The Atlanta Beat earned its first victory of the season on Saturday, defeating Sky Blue FC 1-0 at Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium.
Rookie forward Meghan Lenczyk scored the game’s only goal in the 50th minute after entering the game just four minutes earlier. Atlanta Head Coach James Galanis said the win is nice, but the team has a long way to go.
“We know how to play,” Galanis said. “It’s just the first week, and we were nervous. So many young players, they were just nervous. If anybody expected these young girls to come out and do everything right in their first WPS game, then they don’t know anything about the game and haven’t played the game themselves. The girls were nervous last week and we didn’t play the game that we know how to play. Still got a long way to go and we’ve got to keep improving”
Sky Blue FC Head Coach Jim Gabarra was disappointed with the result after drawing the Philadelphia Independence 2-2 at home last week.
“We put them under a lot of pressure in the first half and didn’t get exposed too much in the back and we had numbers forward and had a lot of chances, finishing wasn’t there,” Gabarra said. “A couple of possible penalty calls and it could have been a different game, could have come out with a point. I certainly think we played well enough, and we had enough chances to win the game.”
Next up for Atlanta (1-1-0, 3 pts.) is a home game against the Western New York Flash on Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m. Sky Blue FC (0-1-1, 1 pt) is a trip to Harvard Stadium on May 1 to take on the Boston Breakers.
Meghan Lenczyk scored the game's only goal in the 50th minute
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