Week of 18 Women’s Professional Soccer continued with two mid-week games as Sky Blue FC and the Washington Freedom drew a score of 1-1, and Chicago lost to the Philadelphia Independence with a score of 1-2. Over the weekend, the Washington Freedom held FC Gold Pride to a scoreless tie on Saturday, and on Sunday, the Boston Breakers defeated Sky Blue 4-0 while the Atlanta Beat gave away 3 points and a their 2-0 lead to the Independence, who won 3-2.

After going 65 minutes with no goals, the Washington Freedom finally made the scoreboard happy as Sarah Huffman played a through ball across the goal mouth that none of the Sky Blue defenders were able to get out of danger. Sonia Bompastor somehow deflected the ball into the goal with a defender on her to make it 1-0. The Freedom, however, lost the lead when Cat Whitehill attempted to clear out a cross from Heather O’Reilly, but instead headed the ball into her own goal. The game ended 1-1 for the teams that currently have 22 points each. (Sky Blue is below the Freedom on goal differential.)

Philly came out with a win against the Chicago Red Stars on Wednesday on two goals from Lianne Sanderson, and , of course, Amy Rodriguez. It was Rodriguez who scored the first goal of the night in the 53rd minute of play after Lori Lindsey crossed a ball into space. Rodriguez, with her speed, beat the Chicago defense to the ball, touched the it into space around Jillian Loyden and shot the ball into the goal. Ella Masar provided the equalizer for Chicago in the 62nd minute after diving into a cross from Casey Nogueira. Lianne Sanderson sealed it with her free kick in the 78th minute that went into the goal.

On Saturday, the Washington Freedom faced the league-leader, FC Gold Pride. Both teams had their chances in the first half, but FC Gold Pride dominated the second half. Still, they couldn’t get on the board as every shot went wide or over the goal, or was saved or cleared out by the Freedom defense. Marta came the closest to scoring, but her shot ringed off the crossbar in the 75th minute. The game ended 0-0, and it was the third straight scoreless draw for FC Gold Pride.

It seemed like the Atlanta Beat would earn their first win against their fellow expansion team, but a comeback from Philly left the Beat with a 0-2-2 record against them. Johanna Rasmussen gave the Beat an early lead after curving a shot with the outside of her foot past Karina LeBlanc in the 4th minute. in the 16th minute, Lori Chalupny scored for the beat after poking a ball over LeBlanc to make it 2-0. Tina DiMartino took one back after Lianne Sanderson’s freekick went off the wall and fell right to her feet. Her shot sailed into the goal past Hope Solo in the 41st minute. DiMartino scored her second goal to even up the game in the 60th minute after blasting a shot to the top corner of the goal. Joanna Lohman sealed the victory for Philly after shooting a pass from Rodriguez past Hope Solo in the 81st minute.

Finally, the week ended with a 4-0 Breakers dominating win over Sky Blue FC. The first goal came in the 9th minute and started with a long free kick taken by Amy LePeilbet. Jordan Angeli knocked the ball down and across the goal. The ball got just past Jenni Branam’s fingertips and Lauren Cheney was there to head it home for an early lead. Before the half ended, Stephanie Cox sent a long ball into the penalty area, and Jordan Angeli was there to half-volley a shot over Branam. Just 3 minutes into the second half, the Breakers made it 3-0. A Kristine Lilly corner kick was headed into a mix of Breakers in front of the goal by LePeilbet. Jordan Angeli took a shot on goal that was saved by Branam, but Lindsay Tarpley scored off the rebound. In the 80th minute, Laura Del Rio close out the scoring with a beautiful shot from 20 yards out to the upper corner.

Next week:

• Chicago Red Stars @ Washington Freedom, Thursday, 7:30 pm ET
• Boston Breakers vs. Atlanta Beat, Saturday, Veteran Memorial Stadium, CT, 5 pm ET
• Philadelphia Independence @ Sky Blue FC, Sunday, 4 pm ET, LIVE ON TCN

• FC Gold Pride @ Chicago, Sunday, 6 pm ET, LIVE ON FSC

Other news:

- Julianne Sitch of the Chicago Red Stars walked away late on Wednesday’s match with a knee injury. It was confirmed the next day that she had a torn ACL. She will miss the rest of the season.

- Leslie Osborne, midfielder for Boston, has joined Sitch on the season-ending injury list after suffering a broken collarbone after a reckless challenge from Patrizia Panico in the 87th minute of Sunday’s match.

- Garreth O’Sullivan, head coach of the Atlanta Beat has been released of his coaching duties. James Galanis, has been hired for the remaining 5 games the Atlanta Beat has on their regular season schedule.

~Alondra Hernandez

View Original Post at prettytough.com

• Filed Under:  
• Soccer, Sports, WPS