29 March 2009 - The Sun Rises On The WPS

On 29 March 2009, the Los Angeles Sol hosted the first WPS match, beating the Washington Freedom 2-0. L.A. went on to finish as regular season champions.

The new league brought professional women's soccer back to the United States for the first time since the collapse of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2003. It started with seven teams, including Saint Louis Athletica, Sky Blue FC, Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, and FC Gold Pride in addition to L.A. and D.C.

For the league's first match, Washington traveled to the Home Depot Center in Carson, California to face Los Angeles. There, playing in front of a crowd of 14,832, Sol defender Allison Falk scored the league's first goal in the sixth minute from a header off a free kick. Freedom goalkeeper Brianna Scurry protested the goal, claiming she had been fouled, but the referee allowed it to stand.

Despite the presence of star forward Abby Wambach, DC failed to create much of a challenge. Their best chance came in the 64th minute, when Lori Lindsey hit the left post. L.A. then extended their lead with an 87th-minute strike from midfielder Camile Abily.

Los Angeles went on to top the table at the end of the season. That earned them a direct pass into the playoff final, where they lost to Sky Blue.

10 January 2010 - Marta Takes Five

On 10 January 2010, Marta won her fifth consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year award.

After finishing third in voting for 2004 and second in 2005, the Brazilian forward finally won her first World Player of the Year award in 2006 while playing for Umeå in Sweden, then repeated as winner in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, she moved to the US to play for the Los Angeles Sol and finished the season as the league's top scorer, leading to her record fourth World Player of the Year award (Lionel Messi matched that record with a fourth award of his own in 2012).

When Los Angeles folded in January 2010, she joined FC Gold Pride, who selected her with the first pick in  the WPS supplemental draft. She repeated as the league's top scorer that season and helped Gold Pride win the WPS Championship with a 4-0 win over Philadelphia on 26 September. Just over two months later, she was named World Player of the Year for a fifth time, setting a new record.

She came close to extending the record in 2011 and 2012, but finished second in the voting for both years, first to Japan's Homare Sawa and then to the USA's Abby Wambach.