Albertin Montoya’s FC Gold Pride has been the class of WPS this season. They have bamboozled the competition with fluency, offensive potency and a stout defense. The team now has a regular season title and WPS Championship trophy to show for it.

As was mentioned in a previous post, some have wondered if this is the best women’s club team ever assembled. That’s an impossible question to answer but perhaps it’s fair to say in terms of efficiency, balance and team cohesion, FC Gold Pride are unrivalled.

Today’s match proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. The team put forth a perfect performance. Yes, Philadelphia’s chances were probably impeded by WPS’ playoff system (interestingly, the postseason format caught flak last year for producing the exact opposite effect – Los Angeles were clearly the better side and some people questioned the competitive merit of having the Sol take off three weeks before the final).

But regardless, FC Gold Pride were unstoppable today. The team have been brilliant all season. It looked as if the team had climaxed after the All-Star Game then underwent a denouement with those three scoreless draws in August. As it turns out, that wasn’t what happened at all. Today’s game was the pinnacle of the entire season. The team began scaling such heights after that three game drought before reaching the summit this afternoon. Again, it was a perfect performance.

Here’s what FC Gold Pride got right:

The midfield.

How could a midfield composed of just three players utterly decimate a midfield of five? Because FCGP’s midfield isn’t an ordinary midfield. For most soccer teams, creativity is produced from the middle of the field. That’s where possession is won and first passes are initiated. But not for this team. Not really at least. FCGP derived its creativity from the back with marauding overlapping runs from Ali Riley and Kandace Wilson and pin-point long balls from central defender Rachel Buehler (but more on this in a bit). The team also found its offensive spark when its three forwards dropped back a bit to start forward runs. The midfield was really just a defensive buffer. Shannon Boxx and Becky Edwards were true holding midfielders, stepping in at opportune times to maintain possession and dishing out square, short passes while the offense reset up top. Neither Boxx, Edwards nor Camille Abily ventured forward too frequently, which is another rarity for midfielders. Abily threaded through a few passes and threatened with a few shots from outside the box but other than that, the midfield set the tempo for the rest of the team to jive to.

Ali Riley and Kandace Wilson.

It’s dangerous business being an outside back. Bomb forward at the wrong moment and your team can get caught out defensively. Sometimes having attacking full-backs can be downright reckless. An outside back who lacks a soccer IQ could throw their team’s shape off balance, making them susceptible to a quick counterattack. That’s what makes Ali Riley and Kandace Wilson so special. Having one full-back who makes continuously effective runs is one thing but having two is pretty exceptional. That speaks to the perfect balance of this FC Gold Pride. Ali Riley had Independence right back Estelle Johnson beat, particularly in the second half. Riley looked more like a winger, sending in crosses in her own final third than a defender. But she also got it done defensively, shutting down Caroline Seger and Lianne Sanderson. Kandace Wilson had a truly excellent game. Her hard work and intelligent play was rewarded in her cracking goal when she burned Allison Falk with her pace and then caught her on the wrong foot.

The outside backs were actually the game’s creative spark. Riley and Wilson got in crosses and short diagonal passes across midfield to one of FCGP’s three forwards up top. The pair took advantage of Philadelphia’s exhaustion and the Independence were unable to control the flanks as they had done against Washington and Boston.

The three-headed monster up top.

Tiffeny Milbrett stepped up admirably in Kelley O’Hara’s absence. Christine Sinclair was left inexplicably unmarked by the Philadelphia defense. Being the target woman she is, she made the Independence pay. And then there’s Marta…the ever-energetic, ever-elusive Marta. It isn’t just her ball skills or blazing pace that makes the world’s best (and she is the world’s best), it’s also her vision and work ethic. She had two assists today and probably would have been happy if that was how the game finished. Her goal was just an added bonus. She contributed to three of FCGP’s four goals but she also could have probably scored more on her own if she was a more selfish player. She had two sequences on the ball in which she hesitated for about a second too long while waiting for a teammate to link up with her. Val Henderson pounced on the ball instead.

Again, it came down to having the perfect balance. The three forwards knew they didn’t really need to drop back and retrieve the ball (although Marta did occasionally because she could). Their teammates would provide the service instead.

Conclusion

Every member of FC Gold Pride posed an attacking threat. From Milbrett and her clean-up work up top to Abily (who we’ll miss very much) and her efforts from distance to Riley and her fantastic passing game to Buehler and her scarily accurate long balls to Riley (a long ball from a center back to a full back? Wow.) everyone was used as a weapon. Boxx, Edwards, Chapman and Buehler ensured that FCGP could play its preferred passing game.

Now for the surprise: if there was a team that could have beaten this side, it would have been the Philadelphia Independence. A full-strength, well-rested Independence. Remember, it was the Independence’s midfield who shut down both Abby Wambach and Kelly Smith last week. It was the likes of Caroline Seger, Lori Lindsey and Jen Buczskowski who prevented the Freedom and the Breakers from getting anything done offensively in their respective second halves. It was down to energetic, attentive defending, particularly in midfield. The Independence just didn’t have any of it today.

The biggest blunder this Philadelphia team made was probably down to something it couldn’t help: fatigue. They made the fatal error of allowing FC Gold Pride time and space on the ball. The slack marking can probably be attributed to tired legs. It ostensibly cost the Independence the game and the championship.

All credit to FC Gold Pride and to Head Coach Albertin Montoya who has concocted the perfect formation and the found the perfect mix of players to run it. If there’s one certainty about championship teams it’s that they usually get razed in the offseason. Camille Abily is already off but who else will join her? With the new Western New York franchise, more players will be forced to walk the plank.

People who have an appreciation for the dramatic might suggest that 2010’s FC Gold Pride are on par with great club teams such as the FC Barcelona side of 2008-2009, the Manchester United team of 1989—1999 and Bill Paisley’s Liverpool of the late 1970’s.

But never mind the histrionics, what is certain is that this FC Gold Pride is damn good. Unplayable perhaps? 13 games unbeaten, three losses and a WPS championship might suggest so.

View Original Post at allwhitekit.wordpress.com

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