Los Angeles Sol Soccer Team

The Los Angeles Sol makes its debut today -- a new team in a new league in an old sport in a country that has yet to fully embrace the idea of kicking a round ball across a grass field. We are talking about soccer, specifically women's soccer, and while the U.S. went delirious over the likes of American stars Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers and all the rest of 1999 Women's World Cup winners, a decade has slipped by since then.

Somewhere in the heart of northeastern Brazil, about nine degrees south of the Equator and a couple of hundred miles inland from where the Brazilian coast bulges out into the Atlantic, two rivers converge. There, painted in pastel hues, is the clapboard town of Dois Riachos, little more than a dot on the map in the huge cotton, rice, sugar and tobacco producing state of Alagoas. Flash past on Brazil's route 316, perhaps on the way to Maceio and the sea, and you would hardly notice it.

It won't show up in the NBA statistics, but that was some steal Kobe Bryant made Thursday. On an afternoon when Brazil's Marta, the top women's soccer player on the planet, was being introduced by the Los Angeles Sol in Carson, Bryant flew in by helicopter after Lakers practice and walked off with the show. By the time he left the Home Depot Center, he had the Sol players giggling like star-struck teenagers, all eager to be photographed alongside him. Naturally, Bryant obliged.

Allison Falk scored the first goal in Women's Professional Soccer history Sunday, and it took the Los Angeles Sol and former Stanford defender all of six minutes to accomplish the feat. In front of an inaugural-game crowd of 14,832 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Falk rose to meet teammate Aya Miyama's free kick, clanged into Washington Freedom goalkeeper Briana Scurry and the ball ended up in the net.

The Los Angeles Sol defeated Sky Blue FC, 2-0, Sunday at TD Bank Ballpark in a Women's Professional Soccer game. Despite the fact that neither team scored in the first 40 minutes, the Sol had the better of the chances, including two opportunities for Marta inside the penalty area. The first chance came in the 19th minute when she created some space for herself and unleashed a low left-footed shot that sailed wide of the far post.

VS. FC GOLD PRIDE Time: 1. On the air: None. Where: Home Depot Center. Records: Sol 2-0-0; Pride 1-0-1. Record vs. Sol: First game. Update: The Sol strengthened its so-far impenetrable defense last week with the acquisition of Canadian international Martina Franko, a winner of two W-League championships with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2003 and 2005. Franko, 33, is the seventh foreign international to join Coach Abner Rogers' unbeaten team.

Twenty goals in 20 games? Marta says there is no particular figure that she's aiming for, but on a hot Sunday afternoon in Carson, the Brazilian striker scored her third goal in as many matches to lead the Sol to a 1-0 victory over the Bay Area-based FC Gold Pride. The win kept the Sol (3-0-0) unbeaten and untied in Women's Professional Soccer, with goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc and the Los Angeles defense recording a third shutout.

AT ST. LOUIS Time: 1 p.m. PDT. On the air: none. Where: Robert R. Hermann Stadium, St. Louis. Records: Sol 3-0-0, Athletica 0-2-0. Record vs. Athletica: First game. Update: Sol Coach Abner Rogers will have the chance to test his team's depth because it will be missing three key players. Forward Marta scored for Brazil in a 1-1 tie with world champion Germany on Wednesday. Brazil plays Sweden in Gothenburg today.

Camille Abily and Han Duan scored goals as the Sol beat FC Gold Pride, 2-0, in a Women's Professional Soccer match Sunday in front of 6,280. The first-place Sol (5-1-2) opened the scoring in the 27th minute when Aya Miyama was fouled inside the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick for Abily, whose shot found the back of the net. The Sol scored again in the 86th minute when Duan, on a breakaway, slipped the ball past goalkeeper Allison Whitworth from 12 yards out.

AT HOUSTON Time: 5:30 PDT. On the air: TV: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes; Radio: 690. Where: Robertson Stadium. Records: Chivas USA 8-2-3, Dynamo 6-2-3. Record vs. Dynamo (2008): 0-1-2. Update: The two-time MLS champion Dynamo is on a three-game winning streak and a seven-game unbeaten streak and has closed the gap behind first-place Chivas to only six points in the Western Conference. Chivas has two players with the U.S. squad in South Africa -- defender Jonathan Bornstein and midfielder Sacha Kjestan.