Spiga

May 6, 2010

WPS Midweek Notes - May 5


Bompastor Earns Player of the Week (corrected)

Call her Athletica killer or call her one of the best midfielders in WPS, because either one would be an apt description of Washington Freedom midfielder, Sonia Bompastor, this week’s WPS Player of the Week. Bompastor scored the first Freedom goal in their 3-1 victory over Saint Louis Athletica on Saturday at RFK stadium. The shot was a perfectly placed, perfectly struck ball from about 12 yards out that went upper right corner. She also assisted on Washington’s 2nd goal of the day by Homare Sawa via a corner kick. They were her first points of the season.

The French international has quite simply given Athletica fits, scoring 3 of her 5 career goals against them in just 4 meetings. Last season, Bompastor scored 4 goals and earned 6 assists, which tied for best in that category.

Home Sweet Home

After a month of criss-crossing the country, the Atlanta Beat finally come home to play in their new stadium on the campus of Kennesaw State University. Atlanta’s travels have taken them from Philadelphia to Washington to Bay Area and back to Philadelphia. They open their new state-of-the-art $16.5 million stadium in style this coming Sunday against defending champions Sky Blue FC on the FSC game of the week.

The grand opening for the stadium occurred on May 2, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and public festivities. The stadium seats 8300 for soccer, although it can accommodate up to 16,000 for concerts. The stadium is located just north of the city of Atlanta.

Have You Got a Minute?

All White Kit now launches the American Soccer Minute for WPS, a twice a week audio preview/predictions and results show, featuring Scott Reynolds. It’s a quick hitting minute of what to look for in upcoming WPS games and review of the previous weekend’s matches. Scott gives you a lot of information in a very condensed time frame. Please check it out at this link on All White Kit. And hey, it only takes a minute!

Atlanta BeatBrett Maron made her first start in goal against Philadelphia last weekend, making 6 saves on 7 shots…..The Beat will be looking to light up the scoreboard after a road trip that saw them surprisingly score only 2 goals in 4 matches…..Atlanta logged over 10,000 miles of travel in their 4 game road trip which saw them travel to both coasts.

Boston Breakers – The Breakers two English internationals have had success against the Freedom, Kelly Smith with two goals and Alex Scott with a goal and an assist in the 5 previous meetings.....While many teams have had trouble defending the Washington, Boston has given up just 4 goals in 5 matches against the Freedom …..Saturday’s 2-0 loss at the hands of the Chicago Red Stars marks the first time Boston had lost a game by more than a one goal margin since losing to the Red Stars 4-0 last April.

Chicago Red Stars - Casey Nogueira scored her 2nd WPS goal last Saturday. Last season, no college draft choice had more than two for the entire season in WPS…..Jill Loyden earned her 3rd career shutout on Saturday against the Breakers…..The Red Stars have a 5-1 record in games where they have scored two or more goals.

FC Gold PrideChristine Sinclair is tied for the league lead in goals with 3, in spite of missing a match for international duty…..Nicole Barnhart has earned three wins in goal for 2010, which matches her total for all of 2009…..Gold Pride has matched their previous best in scoring in 3 consecutive matches and look to top that mark this Saturday against the Red Stars.

Philadelphia Independence – The Independence look to break a WPS record for the longest unbeaten streak to start a season. Last season, Chicago started 2-0-2 before falling to Sky Blue in their 5th game, while Los Angeles was 3-0-1 before losing to Boston in their 5th match…..The Independence continue to give their opponents problems on set pieces, scoring 3 of their 5 goals in that fashion…..Last weekend, Lori Lindsey scored her first goal of the season after assisting on Philadelphia’s first 4 goals.

Saint Louis Athletica – Since June 1, 2009, Athletica is 0-3 vs. Washington and 9-1-4 against the rest of the league in regular season matches…..Athletica has now scored a goal in 9 consecutive matches…..Saint Louis surrendered 3 goals for the 2nd time in their history, almost a year to the day to the other time, both on the road at Washington.

Sky Blue FC – The trade of Anita Asante means that Rosana is the only international that has taken the field for Sky Blue in both seasons…..SBFC have only scored 3 goals this season, but it is an improvement over 2009 when they scored only one goal total in their first 4 matches…..Sky Blue have won both games in which Meghan Schnur has played and lost both games that she has not.

Washington FreedomAbby Wambach now has 6 assists, which ties a WPS record for most assists in a season after only 4 games. She also now has the record for 5 regular season matches with an assist…..Washington’s last four goals have been scored by 4 different internationals, Lisa DeVanna, Sonia Bompastor, Homare Sawa, and Lene MykjÃ¥land. The only international that hasn’t scored is goalkeeper Erin McLeod…..The Freedom are 1 of only 2 teams to have not earned a shutout this season, the other being this week’s opponent, the Boston Breakers. (Correction to above for Abby Wambach, that should read "She now has the record with 5 consecutive regular season matches with an assist." Sorry for the error...typing at 2 in the morning leads to mistakes.)

Trivia Question - FC Gold Pride and Sky Blue FC earned 6 points in the month of April. Which team holds the record for most points earned in one month and how many points did they earn?

1 comments:

kevinwparker on May 6, 2010 at 8:02 AM said...

The Los Angeles Sol last June had six matches with the result tie - win - tie - win - win - win for a total of 14 points. I didn't check anyone else, but I doubt anyone improved on that.