iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Personal Note: My father was moved to a hospice facility last week, so priorities are and will be elsewhere for the immediate future. Thus, the wsoccerexpress.bsky.social account and its associated website will most likely not have any new content for a while.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

In CONMEBOL qualifying for the FIFA U-17 WWC, all five teams in Group A of the 1st round ended on 5 points. The top 3 teams in each group advance to the 2nd round. Of those 6, 4 will qualify for the U-17 WWC. Chile lost to Argentina, but a late goal (86') gave them the goal difference advantage.

Final standings of the first round of the 2025 CONMEBOL Sub 17 Femenina.

In Group A, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela all ended on 5 points (1 win, 2 draws, 2 losses). Colombia had a +2 goal difference, Paraguay at +1, Chile at zero, Argentina at -1, and Venezuela at -2.

In Group B, Brazil topped the group with 4 wins and a full 12 points, Ecuador had 3 wins and a loss, so 9 points. Peru finished third with 6 points via 2 wins and 2 losses. Uruguay had a lone win and 3 losses and finished fourth, while Bolivia went winless and finished last.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Four NWSL pros — Barbra Banda, Prisca Chilufya, and Grace Chanda of the Orlando Pride and Bay FC's Rachael Kundananji — were withdrawn from Zambia's squad for a friendly tournament in China due to concerns over "additional travel measures introduced by the new administration in the [USA]."

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

The USWNT will be playing on this temporary grass pitch for the April 5 friendly against Brazil.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

On the reversed PK decision in the USWNT-England friendly, this seems like a case when the call was made too quickly and actually "stopped a promising attack" (to borrow a phrase from Law 12), as three other USA players were open in the penalty area. (1/5)

Video still at the 63:34 mark, just as referee blows her whistle and points to the penalty spot.

#24 Yazmeen Ryan had control of the ball. #10 Lindsey Horan was open above the penalty spot. On the upper left of the box, #7 Alyssa Thompson was wide open. Also, #6 Lynn Williams was a few yards outside the 6-yard box and clear of her defender, so she could have received the ball as well. Additionally, #16Rose Lavelle was open outside the box, though just behind the referee,

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Before the Triple Espresso, there was the "Young Guns"... Alt text: 1989 photo of current England head coach Sarina Wiegman (R) plus USWNT legends Mia Hamm (L) & Kristine Lilly (C) in their UNC uniforms, cowboy hats, & bandanas. Two are holding firearms. (1/2) www.newspapers.com/article/the-...

newspapers.com

Young guns help keep UNC on top (cropped)

Clipping found in The Chapel Hill News published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on 9/29/1989. Young guns help keep UNC on top (cropped)

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 15/10/2024

Looks like NWSL Boston first came up with the "BOS Nation FC" idea over 10 months ago. BOSNation[dot]com was registered on December 4, 2023, and redirects to BOSNationFC[dot]com, which was registered 10 days later. (see screenshots) www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/...

ICANN Lookup result for "bosnation.com". The domain was first registered on "2023-12-04" at "17:56:16 UTC".

ICANN Lookup result for "bosnationfc.com". The domain was first registered on "2023-12-14" at "20:21:28 UTC".

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 11/10/2024

Oof. Duke is up 2-nil against Stanford within 5 minutes. Maggie Graham with a 15-second brace (3:53, 4:07).

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 26/09/2024

Had to retire a 16-year-old SIM card after it would no longer connect to T-Mobile's towers. It was for a prepaid line I used as a back-up, so temporarily losing service was just an annoyance. Except, it's the number I tend to use for 2FA. (1/2)

Back and front of a full-sized T-Mobile SIM card, "39.01a" vintage. The copper contacts have three wear lines and other scratches, plus some dust in the crevices. The SIM card number is blurred.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 26/09/2024

Here's one for the "Takes That Aged Badly" file... "F. Scott Fitzgerald Pens New but Not Great Novel" (short review of 'The Great Gatsby') www.newspapers.com/article/the-...

newspapers.com

F. Scott Fitzgerald Pens New but Not Great Novel

Clipping found in The Plain Dealer published in Cleveland, Ohio on 5/23/1925. F. Scott Fitzgerald Pens New but Not Great Novel

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 12/09/2024

This match had way more drama than what I had originally budgeted for emotionally.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 04/09/2024

That Mexico-Australia U-20 WWC match was the soccer gods equivalent of "right result, wrong reasons". (AUS missed a PK, MEX's 1st goal was a wild deflection off a teammate that then hit a goalpost and went in.)

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 13/08/2024

Update on that article about Major League Soccer starting a professional women's soccer league: The website "has decided to retract the story". Screenshot from X .com:

Combined text from four X.com posts:

Scarves and Spikes prides itself on being a reliable source of coverage for news about Atlanta United and MLS as a whole.

That said, we don’t want to be afraid to admit when we’ve missed the mark, and this is one of those times.

On Sunday night, we published a story from a writer who did his best to follow ethical reporting guidelines based on information from numerous sources he was in contact with. We’ve made the decision to retract that story.

We never intended to disseminate inaccurate reporting — our goal is to build your trust, and we are committed to improving our editing and fact-checking protocols to ensure the accuracy of our reporting.

We always strive to provide accurate reporting that meets long-standing industry standards and we will work hard to ensure our work better reflects that going forward.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 12/08/2024

So, this article was posted about an hour ago about Major League Soccer planning to launch "a professional women’s soccer league". Here's why I don't think there's enough evidence yet to think that this will be a direct competitor of the NWSL. (1/?) scarvesandspikes.com/2024/08/11/e...

scarvesandspikes.com

Exclusive: MLS planning launch of women’s league after 2027 Women’s World Cup

A new professional women's soccer league operated by Major League Soccer is planned to begin after the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

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Reposted by RD Welch

Women's Soccer Express @wsoccerexpress.bsky.social · 09/08/2024

⭐Reminder⭐ The women's soccer ⚽🥇gold medal match between the USWNT and Brazil is on Saturday and kicks off at 11:00 a.m. EDT (8:00 a.m. PDT). 📺TV: NBC / Telemundo 💻Streaming: Peacock (sub req'd), NBC Sports app, NBCOlympics.com (latter two require cable/satellite/etc. log-in)

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 31/07/2024

Coffey is very, very lucky to not have been given a second yellow for that last foul (56'). #USWNT

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Reposted by RD Welch

Corey @coreyjrowe.bsky.social · 26/07/2024

If anyone's wondering how things are going on the hellsite: This setting was just turned on by default for everyone. if you still have an account with content, go log in and disable this so Grok can't use your tweets as training data. Direct link: twitter.com/settings/gro...

"Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning"

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 25/07/2024

And that's why you don't do zonal marking on a corner kick. And, now Germany is 3-nil up.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 05/07/2024

⚽ #NWSL Referee Assignments Friday (7/5): •Thorns vs. Wave: Alexandra Billeter (VAR: Adorae Monroy) Source: proreferees.com/2024/07/03/2...

proreferees.com

NWSL Assignments: Week 15 - Professional Referee Organization ®

The assignments for Week 15 of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League regular season.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 05/07/2024

Excel achievement unlocked! So, VBA it is...

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 28/06/2024

#NWSL⚽ Referee Assignments Tonight (6/28): •Current vs. Dash: Greg Dopka (VAR: Alexandra Billeter) •Wave vs. Red Stars: Shawn Tehini (VAR: Kevin Broadley) Source: proreferees.com/2024/06/26/2...

proreferees.com

NWSL Assignments: Week 14 - Professional Referee Organization ®

The assignments for Week 14 of the 2024 National Women’s Soccer League regular season.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 22/06/2024

We're halfway through the 2024 #NWSL season. Here are grids showing which opponents each team has faced so far. Each team's number of opponents faced so far are far from balanced, with some having yet to face 5 opponents. Google Sheets version (no formulas): docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

screenshot of tables showing which opponents each NWSL team has played so far this season (through June 20, 2024). The bottom two tables show which home and away matches, respectively, each team has played. The top table shows which opponents have played once, twice, and have yet to play. For a text version, see the Google sheets link.

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 21/06/2024

2024 #NWSL Season - Cumulative Points By Date Chart

chart showing the cumulative points earned by each NWSL team during the progression of the 2024 NWSL season, through June 20, 2024

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RD Welch @rd1899.bsky.social · 21/06/2024

2024 #NWSL Form Guide (as of June 20th). Only Gotham FC has a win streak at the moment (5 matches). For a text version, see docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

simplified form guide for 2024 NWSL Season, through June 20, 2024. See Google Sheets link for full text version

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