New U.S. women's league called the National Women's Soccer League

The new women's league in the United States, set to begin in Spring 2013, will be called the National Women's Soccer League. 

The announcement of the league name and logo -- which came at halftime of the U.S. women's 4-1 friendly win over China -- gives a firmer identity to the eight-team league. Previous incarnations of women's professional soccer in the United States came in the form of the Women's United Soccer Association (2001-2003) and Women's Professional Soccer (2009-2012). 

Former U.S. women's national team general manager Cheryl Bailey is the executive director of the NWSL. 

"We are working on finalizing a number of league items, but we now have a name and a logo that we think the fans will identify with and enjoy," said Bailey. "This is a league we have to build from the bottom up and we have a group of dedicated owners and talented support staff at U.S. Soccer to keep this process moving in a positive direction while slowly growing the brand."

Thus far the new league has eight teams: Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, FC Kansas City, Portland Thorns FC, Sky Blue FC, Washington Spirit, Western New York Flash and Seattle, which has yet to announce a name. 

U.S. Soccer will subsidize the salaries of 24 U.S. national team players. The Canadian Soccer Association and the Federation of Mexican Football will each do the same for up to 16 members of their respective national teams.