Ottawa has been named the host city for the 2012 W-League championships to be held that weekend. Now that the WPS is out of the picture, the finals will bring together the four top women’s club soccer programs in North America.

University of Saskatchewan midfielder Josh Northey and Oakland University defender (and Toronto Lynx alumnus) Julian Konner McNamara reportedly made the strongest showings of the 12 Canadians who participated in the combine.

After winning 15 straight games this season, the Ottawa Fury chose the wrong time to come apart. The Fury could not punctuate what could have been a dream season, as it was crushed 6-1 by the Atlanta Silverbacks in the W-League final in Seattle.

Win or lose on Sunday, the Ottawa Fury is Canada’s team of the year. In any sport. Oh, surely, when the Canadian Press gets votes from sports editors across the country for its Team of the Year, the Fury might only get a nod from someone in the nation’s capital and will be widely ignored by everyone else. But, when 2011 comes to a close, the Fury deserve to rank with any of the hockey teams that traditionally dominate that vote.

Mallory Outerbridge, who led the Ottawa Fury to an undefeated run through the regular season and the Central Conference championship, was named the league MVP. This wasn’t a surprise; Outerbridge led all of the W-League with 17 goals in 12 regular-season games.

The Fury earned the right to go to the W-League’s final four in Seattle by beating the No. 4 seed Toronto Lady Lynx 4-0 on Saturday and crushing the Quebec City Amiral 6-0 in Sunday’s conference final at Ottawa’s Algonquin College.

Canadian goalkeeper Quillan Roberts scored on a long kick in the recent U-17 World Cup. San Jose Earthquakes keeper David Bingham scored in a friendly against West Bromwich Albion. Now, add Clint Irwin to the list. On Saturday, with his Capital City FC trailing the Windsor Stars 2-1 in CSL action, Irwin joined the attack and got his head onto the cross for the equalizer.

To say that the Ottawa Fury are the favourites to take the W-League Central Conference championship this weekend would actually be a bit of an understatement. The Fury is coming off a perfect 12-0-0 season as the club hosts the Toronto Lady Lynx, the No. 4 seed in the conference, on Saturday. On Sunday, the winner faces the victor of the other semifinal between Laval and Quebec City.

Mallory Outerbridge is making a massive statement. Will Canadian national women’s team coach Carolina Morace be listening? Outerbridge hopes to break into the Canadian national women’s team lineup when the side will vie for a spot at the 2012 Olympics at the CONCACAF qualifiers, to be held in Vancouver beginning in late January.

The Professional Arena Soccer League wants to work with the Major Indoor Soccer League. While the United Soccer Leagues, which took over the administration of the MISL last week, has made it clear that it thinks that its league is by the best indoor league on the continent, the PASL hopes the two leagues can discuss interleague play and competing against each other in Cup tournaments.