Wisconsin Soccer Central Article

Check out this great website wisconsin soccer central. Keeps updates. :) 

Bares earns midseason honors in Iceland

BY ERIC ANDERSON

MONDAY, JULY 18, 2011 10:10 PM

Ashley Bares (Ozaukee/Marquette) now has a pretty prestigious award to go along with all those goals she's scored this season. The Stjarnan forward was named the league's player halfway through the season in the Úrvalsdeild, the highest level of women's soccer in Iceland. Both the Football Association of Iceland (KSI), which runs the league, and the website Fótbolti.net picked Bares as the top performer through nine matches. Fótbolti.net also named her the league's top foreign player so far this season. Bares leads the league with 11 goals for Stjarnan (8-1-0), which is on top of the standings in the 10-team Úrvalsdeild. "I was happy to hear about these selections," Bares wrote in an email. "It is always a nice surprise to receive an honor like this and I couldn't of got it without the help from my Stjarnan teammates. But with that being said, we also have a lot of games left so lots of work to be done yet, can't be satisfied at this point." She closed out the first half of the season in style, recording a hat trick in an 7-minute span of the second half during a 4-0 win over host Breiðablik last Wednesday that moved Stjarnan into first place. "It is always nice to score goals, especially as a forward," said Bares, who holds the Wisconsin prep record for career goals. "I just want to keep doing what I can to help the team, if that means scoring goals then I will keep doing that and I would love it." Bares wrote on her blog, Futbol in Iceland, that teammate Gunnhildur Yrsa Jónsdóttirtold her that the two of them needed to go get their pictures taken at an event last Friday. As they were driving the offices of Pepsi, which sponsors the league, Bares was told that they were Stjarnan's representatives on the Midseason XI team. Other than some language issues – she doesn't speak Icelandic, which she noted in an interview sometimes leaves her "oblivious" to what people are saying – Bares' transition to professional soccer couldn't be going much better. "I think I adjusted fairly well," she wrote. "I like to jump in and learn and adjust as I go, and (that) is what I did here. My coaches and teammates have been great, so that definitely makes it easier when you join a new team."

State pros: Bares keeps scoring

BY ERIC ANDERSON

SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011 11:05 PM

The goals just keep on coming for Ashley Bares(Ozaukee/Marquette). Bares scored four more goals Friday, boosting her season total to a league-best 16 in 11 matches as Stjarnan doubled up Thróttur Reykjavík 4-2 in Iceland's top women's soccer league. Stjarnan (10-1-0) has outscored opponents 33-9 and is five points ahead of Valur (8-1-1) atop the Úrvalsdeild standings. Bares, who was honored last week as the league's top player for the first half of the season, scored equalizers in the 22nd and 57th minutes, put Stjarnan ahead in the 59th and added an insurance goal in second-half stoppage time. The Toppserien, the highest level of women's soccer in Norway, was scheduled to resume after its summer break Tuesday, but matches were postponed because of Friday's tragedies in Oslo. Shannon Smyth (Mequon/Milwaukee DSHA) plays for seventh-place Amazon Grimstad (4-4-1), while Katie Bethke (Eau Claire Memorial) recently signed with third-place Arna-Bjørnar (5-3-1). For the first time this season, Sky Blue FC coach Jim Gabarra didn't put Casey Nogueira (Cedarburg) in his starting lineup for Saturday's Women's Professional Soccer match against the Philadelphia Independence. Gabarra brought on Nogueira at halftime and the second-year pro scored in the 71st and 80th minutes to give Sky Blue a 2-0 victory. "That’s why she’s here. She can decide a game with a touch or two,” Gabarra told Big Apple Soccer. "That's part of the game plan, I guess. Bring her off the bench and hope for that special moment." Nogueira ranks third in WPS with five goals on the year. San Jose defender Tim Ward (Waukesha) made his first start of the Major League Soccer season in the Earthquakes' 4-0 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Sandy, Utah. Ward, in his seventh MLS season, suffered a hamstring injury in training camp and had been limited to just one substitute appearance until Saturday. He was a regular for San Jose in the second half of last season after being acquired from the Chicago Fire. http://wisconsinsoccercentral.com/set-pieces/professional/3226-state-pros-bares-keeps-scoring