By David Halstead – CEO & President

Every soccer and sports fan deserved to see the match!  It was a recipe for the perfect sporting event:  the much-anticipated start of the new Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) League season; two teams comprised of world-class athletes and modern day heroes; a beautiful day and marvelous soccer stadium; fans screaming for either the home team LA Sol or visiting Washington Freedom; and very competitive and highly contested play that showcased tremendous soccer skills – just what everyone had come to see!!!

I’m pleased to have been part of the more than 14,800 soccer fans that journeyed to the Home Depot Center in California on Sunday to watch this historic game.  But, I am even more proud that I was there representing the communities of Philadelphia and Philly’s new women’s pro soccer team that starts play a year from now.  I was joined at the event by our team’s GM and Coach Matt Driver, and Philly’s own All-American player and former FC Delco star Kelly Rowland, now serving as our Operations Manager.  It was no surprise that the soccer community was very interested in hearing about Philadelphia’s selection as the 8th WPS franchise, all acknowledging the rich sports and soccer traditions in and around Philly.  Like us, everyone we spoke to on behalf of our Philadelphia organization was excited about Philly entering the League and bringing its enthusiastic fans and passionate sports play to the game.

Fan highlights seemed to be the pre-game events that featured legend Mia Hamm, the Sol and Freedom team introductions that included Marta, Abby Wambach, and other soccer superstars, and of course the outstanding field play by both teams culminating in terrific goals scored by Allison Falk and Camille Abily of the Sol.  For me, one of the most exciting things to witness was the thousands of screaming youth players and athletes spanning all age groups that I believe watched the action on the field and, through it, saw their dream to play professional soccer materialize!  I’ve got to believe the same was happening in living rooms around the country as fans young and old watched this nationally-televised match.

The WPS leadership, LA Sol, and Washington Freedom organizations deserve lots of credit for making this WPS 2009 Inaugural Match such a terrific and memorable event.  Now, together with soccer fans everywhere, we will enjoy a few months of WPS match play, leading to the Championship Match in August.  Meanwhile, as the teams from Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, NY/NJ, St. Louis, and Washington are busy playing this 2009 season, we Philly 2010 fans will continue to get organized for our own team’s player selection and roll-out. 

Stay tuned and stay connected as we bring you the news about the time and place of our upcoming downtown signing ceremony and unveiling of the team’s name.

There will be no words of disgust from Scott Skiles. Shaq won’t be secretly “secretly “shhhhhing” us at halftime.

Instead, when the ladies of the Los Angeles Sol and Washington Freedom take to the Home Depot Center on Sunday to participate in the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer match, there will be tweets, and their coaches won’t mind.

It won’t need to be done in private when no one is looking. In fact, it’s encouraged: the WPS is getting proactive about Twitter in its first-ever game, selecting certain players to update their individual Twitter accounts via cell phone during the match.

Well, not actually during the match. It won’t be as gimmicky as a goalie busting out her cell phone after a save and typing, “That ball had late-breaking action and stung my hands a bit! Oh wait, here comes another one! TTYL!”

Starters will only be updating before the game, at half, at the conclusion of the match, or if they’re subbed out. Bench players will have the freedom to tweet all game from the sidelines.

But even still, where is the line here? What sort of a message does this send to the general populous if an upstart league is mandating its athletes focus on Twitter during its inaugural game? Are they more worried about marketing and promotion than the actual product on the field?

There will be no words of disgust from Scott Skiles. Shaq won’t be secretly “secretly “shhhhhing” us at halftime.

Instead, when the ladies of the Los Angeles Sol and Washington Freedom take to the Home Depot Center on Sunday to participate in the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer match, there will be tweets, and their coaches won’t mind.

It won’t need to be done in private when no one is looking. In fact, it’s encouraged: the WPS is getting proactive about Twitter in its first-ever game, selecting certain players to update their individual Twitter accounts via cell phone during the match.

Well, not actually during the match. It won’t be as gimmicky as a goalie busting out her cell phone after a save and typing, “That ball had late-breaking action and stung my hands a bit! Oh wait, here comes another one! TTYL!”

Starters will only be updating before the game, at half, at the conclusion of the match, or if they’re subbed out. Bench players will have the freedom to tweet all game from the sidelines.

But even still, where is the line here? What sort of a message does this send to the general populous if an upstart league is mandating its athletes focus on Twitter during its inaugural game? Are they more worried about marketing and promotion than the actual product on the field?

Read more at http://sports.espn.go.com.