Spiga

May 13, 2010

WPS Friday Night - FC Gold Pride at Boston


This is a rare WPS Friday night contest, matching up 1st place FC Gold Pride with the Boston Breakers at Harvard Stadium. Rosters are tentative.

FC Gold Pride at Boston Breakers – May 14 (7:30 pm ET, 4:30 pm PT)
Harvard Stadium, Cambridge, MA.

Rosters:
FC Gold Pride: GK-N. Barnhart, B. Cameron; D-R. Buehler, A. Riley, K. Wilson, C. Chapman (questionable-shoulder), K. Graczyk, K. Fountain; MF-Marta, B. Edwards, S. Gulbrandsen (questionable-quad), C. Dew, K. Yokers; F-C. Sinclair, T. Milbrett, K. Bosio.
Not Active: K. O’Hara (heel), C. Abily (ankle), E. Guthrie, R. Tantillo, A. Bowyer.

Boston: GK-A. Phillips, A. Naeher, A. Lipsher; D-A. LePeilbet, K. Moore, A. Scott, S. Cox, J. Angeli; MF-L. Osborne, K. Lilly, Fabiana (probable-quad), C. Igwe, L. Bogus; F-K. Smith, L. Cheney, L. Del Rio, T. Weimer, T. Hemmings.
Not Active: S. Walsh (knee), M. Enyeart (knee), M. Tomecka (ankle), C. Zimmeck (foot), A. Marquez.

Previous Meetings (2009):
Boston 1 @ FC Gold Pride 2
FC Gold Pride 1 @ Boston 1
Boston 1 @ FC Gold Pride 0

What to Look For: FCGP rides a four game winning streak into this contest and will break a record if they can record a 5th. Gold Pride will be missing two key elements of their offense due to injuries, O’Hara and Abily. Barnhart has consecutive shutouts for the first time in her WPS career. While Sinclair and O’Hara have had good seasons so far, Marta has been relatively quiet with just 1 goal. Boston has been shutout in consecutive matches and needs to jumpstart their offense. They are winless since their opener, the only match in their last 14 in which they have scored more than one goal. Phillips earned her first career shutout last weekend and she has a solid defense in front of her with the quartet of LePeilbet, Scott, Cox, and Moore. Smith has two goals for Boston, exactly half of their season total. Last year's series between these two teams was very even.
Storylines: Gold Pride will be going after the record for consecutive wins. However, they have been outscored by an aggregate 2-1 in their two roads games and one has to wonder if the long road trips they must endure will have an effect on them. Boston’s home field advantage that we saw in early 2009 appears to have disappeared with only 2 points to show for their last 4 home games.

The previews for the other WPS weekend games will appear later in the week.

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