Washington at L.A. to open inaugural WPS season

The inaugural season of Women's Professional Soccer is set to kick off on March 29, 2009, according to a press release sent out by the league on Tuesday afternoon.

Five years have gone by since the last professional women's league match took place in the U.S. and the wait is finally over for it to return as the Los Angeles Sol host the Washington Freedom at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., to open the first season in WPS history.

"This is an exciting day for the world of soccer and professional sports on the whole," said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. "Announcing such a fantastic lineup of home openers for each of our seven WPS teams, highlighted by the WPS inaugural match between the Los Angeles Sol and the Washington Freedom at one of the country's great soccer venues, further builds on the anticipation for the 2009 WPS season."

The match between Los Angeles and Washington will be the first WPS match played, with the rest of the teams set to start play the week following.

With eight teams in all, WPS was founded in 2007 on the back of the struggles had by the now defunct Women's United Soccer Association. The league will most likely expand to ten teams in 2010 with Philadelphia and Atlanta joining the competition.