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.
Defending champions FC Gold Pride will not return for the 2011 season.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. The Red Stars will spend 2011 regrouping in the WPSL.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.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 Playoffs1 - magicJack were deducted a point for various league violations.Source: 2011 WPS Year End Awards
* – unanimous selection
Source: WPS Announces Best XI of 2011
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) Widest Winning Margin: 6 goalsPhiladelphia Independence 6-0 magicJack (18 June)Most Goals Scored in a Match: 7Philadelphia Independence 4-3 Sky Blue FC (6 July)Fewest Scoreless Games: 1 - Western New York FlashMost Scoreless Games: 13 - Atlanta BeatAverage Goals per Match: 2.7784 Player scored 4 goals5 Player scored 5 goalsFirst 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: 4Carli Lloyd (Atlanta Beat)Longest Winning Streak: 6 gamesPhiladelphia Independence Games 8-13Longest Unbeaten Streak: 8 gamesWestern New York Flash Games 1-8Western New York Flash Games 11-18Longest Winless Streak: 16 gamesAtlanta Beat Games 3-18Longest Losing Streak: 5 gamesAtlanta Beat Games 4-8Longest Shutouts:Individual: 325 minutes by Valerie Henderson for Philadelphia IndependenceTeam:: 392 minutes for Philadelphia IndependenceLongest Drought: 757 minutes for Atlanta Beat(Regular season only)
30 wins, 14 losses, 10 ties - 1.852 PPG92 goals for, 58 against - +34 GD 