five-team league that will take a year off and try to return in 2013.
The league has been embroiled in a legal dispute with former magic-Jack team owner Dan Borislow over his squad’s ouster from the league last year, and WPS owners feel the dispute has to be resolved before the league can resume play.
WPS — which began play in 2009 — recently received a special waiver from the U.S. Soccer Federation to operate as a top-tier women’s league this year, under the condition that it expands to at least eight teams by 2014.
Leblanc, who backstopped Canada to a 3-1 win over Mexico last week to clinch a berth in the London Olympics, planned to attend Sky Blue’s pre-season training camp in New Jersey in early March, immediately after Canada’s participation in the 2012 Cyprus Cup tournament.
“Now I have no idea what’s next,” she said.
Leblanc feels the USL W-league — which has teams in Vancouver, Victoria, Hamilton, Ottawa, Quebec City, London, Laval, Toronto and several parts of the U.S. — will benefit this year by having some former WPS players joining clubs to keep themselves in top form for the Summer Games.
“I think the W-league will absolutely benefit,” she said. “I know some of my teammates have talked about the (Vancouver) Whitecaps.”
Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said he’s not certain what impact the WPS move will have on the club’s W-league roster this season.
“It’s still too early now,” he said. “We need to step back and see what this really does mean to us.”
Lenarduzzi said the suspension of WPS play this season is disappointing, as it comes on the heels of a successful CONCACAF women’s Olympic qualifying tournament at BC Place. The 10-day event drew more than 160,000 fans.