Round 14 Review

(Courtesy Goal.com)

Christine Sinclair netted a pair and Brittany Cameron logged her first clean sheet to give FC Gold Pride a 10-point lead over Philadelphia Independence on Saturday night. Boston was once again led by the scoring touch of Liz Bogus and Jordan Angeli, en route to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Washington Freedom Sunday night.  Eniola Aluko got an early goal, and Hope Solo stopped all shots faced, and the Atlanta Beat notched its first road win on Sunday night, beating Sky Blue FC 1-0.

FC Gold Pride extend their lead

On Canada night at Pioneer Stadium on the campus of Cal State University-East Bay, FC Gold Pride was led by its Canadian duo of Christine Sinclair and Candace Chapman en route to a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Independence Saturday night.

Sinclair scored two goals, one in each half, while Chapman spearheaded the strong defensive back line to preserve the clean sheet for its keeper Brittany Cameron.

Philadelphia’s game plan was to stop Marta. They did well at accomplishing that goal, but Independence coach Paul Riley says in that process they forgot about the Pride’s other striker.

"We did a decent job stopping Marta, obviously the game plan was to stop her,” said Riley. “But I think we forgot about Sinclair while trying to focus on Marta.”

Cameron, a Dublin, Calif., native, recorded her second win in as many starts in Womens’ Professional Soccer, and her first clean sheet. The win helped the Pride (10-3-1, 31 points) take a stranglehold of first-place, extending its lead over Philadelphia (6-5-3, 21 points) to 10 points with 10 games to go in the season.

In front of Cameron, the Pride defense did everything they could to get behind the ball and help out their keeper by blocking shots and passes to keep the total shot count by the Independence to four -- only two of which Cameron had to stop.

And that was a Gold Pride team playing its second game without United States national team players -- and Pride regular starters -- defender Rachel Buehler, midfielder Shannon Boxx, forward Kelley O’Hara and keeper Nicole Barnhart. They adjusted well, but Philadelphia, playing without Amy Rodriguez, as well as Heather Mitts and Lori Lindsey, lacked offensive flow.

Gold Pride went ahead in the 45th minute, just before halftime. Sinclair, who was in the thick of every significant chance the Pride had in the half, made a run into the box and volleyed home a Solveig Gulbrandsen cross to beat Independence keeper Val Henderson on the near side for the 1-0 lead they took into the half.

It was a lead the Pride would not relinquish. They secured the win with Sinclair’s goal late in the second half.

Sinclair made her hard work pay off with her second goal in the 81st minute. Marta shrugged off an attempted tackle by Holmfridur Magnusdottir and streaked down the left flank. She cut it across to the middle and fed Camille Abily with a pass who quickly found Sinclair.

With no hesitation, Sinclair shot it to the near post past Henderson for her second goal, making it 2-0 Gold Pride, which they would hold onto for the win.

Gold Pride will look to add to its first place lead this week with two road games -- Wednesday at Boston; Saturday at Washington. Philadelphia returns home to host Sky Blue FC next Sunday.

Boston Breakers Get Third Straight Win, Top Freedom

When you think of the Boston Breakers, names that immediately come to mind would be England’s Kelly Smith and the United States national team striker Lauren Cheney. But, in the last two weeks, the Breakers have been riding the wave of Liz Bogus and Jordan Angeli.

On Sunday, the pair of Bogus and Angeli scored to lead the Breakers (4-5-4, 16 points) past the Washington Freedom (4-5-5, 17 points) at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Mass., 2-1.

Boston’s win marks its third consecutive, leaving them just a point behind both the Freedom and Chicago Red Stars for the final WPS playoff spot. But it wasn’t easy for Tony DiCicco’s side. Boston, like its win against Atlanta a week ago, had to come back from a one-goal deficit to record the win.

Washington got on top thanks to a Nikki Marshall goal in the second minute. After Sarah Huffman -- returning from national-team duties to help her club -- streaked down the right flank, she fed the ball to space where Marshall tapped it in past Alyssa Naeher for the early lead.

But in the midst of all the pressure the Freedom -- more specifically, Marshall -- were putting on Boston, the Breakers avoided going behind two goals when Naeher made a game-changing save on Marshall, and then proceeded to tie the contest.

Smith got by a Freedom defender and sent a cross into Bogus in the 23rd minute. Bogus forced a shot through that went between the legs of both Becky Sauerbrunn and keeper Erin McLeod for the goal.

As for Bogus’ goal, scoring between the legs of any keeper is something she has done before, but “never in WPS.” It was Bogus’ second goal in as many weeks.

Boston and Washington went into the locker room even at a goal apiece. And after another lackluster beginning to a half, the Breakers started to show signs of life in the 65th minute when Lindsay Tarpley had a chance. Her opportunity, however, was cleared away.

Marshall had another point-blank opportunity in the 72nd minute for the Freedom but it was Naeher again stepping up her game to rob the Freedom’s lone goal scorer. Two minutes later, Angeli put the Breakers up for good.

In a scrum of players, Angeli was in the right place at the right time, and jumped on the loose ball to crack it in the net for her second goal in as many weeks.

While it is all good times for the Breakers, Washington is in a rut, having lost two in a row and not recording a win since a 2-1 home win over Philadelphia on May 30.

In the week ahead, the Freedom have a Saturday home contest against the front-running FC Gold Pride; meanwhile, the Breakers have a pair of games: Wednesday vs. Gold Pride at home; Sunday at Chicago. In the logjam at the bottom of the WPS standings, those three games -- most significantly the Boston, Chicago match -- could give a team some space heading into the stretch run.


Atlanta Beat Wins Its First Road Game, Shuts Out Sky Blue FC

A seventh-minute goal by Eniola Aluko was all the expansion Atlanta Beat needed to get its first road win in Women’s Professional Soccer. Hope Solo did the rest, saving all four shots that reigning champs Sky Blue FC put on frame to give the Beat a 1-0 win at Yurcak Field in Piscataway, N.J., on Sunday night.

In the previous meeting, Sky Blue FC got the best of Atlanta, beating them 1-0 in the KSU Soccer Stadium opener. Sky Blue FC was outplayed by the Beat, but an own goal and 13 Karen Bardsley saves was enough to prevail on the road.

This time around, Atlanta came with the same offensive pressure, and they benefited from that pressure, early, with the Aluko goal.

And Aluko did exactly that in the game’s lone goal. Aluko made a perfectly-timed run behind the Sky Blue FC (5-6-3, 18 points) defense, running onto an Angie Kerr through ball, and finishing with great precision past keeper Kristin Luckenbill.

Atlanta (2-7-4, 10 points) continued to put the pressure on for the duration of the first half, but couldn’t figure out a way to beat Luckenbill again, who made five saves on the night.

Despite the loss, Sky Blue FC saw the return of Tasha Kai, who took five shots on the night in her first game since the WPS All-Star Game.

Sky Blue FC came out in the second half of the game and brought the pressure to Atlanta, but Solo was up to the task. It has been a recurring theme for Sky Blue FC, playing in spurts. On Sunday, the defending champs started slow, and came on strong in the final 45 minutes. It wasn’t enough.

Despite the loss, Sky Blue FC remains in third place in the WPS standings, three points behind Philadelphia and one point ahead of both Washington and Chicago; Atlanta remains in the WPS cellar, six points behind its nearest competitor, Boston.

By Giovanni Albanese Jr. (Courtesy Goal.com)