More after the jump:
Western New York Flash 2-1 Boston Breakers
The Flash looked great on Sunday and the FC Gold Pride players clearly have not missed a beat since winning the 2010 WPS Championship. Western New York looks like it might have the most team speed in the league. At the very least it has some of the fastest players in left back Ali Riley, forward Alex Morgan and midfielder Gemma Davison.
Davison’s speed alone is dangerous; combine that with her powerful shot and she is downright lethal.
“Gemma has only been with us for three days so she is not even fit,” Flash Head Coach Aaran Lines said. “If Gemma had had a preseason, she’s capable of ripping any outside back in this league apart and you’ve seen that tonight.”
Lines was also happy with Morgan’s debut.
“Excellent performance,” Lines said of Morgan. “She’s a great kid. She was quality and she gave them all troubles tonight, all sorts of troubles.”
Boston Head Coach Tony DiCicco was not terribly unhappy after the game. He recognized that his team broke down in the final third.
“I thought we were dangerous but I didn’t think we took enough shots and we’ve got to sort that out,” DiCicco said.
Sky Blue FC played a 3-5-2 in an attempt to put more pressure on Atlanta’s back line. That pressure came early and often and Head Coach Jim Gabarra said there were at least one and possibly two penalties that should have been called for Sky Blue FC throughout the game. They mysteriously don’t appear in the highlights.
On Meghan Lenczyk’s goal, Carrie Dew also looked like she cleared the ball off the line before it fully crossed. Gabarra noted that Dew’s body shielded the assistant referee, making the call that much harder.
As for the switch from to a 3-5-2 from last week’s effective 4-2-3-1, Gabarra had this to say:
“Against some of these teams it is going to be difficult to play three in the back, but we felt Atlanta came out with, in most cases, only one player high.”
He continued:
“This game it was something we wanted to try and I think it was a good time to try it. At some point during the season, whether you are chasing the game or you need three points – I wouldn’t say it’s a system that we are going to stick with, it’s just one of a couple that we are trying to work on.”
Elsewhere:
Of course, Saturday’s game between the Philadelphia Independence and magicJack was postponed due to Thunderstorms. We’ll post photos from warm-ups later along with a piece from Nell Enriquez, who was at Widener University for the game that never happened. Defender Becky Sauerbrunn was not in the starting line-up for magicJack, but the game never took place and therefore her streak of playing every minute in WPS thus far is still alive.
My Player of the Week vote for Week 2 goes to Caroline Seger. I think almost any Western New York Flash player could have deservingly gotten the award, but Seger was the general in midfield, running the show and finding Sinclair and Morgan all night. If Morgan had scored on that chip shot, it might be a different story. I couldn’t put her down for the vote just yet, though.
Jenna Pel offers this take on the weekend’s action.
Potsdam and Lyon will face off in the UEFA Women’s Champions League Final on May 26 in London. Arsenal missed out on the chance to play the final practically on its home turf after falling to Lyon 5-2 on aggregate in the semifinals.
Tiffeny Milbrett will play for the WPSL’s Bay Area Breeze this summer.
Kari Seitz, Marlene Duffy and Veronica Perez have been selected to represent the United States as referees at this summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
If you are looking to head to Germany to watch the Women’s World Cup this summer, head over to ProActive Tours and mention The Equalizer. You won’t regret it.