WPS Championship Game Photo Journal

Sky Blue FC wins first WPS crown after stormy season

We were at the first game of the WPS season as well as the last (and many inbetween). And what a season’ it’s been.

Sky Blue FC completed its storybook rise from bottomfeeder to league champion with a dramatic, 1-0 victory over a valiant, 10-woman Los Angeles Sol side, whose remarkable season ended in bitter disappointment at their home park.

Heather O’Relly earned MVP honors by scoring the match’s only goal in the 16th minute and later contributing a dazzling slide tackle to dispossess Aya Miyama during a dangerous sequence early in the second half of the inaugural WPS Championship Match.

“It’s a special team we have here with Sky Blue,” said Christie Rampone, who began the season as team captain and ended it as the interim player/coach. “It was a great run for us just battling back to get into the playoffs.”

In ideal conditions at The Home Depot Center, the match began evenly with neither side producing much in the way of dangerous possession through the first quarter hour. Sky Blue FC earned a deep throw-in in the 17th minute and Keeley Dowling began the season’s most important series of passes by floating a well-meant cross into the box aimed at Natasha Kai. Back in the starting lineup after coming off the bench for playoff victories in Washington and St. Louis, Kai flicked the ball to the back post where Heather O’Reilly had shed Sol right back Manya Makoski and the U.S. National Team star did not miss her mark, beating Karina LeBlanc to put the underdog visitors on top.

For LeBlanc, who had posted a dozen clean sheets in 19 starts, the goal against was the product of a rare miscue from her backline which lost track of O’Reilly.

“It came pretty quickly,” LeBlanc said. “I was just trying to get something on it. The coaching staff said that it was pretty point blank. It came pretty hard.”

The Sol then set their sites on the equalizer, and nearly had a chance in the 24th minute but Jen Buczkowski, who has started throughout the playoffs for the Euro-bound Anita Asante, swooped in to tackle the ball away from Shannon Boxx.

Three minutes later, controversy ensued when Natasha Kai made a long run on the ball and was fouled from behind by Allison Falk. Referee Kari Seitz reached for her pocket and pulled out a red card on the basis that Falk was the last defender back to deny Kai an opportunity to score.

“I didn’t feel it was a red card. I thought it was a poor decision,” Sol coach Abner Rogers said. “Stephanie Cox was a recovering player so (Falk) wasn’t the last defender. And it wasn’t a blatant tackle.”

The loss of manpower was rarely evident. The Sol spent almost the entire second half assaulting the Sky Blue FC goal, but continued to fall just short of finding the equalizer. O’Reilly’s moment of defensive magic came in the 51st minute when Marta held the ball and laid it off for Aya Miyama on the right side of the penalty area. O’Reilly charged in to win enough of the ball to force a corner kick. The crowd—7,218 strong—gasped in anticipation of the equalizing red card, but there was no such call.

“I did get the ball, but that’s a scary play especially with what happened early in the game,” O’Reilly said. “She’s a sneaky player and she slipped right behind me. I know that as an outside midfielder, that’s my mark.”

Moments later, Marta ran on to a ball in space and Buczkowski, Dowling, and Meghan Schnur all made outstanding defensive plays over the next two minutes to keep the Sol at bay.

“They did a great job,” Rampone said of her defense, of which she is the fourth member. “They did a good job of being mindful of where (Marta) was and dropping when they needed to and stepping when we needed to. Just trying to play that game with her instead of man marking her, basically trying to frustrate her.”

The Sol never let up. They had two great chances in the 61st minute, the first a backheel by Han Duan that did not have enough on it, and the second a twisting ball by Miyama that Jenni Branam went up high to corral.

Shannon Boxx ripped off a shot in the 72nd minute that Branam spilled for a corner kick, but the corner went to Cox who sent a chip harmlessly over everyone.

The last dangerous moments of the season for the Sol commenced six minutes from time when Branam had to make a tough touch on a Marta cross intended for Miyama. The ensuing corner kick went to Boxx who slipped a pass in to substitute Lyndsey Patterson near the top of the six-yard box. Branam fell on it at the last moment.

“Amazing,” Rampone said of Branam, who has battled injuries and illness and thrived with a frenetic, high-risk style that has given Sky Blue FC fans many anxious moments during the season. “Jenni was a huge part of our success. She allows the backline to hold a higher line at times because she comes off her line. She basically won a lot of these games for us. She does get hit and she goes down, but I know nothing is going to keep her off the field.”

Sol players remained on the field after the match while Sky Blue FC celebrated, and LeBlanc addressed the fans, who helped the Sol lead not only the standings but the attendance table. Still it was a tough pill to swallow for a team that raced to the head of the pack in April and never looked back.

“When the season started, we had a lot of goals. And we accomplished all of them but one,” said Boxx, the team captain. “I’m not disappointed in our whole season. I think we played very well all year. Does this one hurt? Yeah, it hurts a lot.”

“I thought it showed a lot of character to play the way the second half that we played with ten players,” Rogers said.

The inaugural WPS season concludes on Sunday, Aug. 30 with the WPS All-Star Game presented by the Coast Guard. The match will pit the WPS All-Stars against Swedish Champions Umeå IK and will be played at The Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park, Saint Louis Athletica’s home field, in Fenton, Mo.

Weekend Highlights 6/16/08

June 16, 2008 – The big news over the weekend was the Lakers win over the Celts – sending Kobe & Co. back to Boston down 3-2 in the Final series.  But Friday night at the Staples Center was almost as exciting with the Los Angeles Sparks beating Connecticut in overtime, 98-93. For the second consecutive game, all five Sparks starters scored in double figures for Los Angeles. The next night, the Sparks ignited once again for a win over the Monarchs in Sacramento.

In other news:

Soccer: The U.S. Women open the 2008 Peace Queen Cup with 2-1 victory over Australia.   Forward Natasha Kai scored in the first half and forward Abby Wambach added the winner 13 minutes from the end of the game. The Americans face Brazil next on June 17 at the Suwon Sports Complex.

Beach Volleyball:  Reigning Olympic champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh set a record for team gold-medal finishes on the SWATCH FIVB World Tour on Saturday as the U.S. beach volleyball tandem defeated Jia Tian and Jie Wang of China for the US$600,000 smart Grand Slam title in Berlin, Germany.

Waterpolo: The USA Women’s Senior National Team’s bid for a third straight FINA World League Super Final title was halted by Russia as Team USA lost 8-7 in the championship game.

Motocross: The third round of the Women’s Motocross World Championship saw Germany’s Steffi Laier take her second consecutive victory; once again it was a double moto win for the German, who topped the podium from Katherine Prumm and hometown rider Livia Lancelot. Laier moved up to fifth in the Championship.

Wambach’s goal gives U.S. women Algarve Cup

March 12, 2008 – Abby Wambach scored her 88th international goal today to help the United States win the Algarve Cup for a record sixth time with a 2-1 victory over Denmark.

The Algarve Cup is a prestigious invitational tournament for national women’s soccer (football) teams held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal.

Coming into the championship game, the Danes had yet to allow a goal in the competition, but that changed in the 14th minute of the final when Carli Lloyd sent a corner kick to an unmarked Kai, who met it solidly just outside the six-yard box, heading the ball down and through the legs of Denmark goalkeeper Heidi Johansen on the bounce.

Wambach scored the winning goal in the 49th minute, sprinting down the right flank and breaking two tackles before sending a low drive into the corner.

Sweet victory!

2008 Algarve Cup Final Standings
1-USA  2-Denmark  3-Norway 4-Germany  5-Sweden  6-Italy  7-Iceland  8-Finland  9-China  10-Portugal  11-Poland  12-Ireland