Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) announced the 2011 playoff format this week. Four teams will qualify for the postseason, which uses a tiered-format with the two top teams earning byes. The top team in the WPS regular season will receive the No. 1 seed and an automatic berth into the final and will host the 2011 WPS Championship. The championship game will take place Saturday, Aug. 27. In other WPS news this week, the Boston Breakers announced that they will retire Kristine Lilly’s number 13 at a halftime ceremony of the May 22nd game against the Philadelphia Independence.
First, the playoffs. The WPS Championship will be broadcast Saturday, August 27 at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Fox Sports Net. The week before the championship, the No. 2 seed will host the WPS Super Semifinal (Saturday, August 20 at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Fox Sports Net). The Super Semifinal features the regular season runner-up against the winner of the WPS First Round (Aug. 17 or 18), featuring the No. 3 seed vs. No. 4 seed in the WPS Playoffs. The WPS First Round will be broadcast on Fox Soccer.
On May 22nd at Harvard Stadium, the Boston Breakers will retire Lilly’s number 13. The ceremony takes place at halftime of the game between Boston and Philadelphia. Lilly played both WPS seasons with the Boston Breakers, serving as team captain in both 2009 and 2010. Lilly started 42 of the 43 games she appeared in for Boston and scored six goals with six assists.