{"id":1908,"date":"2011-01-01T18:14:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T23:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2011-01-01T21:34:20","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T02:34:20","slug":"the-year-that-was-new-england-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"The Year That Was: New England soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty ten was an eventful year for a\u00a0number of New England-based teams.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most notable moment within the\u00a0confines\u00a0of the region\u00a0was Boston Aztec&#8217;s capture of the WPSL national championship back on August 1st. The Aztec (12-1-1, 37 pts.), who also serve as the feeder team for the Boston Breakers, claimed the title with a 2-1 win over Ajax America down in the oppressive, unforgiving Dallas heat thanks to goals from Becky Ryan and Becca Mays.<\/p>\n<p>The aforementioned Breakers also found their way into the playoffs in 2010 after second place finish (10-8-6), thanks to impressive performances from the dependable Kelly Smith (11 goals, 5 assists)\u00a0and surprising rookie Jordan Angeli (7 goals, 3 assists). However, their postseason\u00a0journey took an\u00a0abrupt\u00a0detour when they were upset by the upstart Philadelphia Independence 2-1 in the WPS semis.<\/p>\n<p>Then, there was the sucess of MPS Portland Phoenix,\u00a0a first-year entry in Premier Development League that finished in second place (10-2-4, 34 pts.)\u00a0of the Northeast Division. Goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, who landed a training invitation from the Revolution during the season, also received a trial with the Shamrock Rovers after the season concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Vermont Voltage (5-7-4, 19 pts.), Western Mass Pioneers (4-6-6, 18 pts.), and New Hampshire Phantoms (3-9-4, 13 pts.)\u00a0all finished fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively, in the Northeast Division.<\/p>\n<p>Last, but certainly not least, the Boston College women&#8217;s soccer team made a\u00a0remarkable run deep into the NCAA tournament that brought them all the way to the Final Four, before they fell to Stanford. The Eagles, who went 17-7-1 (52 pts.) on the season, boasted a pair of capable goalscorers in Victoria DiMartino (14 goals) and Kristie Mewis (10 goals)\u00a0during a season that won&#8217;t soon be forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Aztec&#8217;s WPSL Championship capped another notable year in New England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[37,23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/10-WPSL-FINAL.jpg?fit=475%2C405&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2011,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/2011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}