FC Gold Pride defeated the Washington Freedom 4-1 Saturday at the Maryland SoccerPlex behind two goals each from Tiffeny Milbrett and Marta.  The loss makes the Freedom winless in its last eight matches.

Milbrett opened the scoring early for the visitors when she headed the ball past Freedom goalkeeper Erin McLeod in the 18th minute.  McLeod saved Milbrett's initial shot, but the rebound fell right to the savvy veteran for the easy tap-in.

Washington would equalize in the 43rd minute when Cat Whitehill had a beautiful combination with Beverly Goebel, who sent a low cross to Abby Wambach for an easy tap-in finish at the far post.  The match would go to halftime level at 1-1, but the Freedom could not make the momentum of the late first half goal carry into the second half.

Marta would open the second half scoring in the 59th minute when she sent a great curling shot into the upper left corner of the net off a feed from Christine Sinclair to put the Pride up 2-1.

In the 84th minute, Sinclair found Marta again with a through ball on the counter attack and the Brazilian forward slotted it past McLeod to give the visitors a 3-1 lead.  The goal was Marta's 13th of the season, a WPS single-season record.

However, there was little celebrating by FC Gold Pride.  McLeod went down on the play and suffered a knee injury that forced her to leave the match.  Having used all three substitutions, the Freedom could not bring in back-up goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, so Whitehill put on the goalkeeper jersey and stepped into the net.

"I feel bad for McLeod, I really do," FC Gold Pride midfielder Shannon Boxx said.  "I mean, no one wants to see that so close to a World Cup, but obviously Cat was a good sport going in goal."

Milbrett would score a beautiful goal on Whitehill in the 89th minute that most goalkeepers would not stop, and 4-1 in favor of the visitors is how the match would end.

"We are hoping that it doesn't get worst than this," Whitehill said.  "I feel like we are at rock bottom.  We haven't won in a while.  We have a Wednesday game against Atlanta and we have won twice against them.  They are on a win streak so it will be a tough game."

FC Gold  Pride (12-3-1, 37 pts.) is now 13 points clear of second place Philadelphia Independence, while Washington (4-6-5, 17 pts.) is now winless in its last eight and has not tasted victory since a 2-1 win May 30 over Philadelphia.

At halftime, the Freedom inducted Jen Grubb into the Hall of Freedom, joining Steffi Jones, Siri Mullinix, David Vanole, and Mia Hamm.