USA | Taking a second chance at building women’s premier league

Atlanta, Dec 31 | The Atlanta Beat played in powder blue uniforms on a downtown rectangle of grass purpose-built for 1996 Olympic field hockey. On Dec 11, successors to the Beat announced their ambition to join Women’s Professional Soccer in 2010—a second, perhaps final, chance to give professional women’s football a foothold in North America. (Photo: Atlanta owner T. Fitz Johnson with future WPS supporter. Courtesy Hope-Beckham, Inc.)

Women’s football | Back ‘home,’ North Americans on a mission as ‘new Portuguese’

Nov 1 | Portugal since 2004 has tapped players from the United States and Canada for its national women’s teams. To Portuguese coaches and football authorities, these North American imports are “new Portuguese.”

Brazil | Marta’s story deserves to be told, but who deserves to tell it?

A package of articles published Oct 5 on Brazilian Web portal Terra details the unique pressures facing Diego Graciano in promoting his biography of sensational 22-year-old Marta Vieira da Silva (see earlier articles, Sept 15 and 12 Sept 07). (Oct 13)

Books | Born in ‘invisible town,’ Marta gains life in visible ink

Sept 15 | Diego Graciano makes clear in the title of his biography the nature of Marta’s struggle. Você é mulher, Marta! (You Are a Woman, Marta!) alludes to Marta’s mother’s reply when, as a girl, Marta asked her for a real ball.

Women’s football | ‘This book is dedicated to other Martas, barefoot and dirty’

Translation of the preface and prologue to Você é mulher, Marta (You Are a Woman, Marta!) (2008), the new biography of Marta Vieira da Silva by Diego Graciano. (Sept 15)

Women’s football | From Amish heartland, FC Indiana builds ‘multicultural vision’

Lafayette, Indiana, Jul 18 | FC Indiana in four years has become a force in women’s club soccer in the United States, winning two Women’s Premier Soccer League titles and one U.S. Open Cup. But despite origins within a Midwest Amish agricultural enclave, its influence extends worldwide.

Iran | In clothing meant to conceal, football becomes ‘a means of fighting’

Toward the end of a Jun 17 National Public Radio interview, Marlene Assmann of BSV Al-Dersimspor discloses that her multicultural Kreuzberg side from Berlin again will brave Islamic strictures for a second friendly match in Iran. Assmann competed in the 2–2 draw on 28 Apr 06 at Ararat Stadium in Tehran that featured the Iranian national women’s team against the German amateurs (see 29 Sept 07). (Jun 19)

Women’s football | Maize husks mark lines in Mzuzu, says Mr. Happy

One of the most lyrical descriptions of traveling to women’s football in Africa comes from the recent e-mail newsletter of Africa Unplugged in Nkhata Bay, Malawi. A revival of the charity’s Nkhata Bay United Sisters FC (see 15 Jan 07) involved several players participating in regional trials for the Malawi senior women’s team. (Mar 19)

Cinema | ‘Football Under Cover’ receives unveiling

Promotional material for the documentary Football Under Cover (see interview with director Ayat Najafi, 29 Sept 07) celebrates the display of “Frauenpower” in its chronicle of an Apr 06 friendly between BSV Al-Dersimspor of Kreuzberg, Berlin, and the Iranian women’s national team. (Feb 6)

Women’s football | The hard playing surface of Palestine (w/ video)

Bethlehem, West Bank, Jan 11 | The statement of the biblical Ruth, the Moabite, a poor woman gleaning in Bethlehem (“house of bread”) behind reapers of barley strikes a parallel with the women’s football team from Palestine, taking its passion and pleasure from scraps left by a patriarchal culture and occupying authorities.

Cinema | ‘Die besten Frauen,’ the best women (w/ video)

Frankfurt, Germany, Jan 7 | Ian Plenderleith, not for the first time, has done great service by offering a synopsis and highlights in translation of director Britta Becker’s 90-minute documentary Die besten Frauen der Welt (“The Best Women in the World,” Jan 7).

The film chronicles Germany’s championship at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sept 07 and, along the way, points to “the obvious contrasts between the Germans and the US team that failed to advance beyond the semi-final.”

Women’s football | Hope Solo earns our truth-telling award

Jan 1 | The first recipient of a new award for truth-telling in world football is Hope Solo, who stood tall in goal for the U.S. national team at the Women’s World Cup and again when defending her version of truth after a bizarre goalkeeper switch before a Sept 27 semifinal versus Brazil.