Finally, the offensive explosion has come.  Week 15 in Women's Professional Soccer was a wild one and the weekend fixtures in particular produced three highly entertaining matches.

However, first were the Wednesday matches, where FC Gold Pride made its way to Harvard Stadium for the second time this season and came away with the same result.  FC Gold Pride topped the Boston Breakers 2-1 for the second time this year in Boston.  The win was the third of the season over Boston, which entered that match riding a three game winning streak.  Meanwhile, the Chicago Red Stars had a four game unbeaten streak snapped with a 1-0 loss Wednesday to the Atlanta Beat at Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium.

The true excitement went down on the weekend, though.  

The          Philadelphia Independence scored three goals in the first 21 minutes en route to a 4-1 win Saturday over Sky Blue FC and the Boston Breakers  would not be outdone.  Boston scored three goals in a five minute span to go up 3-0 on the Chicago Red Stars by the 14th minute Sunday at Toyota Park on its way to a 3-1 win.  Not to be forgotten is FC Gold Pride, which continued to roll in a 4-1 win Saturday over the Washington Freedom at the Maryland SoccerPlex.

At the Maryland SoccerPlex, league-leading FC Gold Pride was led by braces from Marta and Tiffeny Milbrett, but the true story was Erin McLeod's injury in the 84th minute.  Marta scored the Pride's third goal of the match and as she did, McLeod went down hard and her right knee seemed to be in serious pain.  No word yet on the extent of the injury, but you can see how bad it looks in this video (at minute 2:40):

In Philadelphia, Caroline Seger was pure class.  She tied a WPS record with three assists and all three were completely legitimate.  Her passing was inch perfect and I challenge anyone to find a more perfect through ball than the one she played to Amy Rodriguez for Philadelphia's second goal in the eighth minute.  Check that out below:



Holmfridur Magnosdottir looked great at left back and had a beautiful goal to put Philadelphia up 3-0 in the 21st minute.  She has been much more effective at left back than at forward this year, something Philadelphia Head Coach Paul Riley has taken notice to.

"I think she's better at left back," Riley said.  "She's more productive for us as an attacking force from left back.  We played her up front last week and the last 20 minutes, nothing out of her.  We couldn't get the ball to her.  She's always got her back to the play, she's never in good position, but when she starts running, let's be fair, you can see Heather O'Reilly going 'oh shit, I've got to try to catch this one.'  And then you've got the fullback coming over trying to chase her.  Brittany Taylor is going to have nightmares I think about her because she is just so strong and so quick.  She's so difficult to mark and she is so unorthodox.  You have no idea what she is going to do.  I have no idea what she is going to do.  I think she has no idea what she is going to do, and I think it is just really hard to mark her.  What a great weapon coming down the flank, I must admit."

Speaking of O'Reilly, after I chatted with her after the game she walked away ringing out her jersey and shorts.  It was so hot and humid in Philadelphia Saturday that players from both teams could literally squeeze so much liquid out of their uniforms that it looked as if they had just been thrown in a pool.  There is no doubt that has affected games this season.

"You know, this season has been brutal with the heat," O'Reilly said.  "This wasn't our first game in 90-plus temperatures.  So, we're sort of used to it, but it really is pretty brutal out here and all of us lose a lot of weight every game.  If we were looking for a miracle diet, this season has been it."

Sky Blue FC's 4-1 loss was one extremely rough way for new Head Coach Rick Stainton to debut.

"We can't become negative," Stainton said.  "What I told them out there too is we can't dwell on things.  We've got to take it as it is, learn from it and move forward."

Philadelphia (7-5-3, 24 pts.) continues to establish itself as the second best team in the league, but FC Gold Pride 12-3-1, 37 pts.) continues to win.  At this point, it is obvious that no other team will catch the Pride, and Riley admits that.

"Our goal, honestly, we've set our goal in second place to play home.  If you've only got to go one away game to win a championship then that's great."

Sara Larsson and Heather Mitts should be back by Philadelphia's August 4 trip to the SoccerPlex to take on the Freedom.  Meanwhile, Jenni Branam was on the bench Saturday for Sky Blue FC and should play Sunday against Chicago.  Kristin Luckenbill has retired to go to graduate school and Stainton is actively searching for another goalkeeper with Karen Bardsley out for the season and Shannon Myers the only 100-percent healthy goalkeeper in New Jersey.

Finally, not to be overshadowed by Seger's Player of the Week performance is Breakers striker Kelly Smith, who had two goals and an assist in a five minute stretch for Boston.  Sunday was the second time this year that Boston exploded for three goals in five minutes and with four wins in their last five matches, the Breakers are in prime form after a miserable start to the season.  Suddenly, they are in third place.