Umeå's women footballers to challenge American all-stars
The reigning champions of the Swedish women’s professional football league, Umeå IK, are heading to the United States to play a team of stars from the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS).
The squad from northern Sweden will head to St. Louis, Missouri for an August 30th showdown with the WPS top talent in the league’s first All-Star game, the US league announced on Tuesday.
The game will be staged eight days after the inaugural WPS championship game with the all-star starters selected by vote and reserves decided by the coach and WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci.
"Our league is part of the bigger growth of the women's game at the global level and we wanted to acknowledge that by bringing in a club from outside the league," Antonucci said.
Three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Marta, a Los Angeles Sol forward who is joint leading scorer in the league, will likely be playing against her former teammates at Umeå, which has won seven of the past nine Swedish crowns.
"It is going to be very exciting to play against the best players of WPS," Umeå striker Hanna Ljungberg said.
"Naturally we look forward to playing against Marta."
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The squad from northern Sweden will head to St. Louis, Missouri for an August 30th showdown with the WPS top talent in the league’s first All-Star game, the US league announced on Tuesday.
The game will be staged eight days after the inaugural WPS championship game with the all-star starters selected by vote and reserves decided by the coach and WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci.
"Our league is part of the bigger growth of the women's game at the global level and we wanted to acknowledge that by bringing in a club from outside the league," Antonucci said.
Three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Marta, a Los Angeles Sol forward who is joint leading scorer in the league, will likely be playing against her former teammates at Umeå, which has won seven of the past nine Swedish crowns.
"It is going to be very exciting to play against the best players of WPS," Umeå striker Hanna Ljungberg said.
"Naturally we look forward to playing against Marta."
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