Freedom win sets up first-place showdown

• by Soccer America , May 31, 2010

[WPS] The Washington Freedom got first-half goals from Rebecca Moros and Abby Wambach and held on to defeat the Philadelphia Independence, 2-1, on Sunday evening and extend its unbeaten streak to four games. The win sets up a top-of-the-table clash Saturday between first-place FC Gold Pride and the Freedom in Castro Valley, Calif.

"I don't think we played our best game," said Freedom coach Jim Gabarra, "but we got the result. We could have made it easier on ourselves. Philadelphia is always going to make it tough. They are going to battle. They are a very physical team. They have the most penalties in the league."

Gabarra acknowledged the challenge ahead against the Pride.

"It will be tough on our defense," he said, "but I think we played well in the back this week. Hopefully we can build on that."

RESULTS:
May 30 in Boyds, Md.
Washington 2 Philadelphia 1. Goals: Moros (Welsh) 25, Wambach (pen.) 34; Sanderson 91+.
Washington -- McLeod, Sauerbrunn, Marshall, Whitehill, Moros (Miskel, 90), Goebel (Singer, 73), Bompastor, Long, Huffman, Welsh (Gilbeau, 66), Wambach
Philadelphia -- Henderson, Senty (Buczkowski, 46), Falk, Larsson, Mitts (Sanderson, 68), Kryzsik (Patterson, 77), Lohman, Seger, Lindsey, Rodriguez, Magnusdottir.
Referee: Ted Unkel.
Att.: 3,762.

May 29 in Piscataway, N.J.
Sky Blue FC 0 Boston 0.
Sky Blue FC -- Bardsley, Trotter, Koster, Taylor, Schnur,  Kalmari, Averbuch, Rosana (Schoepfer, 85), White (Landstrom, 72), Dallstream (Kai, 47), O'Reilly
Boston -- Phillips, Scott, LePeilbet, Moore, Cox, Osborne, Weimer (Fabiana, 64), del Rio (Angeli, 83), Lilly (Bogus, 88), Smith, Cheney.
Referee: Donald Dellavia
Att.: 3,418.

May 29 in Bridgeview, Ill.
Chicago 1 FC Gold Pride 0. Goal: Asllani (Dalmy) 56
Chicago -- Loyden, Markgraf, Dalmy, Engen, Spilger, Formiga, Carney, Chapman, Rapinoe (Nogueira, 58), Cristiane (Sitch, 91+), Asllani (Masar, 68).
FC Gold Pride -- Barnhart, Riley, Buehler, Chapman, O'Hara, Marta, Sinclair, Graczyk (Bosio, 77), Edwards, Milbrett (Wilson, 61), Dew (Gulbrandsen, 84).
Referee: Jose Carlos Rivero.
Att.: 3,845.

SCHEDULE:
June 5
FC Gold Pride vs. Washington, 10 pm ET
June 6
Philadelphia vs. Sky Blue FC, 6 pm ET
Chicago vs. Atlanta, 6 pm ET FSC

STANDINGS:
P TEAM W-L-T (+/-)
15 FC Gold Pride 5-2-0 (+4)
13 Washington 4-2-1 (+4)
11 Philadelphia 3-2-2 (+2)
11 Sky Blue FC 3-2-2 (0)
-------------------------------
7 Boston 1-2-4 (-2)
7 Chicago 2-4-1 (-2)
1 Atlanta 0-5-1 (-7)
Note: Results against disbanded St. Louis count in the standings.

LEADING SCORERS:
4 Aluko, Saint Louis
3 +1 Wambach, Washington
3 Marta, FC Gold Pride
3 Kalmari, Sky Blue FC
3 Smith, Boston
3 Sinclair, FC Gold Pride