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THE POWERS that be within the U.S. Soccer Federation have not decided to pull the plug just yet on Women's Professional Soccer. That could mean a positive step in what has been an otherwise stressful week. The WPS, the premier outfit for women's soccer in America, is in danger of losing its Division I professional status or even folding after its annual report showed the league has dwindled from six teams to five. That number is well below the minimum of eight to be granted what the USSF calls Division I status.

If you've followed my writing, you know I am a consistent proponent of both the sport of soccer and the advancement of opportunities for women in sports. Combing the two, it would figure that I would be gung-ho about the United States Soccer Federation's announcement Wednesday that a women's professional soccer league will be launched this spring. Perhaps I would be, if the two previous professional women's soccer leagues launched in the United States since the groundbreaking success of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup would not have each folded after three seasons.

The game of soccer is taking a step forward by prohibiting its players from, in a sense, going backward. A new rule prohibits goalkeepers from using their hands to play the ball if the ball has been kicked to them by one of their own players. It used to be that a defender could kick the ball to the goalie as a defensive maneuver. The goalie could pick up the ball, and start the attack. It was a safe move, but it meant the flow of the game was going backward. No more. Now, the opposing team will be awarded an indirect kick if the goalie picks up the ball with his or her hands on such a play.

This year's U.S. Open Cup tournament will very strongly reflect the changed face of American professional soccer. The draw is dominated by teams from leagues that didn't exist a decade ago. According to U.S. Soccer Federation executive vice president Larry Monaco, who is chairman of the federation's U.S. Open Cup committee, this year's competition will include eight teams from Major League Soccer (compared to four MLS teams in last year's tournament),...

Bora Milutinovic resigned as coach of the U.S. soccer team yesterday following six months of negotiations over a new four-year contract. Milutinovic, 55, led the United States to the second round of the World Cup last summer, coaching the Americans to their first victory in the tournament since 1950. Milutinovic had wanted to stay on as coach. But a U.S. Soccer Federation official, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said the sides couldn't agree on terms.

When Bruce Murray and John Kerr were playing on teams together while growing up in Maryland, they probably never expected to be teammates on a professional soccer team in England. But they are, playing for Millwall in southeast London in the English League's First Division. Along with goalkeeper Kasey Keller, the former members of the U.S. national team form a three-man American Foreign Legion. Keller has been Millwall's starting keeper for the last year, Kerr has been with the team since January, and Murray signed on in August after the U.S. Soccer Federation decided not to renew the contract of its all-time leader in scoring (21 goals)

When the World Cup champion U.S. women announced they were going on an indoor tour later this year - including a stop at the First Union Spectrum on Nov. 13 - the United States Soccer Federation threatened to file a lawsuit to stop the unauthorized tour. The Federation was planning its own Victory Tour, and also had plans for the national team to tour Australia and Africa during the time of the indoor dates. Saner heads prevailed - did the federation really want to take on its hottest marketing property?

Defender Cristian Arrieta, who started 15 games in the Union's first season, has been waived by the team. Arrieta, 31, signed with the Union last April. He joined MLS from the Puerto Rico Islanders FC, which competed in the USSF Division-2 Pro League. He was a two-time defender of the year and the 2009 USL MVP. He previously spent 10 years playing for a number of clubs in Italy. The Union continues its preseason training in Orlando, Fla., with an exhibition game scheduled with the University of Central Florida for tomorrow.

It's not often that an expansion team in any sport begins its first season with the number-one name player in the league in its lineup. But that's what the Philadelphia Kixx seem to have accomplished by signing Peter Vermes. The Kixx open their National Professional Soccer League season tomorrow with a 7:05 p.m. game against the Detroit Rockers at the CoreStates Spectrum. Vermes, who has replaced Cleveland's Hector Marinaro as the top name in the NPSL, played for the U.S. national team from 1988 to 1994, including the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Oh boy, what perfect patriotic timing. Today, Independence Day, the United States will meet Brazil in World Cup soccer play. The confluence of the event and the holiday should move Americans to fit in time between the parades and barbecues to watch the match on television, if only to wonder if the outskilled, out-experienced U.S. team can equal the kind of upset staged by the U.S. hockey team against Russia in the 1980 Winter Olympic games....