10 January 2010 - Marta Takes Five

On 10 January 2010, Marta won her fifth consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year award.

After finishing third in voting for 2004 and second in 2005, the Brazilian forward finally won her first World Player of the Year award in 2006 while playing for Umeå in Sweden, then repeated as winner in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, she moved to the US to play for the Los Angeles Sol and finished the season as the league's top scorer, leading to her record fourth World Player of the Year award (Lionel Messi matched that record with a fourth award of his own in 2012).

When Los Angeles folded in January 2010, she joined FC Gold Pride, who selected her with the first pick in  the WPS supplemental draft. She repeated as the league's top scorer that season and helped Gold Pride win the WPS Championship with a 4-0 win over Philadelphia on 26 September. Just over two months later, she was named World Player of the Year for a fifth time, setting a new record.

She came close to extending the record in 2011 and 2012, but finished second in the voting for both years, first to Japan's Homare Sawa and then to the USA's Abby Wambach.

29 March 2009 - The Sun Rises On WPS

On 29 March 2009, the Los Angeles Sol hosted the first WPS match, beating the Washington Freedom 2-0. L.A. went on to finish as regular season champions.

The new league brought professional women's soccer back to the United States for the first time since the collapse of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2003. It started with seven teams, including Saint Louis Athletica, Sky Blue FC, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, and FC Gold Pride in addition to L.A. and D.C.

For the league's first match, Washington traveled to the Home Depot Center in Carson, California to face Los Angeles. There, playing in front of a crowd of 14,832, Sol defender Allison Falk scored the league's first goal in the sixth minute from a header off a free kick. Freedom goalkeeper Brianna Scurry protested the goal, claiming she had been fouled, but the referee allowed it to stand.

Despite the presence of star forward Abby Wambach, DC failed to create much of a challenge. Their best chance came in the 64th minute, when Lori Lindsey hit the left post. L.A. then extended their lead with an 87th-minute strike from midfielder Camile Abily.

Los Angeles went on to top the table at the end of the season. That earned them a direct pass into the playoff final, where they lost to Sky Blue.

22 August 2009 - Sky Blue Reigns

On 22 August 2009, New Jersey's Sky Blue FC and the Los Angeles Sol faced each other in the Final of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer playoffs. The Sol, who had had beaten Sky Blue in the latter's opening match of the season, finished at the top of the regular league table, but Sky Blue won the rematch to claim the new league's first title.

The top four finishers in the regular season qualified for the playoffs, which used an unusual format. The third-ranked team , hosted the fourth-place team, with the winner advancing to face the second-place team. The winner of that match then met the regular-season champions for the trophy. Sky Blue finished fourth, so had to defeat third-place Washington Freedom (winning 1-2) and second-place St. Louis Athletica (0-1) in order to play the Los Angeles Sol.

Playing before a crowd of 7,218 at the Sol's home stadium, the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Sky Blue played a strong defensive game to shut down Sol star Marta, the league's leading scorer. But when a deep throw-in early in the first half gave them a rare scoring opportunity, they made the most of it; defender Keeley Dowling's cross found Natasha Kai in the box, the striker headed the ball down to midfielder Heather O'Reilly (pictured, no. 9), who knocked it into the net off of Sol keeper Karina LeBlanc to give Sky Blue a 16th-minute lead.

The Sol's chances were further frustrated in the 27th minute, as center back Allison Falk received a red card for a challenge on Kai. Down to ten players, the hosts were unable to mount a serious threat and the match ended 0-1.

19 February 1986 - The Start Of Marta

On 19 February 1986, five-time World Player of the Year Marta was born in Dois Riachos, Brazil.

A forward, she started her career at the age of 14 with Vasco da Gama, but the women's team folded after her second season there, prompting her 2002 move to Belo Horizonte to play for Santa Cruz. In 2004, she left Brazil for Sweden, joining the reigning UEFA Women's Cup holders Umeå IK and, in her first season, helped them successfully defend their title.

She won back-to-back league titles with Umeå in 2005 and 2006, leading to the first of five consecutive World Player of the Year awards. After winning two more league titles in 2007 and 2008, she moved to the United States to play for the Los Angeles Sol in the inaugural season for the new league, WPS.

Despite winning the title, Los Angeles folded after one year, prompting Marta's transfer to FC Gold Pride in 2010, then to the Western New York Flash in 2011, winning titles with both. Since 2012, she has played for Tyresö in Sweden.

Along the way, she has scored 73 goals in 88 appearances for Brazil.

30 January 2012 - That's One Way To Resolve A Dispute

On 30 January 2012, three-year old women's league WPS announced the suspension of its fourth season, which, as it turned out, was never played.

The USA's second attempt at a top-flight women's league, Women's Professional Soccer started play in 2009 with seven teams, including the Washington Freedom, the lone holdover from the previous league, WUSA. But financial problems plagued them, including the folding of 2009 champions Los Angeles after the end of the season.

Although two new teams joined for 2010, another team folded after only six games, followed at the end of the season by newly-crowned champions FC Gold Pride. Still another team left for a lower league, while Washington was bought by Dan Borislow and relocated to Florida as magicJack.

Borislow and the league clashed several times, with WPS alleging that his "unprofessional and disparaging treatment of his players to failure to pay his bills" was damaging to the league, then voting to terminate the franchise in October 2011. Borislow won reinstatement in a January 2012 court ruling, but rather than readmit him, WPS decided to suspend the season.

In May, the league officially ceased operations.

29 March 2009 - The Sun Rises On WPS

On 29 March 2009, the Los Angeles Sol hosted the first WPS match, beating the Washington Freedom 2-0. L.A. went on to finish as regular season champions.

The new league brought professional women's soccer back to the United States for the first time since the collapse of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2003. It started with seven teams, including Saint Louis Athletica, Sky Blue FC, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, and FC Gold Pride in addition to L.A. and D.C.

For the league's first match, Washington traveled to the Home Depot Center in Carson, California to face Los Angeles. There, playing in front of a crowd of 14,832, Sol defender Allison Falk scored the league's first goal in the sixth minute from a header off a free kick. Freedom goalkeeper Brianna Scurry protested the goal, claiming she had been fouled, but the referee allowed it to stand.

Despite the presence of star forward Abby Wambach, DC failed to create much of a challenge. Their best chance came in the 64th minute, when Lori Lindsey hit the left post. L.A. then extended their lead with an 87th-minute strike from midfielder Camile Abily.

Los Angeles went on to top the table at the end of the season. That earned them a direct pass into the playoff final, where they lost to Sky Blue.

10 January 2010 - Marta Takes Five

On 10 January 2010, Marta won her fifth consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year award.

After finishing third in voting for 2004 and second in 2005, the Brazilian forward finally won her first World Player of the Year award in 2006 while playing for Umeå in Sweden, then repeated as winner in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, she moved to the US to play for the Los Angeles Sol and finished the season as the league's top scorer, leading to her record fourth World Player of the Year award (Lionel Messi matched that record with a fourth award of his own in 2012).

When Los Angeles folded in January 2010, she joined FC Gold Pride, who selected her with the first pick in  the WPS supplemental draft. She repeated as the league's top scorer that season and helped Gold Pride win the WPS Championship with a 4-0 win over Philadelphia on 26 September. Just over two months later, she was named World Player of the Year for a fifth time, setting a new record.

She came close to extending the record in 2011 and 2012, but finished second in the voting for both years, first to Japan's Homare Sawa and then to the USA's Abby Wambach.

21 December 2009 - The Award Train Keeps Rolling For Marta

On 21 December 2009, Brazilian forward Marta was named FIFA's Player of the Year for a record fourth time. And she didn't stop there.

Born in 1986, Marta began her professional career in 2000 with Vasco da Gama. In 2003, she moved to Sweden to play for Umeå IK, where she won her first silverware by capturing four league titles, one Swedish Cup, and the 2003-04 UEFA Women's Cup. She scored three goals over the two legs of the UEFA Women's Cup Final to beat Frankfurt and their star player, 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year Birgit Prinz. Prinz repeated as World Player of the Year in 2004 and again in 2005 to set the record at three.

In 2006, Marta won her first Player of the Year award after her third straight season as the Swedish league's top scorer. She won it again in 2007 and 2008, both times over second-place finisher Prinz.

After the third one, Marta moved to the United States to play for the Los Angeles Sol and led them to the league's best record at the end of the regular season. In the WPS playoffs, they advanced to the Final before losing to Sky Blue FC. Marta was the league's top scorer and duly won her record fourth Player of the Year award.

Since then, she went on to win the award in 2010 to stretch the record to five and is in contention for a sixth when the 2011 award is announced on 9 January.

22 August 2009 - Sky Blue Reigns

On 22 August 2009, New Jersey's Sky Blue FC and the Los Angeles Sol faced each other in the Final of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer playoffs. The Sol, who had had beaten Sky Blue in the latter's opening match of the season, finished at the top of the regular league table, but Sky Blue won the rematch to claim the new league's first title.

The top four finishers in the regular season qualified for the playoffs, which used an unusual format. The third-ranked team , hosted the fourth-place team, with the winner advancing to face the second-place team. The winner of that match then met the regular-season champions for the trophy. Sky Blue finished fourth, so had to defeat third-place Washington Freedom (winning 1-2) and second-place St. Louis Athletica (0-1) in order to play the Los Angeles Sol.

Playing before a crowd of 7,218 at the Sol's home stadium, the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Sky Blue played a strong defensive game to shut down Sol star Marta, the league's leading scorer. But when a deep throw-in early in the first half gave them a rare scoring opportunity, they made the most of it; defender Keeley Dowling's cross found Natasha Kai in the box, the striker headed the ball down to midfielder Heather O'Reilly (pictured, no. 9), who knocked it into the net off of Sol keeper Karina LeBlanc to give Sky Blue a 16th-minute lead.

The Sol's chances were further frustrated in the 27th minute, as center back Allison Falk received a red card for a challenge on Kai. Down to ten players, the hosts were unable to mount a serious threat and the match ended 0-1.