Last Second Goal Lifts Philly over Shorthanded Sky Blue

Lianne Sanderson scored in stoppage time to give Philadelphia a 2-1 victory over Sky Blue FC on Sunday. It was the third goal of the season for the English striker, who came into the match as a substitute in the 77th minute of action. The victory brings the Independence level with Western New York, but the Flash still have the inside track for first place with two games remaining to Philly's one.

Sky Blue played a player down for almost the entire second half as Carrie Dew picked up a second yellow card for taking down Danesha Adams early in the second half. She had picked up her first in the opening minutes of the first half.

Philadelphia came out buzzing and put good pressure on the Sky Blue goal in the opening minutes of the match. Veronica Boquete's free kick from 24 yards was heading just under the crossbar, but Jen Branam managed to tip the ball over the net in the 2nd minute. On the ensuing corner kick, Boquete started back in the center circle and found herself wide open as she charged toward the penalty area unmarked. But her shot from just outside the box went over the crossbar.

The Independence broke on top in the 17th minute. Leigh Ann Robinson sent a beautiful long ball up the center of the field for Tasha Kai. The ball had spin on it and took a hop to the right. Kai took time to measure it and then placed a beautiful shot in the upper left side over Branam to make it 1-0.

Sky Blue tried to pull even just three minutes later, but Eni Aluko's shot from a tough angle was saved by Nicole Barnhart. However, four minutes later, Tobin Heath made a run up the center of the field. Drawing the defense toward her, she pushed a nice little through pass to Aluko, who finished with her right foot past Barnhart and into the right side of the net to tie the score.

Branam made a nice save on Boquete a few minutes later as Kai's header hit the Spanish striker in stride. Boquete's blast from 20 yards was saved by the agile Branam. In the 41st minute, Adams laid the ball off for Tina DiMartino, whose shot from 22 yards was also saved by Branam.

Sky Blue nearly took the lead just before intermission. A Heather O'Reilly cross went over the head of several players to bounce right to Brittany Taylor. She flicked a header just wide of the left post.

Dew picked up her second yellow card of the match as she slid late into Adams who was dribbling up the center of the field. It did appear that Dew attempted to put on the brakes, but it was too late and Adams went tumbling over the Sky Blue defender and referee Ted Unkel pulled out the yellow and dismissed Dew from the match.

Sky Blue caught a bit of a break in the 67th minute, as Amy Rodriguez chipped a shot over a diving Branam into the right post. With Branam laying on the ground, the ball bounced right back into her lap.

Philadelphia continued to pressure as the half wore on. Laura del Rio hit a hard shot from 15 yards, but Kendall Fletcher headed it clear. In the 77th minute, Branam made a nice save on Rodriguez' shot inside the near post. Branam later made two big saves in one-on-one situations with del Rio to keep the game level at one.

But just when it appeared that Sky Blue might hang on for the tie, one that would have clinched a playoff berth for them, Philadelphia got the game winner. Amy Rodriguez nodded a header forward from the edge of the eighteen. The ball appeared to deflect slightly off of Tobin Heath's head to the front of the goal where three Philly players were waiting against one defender and Branam. Joanna Lohman was able to touch the ball past Branam to Sanderson who finished just before a lunging Kendall Fletcher could get there and the Independence had scored the winner.

For Sky Blue and especially for Jen Branam, it was a harsh result. They needed just a tie to clinch a playoff berth, but were denied in the closing moments. Branam certainly made several great saves to keep her team even until that last second goal. They now face a one game do-or-die contest in Boston next week, still needing only a tie to advance to the playoffs.

Philadelphia's record goes to 11-3-3, good for 36 points and tied with Western New York. They have clinched second place and still have an outside shot at the top position, but the Flash have the inside track with an additional match remaining. The Independence close the season next Sunday in Boca Raton against third place magicJack.

Note: Philadelphia is a perfect 9-0-0 with Veronica Boquete in the starting lineup.

Correction: It was Danielle Johnson, not Kendall Fletcher, who was the last defender trying to block the shot on the game winning goal.

WPS Standings
(1) Western New York 11-2-3, 36 pts; (1) Philadelphia 11-3-3, 36 pts; (3) magicJack 8-6-2, 25 pts; (4) Sky Blue FC 5-8-4, 19 pts; (5) Boston 4-9-4, 16 pts; (6) Atlanta 1-12-4, 7 pts.

Schedule:
Wednesday, August 10
Western New York at magicJack

Sunday, August 14
Philadelphia at magicJack
Sky Blue FC at Boston
Atlanta at Western New York

Playoff Scenarios:
Sky Blue needs a tie or win against Boston to clinch 4th place. Boston needs to win in order to clinch 4th place.

Philadelphia and Western New York are tied for 1st place, with Philadelphia owning the tiebreaker at this point. Western New York has a game in hand.

magicJack has clinched 3rd place and will host the first round of the playoffs.

WPS Awards - Who I Voted For and Why.....Part 2

In Part 2, I'll look at the final two awards, plus one that wasn't voted on, but I feel deserves mention.

WPS Rookie of the Year - Jordan Angeli, Boston Breakers

This award was just flat out hard to vote on. Not only were the four players on the ballot all worthy choices, but there were about a half dozen more that could have and perhaps, should have been on the ballot.

Brittany Taylor, Ali Riley, and Lauren Cheney all had solid seasons from beginning to end. Meanwhile, Jordan Angeli only played 26 minutes in Boston's first four games and didn't become a regular starter until the 8th game of the season. But it was the definition of the award that put Angeli ahead of the others on my ballot.

Description: Awarded to the rookie – one year removed from playing in college – judged to have had the greatest impact on her team’s performance during the WPS regular season.

At the point Angeli was inserted into the starting lineup, the Breakers were floundering in 6th place. From that point on, Angeli had seven goals and three assists over the last 17 matches. In early July, she scored the game-tying goal against Atlanta, followed by the game-winning goal against Washington. She tallied both a goal and an assist in a late July game against the Freedom and again in mid-August against Sky Blue. In both cases, they were the first two goals of those games. Angeli had been expected to be a defender at the start of the season, but stepped right into the midfielder's role when needed. Her impact on the Breakers cannot be understated and for that reason, she was my choice for this award.

Ali Riley had a very strong season for FC Gold Pride. The speedy outside defender is dangerous on the attack as well as being a solid defender. She earned a respectable three assists from her back line position and was one of the reasons for the strong improvement of Gold Pride's defense compared with 2009.

Brittany Taylor was one of the few constants in the Sky Blue lineup this year. She started and finished every single game for New Jersey and played well throughout. And like Angeli, she showed the versatility to play midfield as well as defender. Taylor finished the season with two goals.

In my mind, Lauren Cheney is the heir apparent to Abby Wambach. She's a big strong forward with a lot of talent and is a constant threat to score. She is one of the most dangerous players in the league with her back to the goal, turning on her opponents with quick precision to get off that blast of a shot. Her arrival took some pressure off of Kelly Smith as well. I just felt her Breaker teammate, Angeli, had more of an impact in this season.

I feel that the mention of a few more worthy names that didn't make the ballot is called for here. The Freedom's Nikki Marshall showed unbelievable versatility, playing solidly at both forward and defender. She started on the back line, but then scored three goals in a brief stint as a forward, before being moved back to defender. Her return to the back line coincided with Washington's August resurgence, giving the Freedom the speed on defense that they had been lacking.

The Red Stars' Whitney Engen lacked just four minutes of duplicating Taylor's feat of playing every minute. She was solid and often overlooked on Chicago's back line, at least partly because of the Red Stars being out of contention most of the season. She helped lead a Chicago team that was second only to Gold Pride defensively.

Four other players worthy of strong praise were Ashlyn Harris, Alyssa Naeher, Becky Edwards, and Kelley O'Hara. Once Harris got her feet wet, she had a phenomenal month of August, giving up just two goals, one of which was an own goal. Naeher was the Breaker's starting keeper for the final two thirds of the season and did a solid job for them. Edwards is perhaps one of the most underrated and overlooked young players in the league for Gold Pride. O'Hara had outstanding rookie totals with six goals and four assists for Gold Pride. It will be hard for future rookie classes to match this one in shear talent and depth.

Michelle Akers Player of the Year Award - Marta, FC Gold Pride

For many people, choosing Marta as the winner of this award was cut and dry. She far surpassed everyone else with her 19 goals over 24 games. She didn't miss a minute for FC Gold Pride this year. She helped 2009's last place team become 2010's champion. Quite simply, she was the best player on the best team in WPS and her impact on Gold Pride's performance was immense.

For me, however, this was a lot tougher decision than it appeared, considering that Gold Pride was going to be a very good club, even without Marta. They certainly wouldn't have been 16-3-5 without her, but they still might have won the regular season. So I decided to look deeper, before making a final decision.

First, I wanted to look at high impact goals, goals that either tied the game or put a team in front. I did this before the final two weekends of the season, right before I submitted my ballot. At that point, between the four players on the ballot, it was very, very close overall:

Marta - 17 goals, 7 game-leading goals (2 PK's included), and one game-tying goal.
Rodriguez - 12 goals, 4 game-leading goals, and 3 game-tying goals.
Wambach - 12 goals, 5 game-leading goals, and 2 game-tying goals (1 PK included).
Smith - 11 goals, 6 game-leading goals (1 PK included), and 2 game-tying goals.

So at that point, Marta had 8 high-impact goals (two of which were penalty kicks), Smith had 8 high-impact goals (one of which was a penalty kick), Rodriguez had 7 high-impact goals (no penalties), and Wambach had 7 high-impact goals (one of which was a penalty kick). The other three candidates had as many high-impact goals as Marta did, which was somewhat of a surprise given how many games Gold Pride won. Both Marta and Wambach later added one game-leading goal apiece.

I also looked at assists. At the time I voted, Wambach had eight assists, Rodriguez had six, Smith five, and Marta just two. Marta did add three assists in Gold Pride's final game of the season, more than doubling her assist total in just one swoop.

Then I looked at each players impact on their respective teams and in all cases, it was tremendous. There is no doubt that Gold Pride became a good team because of overall excellence, but became a great team because of Marta. She helps others score because she draws defenders away from her teammates. She's the most talented player, one of the fastest, and has the best instincts of any player in the world.

But the other three candidates had a huge impact as well. Where would Philadelphia be without Rodriguez? She scored 12 goals for Philadelphia, while no one else on the team had more than five. Defenses could key on her, since the Independence didn't have a lot offensive threats.

Where would the Freedom have been without Wambach? Washington scored 33 goals and she had a part in 21 goals, nearly two-thirds of the Freedom's offensive output. She always draws multiple defenders, no matter which team she is playing.

Where would the Breakers have been without Smith? She is their leading scorer, leading assist getter, and along with Kristine Lilly, gives Boston veteran leadership that helped bring them back from near the basement to a legitimate contender for the title.

With all of the above factors in mind, it was nearly too close to call among the four. All had great seasons. All are extremely talented players. All had a tremendous impact on their team's performance. All are also leaders for their teams. In the end, I went with Marta. It all came back to her being the best player on the best team and having a large impact in making that team into a champion.

One Unofficial Award

There was one award that I don't think WPS awards and that we certainly did not vote on, but I think merits mention.

Comeback Player of the Year - Lindsay Tarpley, Boston Breakers

Had this been one of the categories we had voted on, it too would have been a tough decison. Several players come to mind, but I will mention five that stand out. Lindsay Tarpley, Sarah Huffman, and Kandace Wilson all came back from horrific injuries to make a huge impact on their teams this season. Kate Markgraf missed the entire 2009 season on maternity leave, but came back to lead the Red Stars' defense in a solid 2010 season. Joanna Lohman came back from virtual retirement to become Philly's second leading goal scorer. Each of these players are wonderful stories in perseverance and achievement.

Lindsay Tarpley's injury came at the very end of the 2009 WPS season in August. One had to wonder how much impact she could have in 2010, given the long recovery time of most ACL injuries. She scored one goal for Saint Louis, before signing with Boston and having a major impact on their season turnaround. She ended up with four goals and three assists, helping the Breakers to 2nd place.

Sarah Huffman missed nearly the entire 2009 season, save for a brief appearance in the Freedom's one playoff match. Her solid play helped the Freedom overcome the loss of Lori Lindsey in the expansion draft. Huffman's play was strong enough to impress Pia Sundhage, who named her to the preliminary USWNT roster for the next round of friendlies in October.

Kandace Wilson suffered a severe hip injury nearly midway through the 2009 campaign, but was back in Gold Pride's lineup for 2010, helping the most-improved defensive team in the league. Not to mention, her speed and ability on forward runs always presents a threat to opposing defenses.

Not many 33-year old players could take off a full year, have a child, and return the following year to have an excellent season on the field (only Kristine Lilly comes to mind immediately). But Kate Markgraf came back to captain and lead Chicago's defense through the 2010 season. It was great to see her back on the field.

Finally, Joanna Lohman showed that hard work does eventually pay off. Lohman was originally drafted by Saint Louis in the fall of 2008, then traded to Washington. Last year, she ended up playing a total of 248 minutes with the Freedom and there was talk about her retiring from professional soccer. However, she returned to the field with Philadelphia and had a great season in their midfield with five goals. She is being given a shot at USWNT camp for the upcoming October friendlies, this being several years since her last appearance with the team.

There are certainly other players worthy of mention including Anita Asante and Jen Branam. All of these players should be given huge praise for their accomplishments and they each have my admiration. I hope the league will establish an award for Comeback Player of the Year in the future.

Breakers Edge Philly on Penalty Kick

Kelly Smith buried a penalty kick in the 60th minute giving Boston a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia in WPS action on Sunday. The victory moves the Breakers to within two points of the second place Independence.

Philadelphia got on the board first as an Amy Rodriguez shot hit the left post, but Joanna Lohman was there to knock in the rebound to put the Independence up 1-0 in the 17th minute. It was Lohman's fifth goal of the season.

Boston equalized late in the first half. Kristine Lilly played a short corner out to Stephanie Cox who was at the edge of the penalty area. Cox was able to chip the ball over Philly keeper Karina LeBlanc who was off of her line. It was the first WPS goal for Cox.

The game remained tied until Lauren Cheney and Estelle Johnson were chasing a ball into the penalty area, when Johnson took down Cheney while the two were battling for the ball. Smith placed her penalty lower right, with LeBlanc guessing the wrong way. The goal put the Breakers in the lead to stay.

The Breakers nearly made it 3-1 off of another short corner, but Cheney's goal was disallowed for offsides. Later, Caroline Seger appeared to have tied the game for Philadelphia off of Magnusdottir free kick, but the goal was disallowed on what appeared to be a questionable offside call.

Boston moves to 9-7-5 and 32 points. They will travel to Atlanta to play the Beat on Wednesday evening with a chance to sew up a playoff berth. Philadelphia lost their second in a row to drop to 10-8-4 and are still a point short of clinching a playoff spot. The Independence also return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Chicago to face the Red Stars.

Standings
1) FC Gold Pride (14-3-4, 46 pts); 2) Philadelphia (10-8-4, 34 pts); 3) Boston (9-7-5, 32 pts); 4) Washington (7-8-7, 28 pts); 5) Sky Blue FC (7-10-4, 25 pts); 6) Chicago (5-11-6, 21 pts); 7) Atlanta (5-11-5, 20 pts).

WPS Midweek Game & Notes-July 1

This week's midweek matchup features the 4th place Washington Freedom against the basement dwelling Red Stars at Toyota Park in Chicago. Meanwhile, Los Angeles has clinched a playoff spot and other teams are making some last minute roster moves for the playoff run.

Washington Freedom at Chicago Red Stars

At this point in the season, what else can go wrong for Chicago? They haven't scored for 403 minutes, eclipsing the mark they set earlier in the season at 396 minutes. They've been shut out eight times for the year. They have only scored in one of their six home games. They've only scored twice since the month of April, not winning a match over that time period. They have had two players red carded, Frida Östberg and Karen Carney, one in each of the previous two meetings with the Freedom. Chioma Igwe will be suspended for this game because of accumulation of yellow cards, four in the last 7 games. They have had injuries to Ella Masar, Carli Lloyd, Ifeoma Dieke, and Marian Dalmy, all starters. They are coming off their worst performance of the year, a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Los Angeles Sol. Can it get any worse?

Chicago will go into this game without Dalmy, Igwe, and Masar. The good news is that the Red Stars are still only 5 points out of fourth place, presently occupied by the team they will face Wednesday evening, the Washington Freedom. If they could beat the Freedom, they would creep to within two points of a playoff spot, with Washington facing a weekend contest against the 1st place Sol.

With only 7 games left, the Red Stars need to go all out for the victory. They need to control the midfield and possession by using a lot of accurate, quick, one-touch passes, switching points of attack, and keeping the Freedom off balance. The talent is there between Carney, Lloyd, Brittany Klein, and Megan Rapinoe. Danesha Adams adds another aspect to their attack and Cristiane is the one Red Star who has been able to score.

After defeating Saint Louis 10 days ago, the Freedom looked poised to put their stamp on the 2nd place position. However, a loss to Boston combined with an Athletica victory has them back in 4th place. The Freedom will be missing starter Allie Long who is injured.

It will be interesting to see how Jim Gabarra uses Sonia Bompastor in this match. She has played quite a bit out of the back lately, but the Freedom's offensive production is down drastically over the last 4 games, scoring just two goals over that time. It might be better to use Ali Krieger and Alex Singer at the outside backs and move Bompastor back to midfield where she is more dangerous.

Abby Wambach has scored only two goals this season, both against Gold Pride in April. She is due. Lisa DeVanna continues to be the best scoring option up front for the Freedom. I continue to be impressed by Rebecca Moros, one of those blue collar players that just get the job done.

It will be an interesting goalkeeper matchup between Caroline Jönsson and Erin McLeod. Jönsson was the hot goalie early in the season, but I think all of the shots she has faced are finally catching up with her. McLeod has played very well since joining the Freedom. She has only given up more than a goal once and has two shutouts to her credit. This may be the last ditch effort for the Red Stars to make the playoffs, while the Freedom could give themselves a nice cushion for one of the remaining playoff spots.

Midweek Notes

Stephanie Cox of Los Angeles is one of just 11 players to have played every minute of every game for her team. Even more amazing is the fact that she has not committed any fouls in 15 games for the season. The only other player that has played every minute without committing a foul is Chicago goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson. The other 9 players to have played every minute are Amy LePeilbet, Kristine Lilly, Alex Scott (Boston Breakers), Aya Miyama (Los Angeles Sol), Angie Woznuk (Saint Louis Athletica), Becky Sauerbrunn, Homare Sawa, Cat Whitehill (Washington Freedom), and Anita Asante (Sky Blue FC). This list is likely to thin out even more with national team call ups and some upcoming tournaments in Asia and Europe.

For the time being, the Boston Breakers are in 2nd place, but the team in that position seems to change weekly. The last time the Breakers moved into 2nd place after beating the Sol back on May 2nd, they proceeded to go winless in their next five games.

FC Gold Pride has added Greer Barnes as a developmental player. Barnes, a former star for West Virginia, was recently waived by Los Angeles. Barnes was a 4th round draft pick of the Sol, but has yet to play in a WPS game.

Los Angeles acquired defender Christie Shaner from Sky Blue FC for a 3rd round draft pick. Shaner, a 4th round pick in the January draft, had seen action in only two games for New Jersey. She will replace Martina Franko, who is listed as being out for the season, apparently due to pregnancy.

Joanna Lohman was waived by the Washington Freedom. The Freedom had acquired Lohman in a trade with Saint Louis during the January draft. Athletica had originally drafted her in the general draft last October. Lohman had appeared in 3 games for the Freedom.

WPS Midweek Notes-May 20

Marta's Goal

Two weekends ago, Sky Blue's defense stymied Chicago, shutting them out and drawing the Red Stars into several offside calls. This past weekend, the strategy appeared to be working well again. Sky Blue was holding Los Angeles to a 0-0 tie 80 minutes into Friday's game in Carson. And then, in the blink of an eye, Marta broke through for a goal.

The first time I saw the play I thought that surely Marta must have been offside. Watching the replay, I instead saw that it was an absolutely perfectly timed play, from Camille Abily's pass to Marta's run. It couldn't have been done any better. Marta is so quick to get to full speed and she was a good 5 yards behind the defense before they were able to turn and pursue her. For good measure, she finished it off with a nifty little sidestep move on Sky Blue goalie Jen Branam and then placed the ball neatly into the net for the what proved to be the game winner.

Even after getting that far behind the defense, many players would have panicked and shot early or lost the ball on the dribble. Faced with the keeper running out at her and the defenders chasing from behind, Marta kept her composure, made the move on Branam, and made it look easy. This was certainly one of the prettiest plays in this young season.

Canadian Call Ups

In addition to the 17 WPS players that the US is calling up, the Canadian National Team has called up 6 WPS players for the upcoming US-Canada match. They are Karina LeBlanc (LA), Martina Franko (LA), Kelly Parker (SBFC), Christine Sinclair (FCGP), Melissa Tancredi (StL), and Candace Chapman (Bos). The Boston Breakers have a bye week, so the call up of Chapman will not affect them.

The United States will face Canada on May 25th in Toronto. It marks the first time that Canada has hosted the United States since 2001. The game was arranged at the last minute after the Japanese National Team cancelled their North American trip due to concerns about the swine flu outbreak.

Scoreless in Chicago

After scoring four goals against the Boston Breakers on April 25th, the Chicago Red Stars have now gone 218 minutes without scoring a goal. Their last goal was scored in the 52nd minute of the Boston game by Brittany Klein.

The Red Stars, who host Athletica this weekend, will be missing several starters due to National Team duty. Marian Dalmy, Lindsay Tarpley, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd will all miss this Saturday's contest. Saint Louis will also be missing several players for that match.

Maryland Via Virginia

Earlier this week, the Washington Freedom signed Sarah Senty of the University of Virginia to a contract. Senty was drafted by the Freedom, but chose to complete her college studies first. Senty becomes the fifth University of Virginia product on the Washington roster. This is the most from any one college on any team's roster. The other four players are Sarah Huffman, Lori Lindsey, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Alex Singer. Huffman has not played this year due to injury. Sauerbrunn and Singer were teammates of Senty at Virginia.

To make room on the roster for Senty, the Freedom waived Jayme Cargnoni.

Fighting Irish in St. Louis

Speaking of alumni, five Notre Dame players started the April 25th game between Los Angeles and Saint Louis. The Sol started Shannon Boxx and Brittany Bock, while Athletica started Melissa Tancredi, Kerri Hanks, and Elise Weber. A sixth Notre Dame alum, Amanda Cinalli, was unable to play because of an injury. Only 7 schools have as many as five players in the WPS. The University of North Carolina leads with 13, followed by Notre Dame with 10 and Virginia with 8. Portland, Santa Clara, Stanford, and UCLA are the other schools with at least 5 players in the league.

More Suspensions and Fines

The league handed down two more suspensions stemming from play in the Boston Breakers-Washington Freedom match last Sunday. Christine Latham of Boston was suspended two games and fined $250 for throwing an elbow in that game. The Freedom's Joanna Lohman was suspended for one game, also for an elbow thrown in the same match. It was Lohman's first game of the year.

Boston Coach Tony DiCicco, who was openly critical of the officiating following the Boston-Washington match, was fined $750 and required to do 4 hours of community service for his comments.

Change of Schedule

There have been two scheduling changes made by WPS in the past couple of days. The major change is that FSC will now broadcast the Los Angeles Sol-Boston Breaker game on August 9th, the last weekend of the regular season. It replaces the Saint Louis Athletica-FC Gold Pride game, which has now been moved to 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific that evening. That game will conclude the regular season. Apparently, FSC and WPS want to take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the league's two leading scorers, Marta and Kelly Smith.

The other change also involves Saint Louis. Their June 6th game against Sky Blue FC has now been moved to June 7th at 3pm Central Time. Although no reason was given specifically, I'm guessing it has partly to do with the US Men's National Team World Cup qualifier in Chicago that is scheduled for June 6th at Toyota Park in Chicago. The league's other two matches that weekend were already scheduled to be played on June 7th.