Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) announced today that Swedish Champions Umeå IK will play in the WPS All-Star Game on August 30 to conclude the 2009 WPS Season. The 2009 All-Star Game is being played at The Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, MO, on August 30th with kick-off scheduled for 5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT. The game will be televised live nationally on Fox Soccer Channel and regionally on select Fox Sports Net affiliates (check local listings), starting at 5:00 p.m. ET with a half-hour pre-game show prior to kick-off.

"Our league is part of the bigger growth of the women’s game at the global level and we wanted to acknowledge that by bringing in a club from outside the league to play in the U.S.,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. “Umeå IK has a great history and is one of the leading women’s club teams in the world, so they are a great fit as the opposition for our WPS All-Stars.”

The game is being played eight days following the WPS Championship, featuring a team of 18 WPS All-Stars, who will be selected through mix of voting (starting 11) and at-large selections by the head coach and the WPS Commissioner.

“It is of course a great honor for Umea to have been chosen as the opposition in the first WPS All Star Game” says Umeå IK Club Director Britta Åkerlund. “Considering the players we will play against, the atmosphere that surrounds the game and the fact Umeå IK has been chosen, highlight the strength of Swedish women’s football has on the international stage.”

With three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Marta currently tied for the lead in WPS in scoring, it’s likely that Umeå will have to defend against their former teammate and star forward Marta of the Los Angeles Sol.

Umeå IK striker and former Swedish International Hanna Ljungberg is looking forward to the challenge: “It is going to be very exciting to play against the best players of WPS, many of them world class players, who during 90 minutes will be playing on the same team. Naturally, we look forward to play against Marta, but also hope that I will get the chance to have some tough one-on-ones with Frida Östberg.”

Umeå IK is one of the top women’s clubs in partnership with PUMA. The global sportlifestyle brand is also a founding sponsor of WPS and the official sport and lifestyle apparel, footwear and equipment supplier of WPS, including the official WPS Match Ball. Detailed information about the All-Star Game program will be announced at a later date.

About Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)

Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured.  The Inaugural Season kicked off on March 29 and runs through August 22, 2009, with WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.  The league’s eighth and nine franchises, Philadelphia and Atlanta, will begin play in 2010. For more information, visit www.womensprosoccer.com.

About Umeå IK

Umeå IK has been involved in Women’s Football on senior level since 1985 and since 1998 have they belonged to top Clubs in the Swedish top division, Damallsvenskan. In the last nine seasons the Club has won seven Championships and finished second twice. The Club has also won the UEFA Womens Cup twice and won silver three times. Umeå IK are reigning Swedish Champions and are at the time of this release top of the table with a little less than half of the season left to play.  For more information, visit www.uik.se.