Stunning finish hands Flash regular-season title
- by Soccer America , Aug 18, 2013
The Flash will be the top seed in the playoffs that open Saturday and face Sky Blue FC, which could have made it a four-way tie for first place but tied the Washington Spirit, 1-1, in its final game.
The Flash will be going for four championships in four years after titles in the W-League (2010), WPS (2011) and WPSL Elite (2012).
Kansas City, which will host the Thorns Saturday, opened the scoring against Chicago when Courtney Jones scored in the 20th minute. But Hoy stunned the crowd of 4,910 fans with goals in the closing minutes of both halves to give Chicago the 2-1 win.
Last-place Washington concluded its inaugural NWSL season with three-match unbeaten streak, closing with a draw against Sky Blue FC before 4,241 fans at Maryland SoccerPlex. Stephanie Ochs scored for the Spirit with her first goal of the season in the 40th minute, Taylor Lytle equalized for Sky Blue in the 83rd minute.
Western New York and Portland had both earned 2-1 decisions on Saturday to move into a tie for first place with FC Kansas City.
Abby Wambach led Western New York with a goal and assist on Samantha Kerr's goal. The goal was Wambach's goal 11th of the season to finish tied for second with Boston's Sydney Leroux in the NWSL scoring race behind Lauren Holiday of Kansas City with 12 goals.
After Portland conceded the game’s opening goal to Seattle's Megan Rapinoe in the third minute, Christine Sinclair responded with a goal in each half to give the Thorns their 2-1 win before a sellout crowd of 3,855 at Starfire Sports Complex.
NWSL REWIND, Week 19:
Sunday, August 18
FC Kansas City 1 Chicago 2
Washington 1 Sky Blue FC 1
Saturday, August 17
Western NY 2 Boston 1
Seattle 1 Portland 2
NWSL SCHEDULE, Semifinals:
Saturday, August 24
Western NY vs. Sky Blue FC
FC Kansas City vs. Portland
NWSL FINAL STANDINGS:
PTS TEAM W-L-T +/-
38 Western NY 10-4-8 36/20
38 FC Kansas City 11-6-5 34/22
38 Portland 11-6-5 32/25
36 Sky Blue FC 10-6-6 31/26
-----------------------------------
30 Boston 8-8-6 35/34
30 Chicago 8-8-6 32/36
18 Seattle 5-14-3 22/36
14 Washington 3-14-5 16/39
NWSL LEADING SCORERS
G PLAYER (TEAM)
12 Lauren Holiday (FC Kansas City)
11+1 Abby Wambach (Western NY)
11 Sydney Leroux (Boston)
8+2 Christine Sinclair (Vancouver)
8 Monica Ocampo (Sky Blue FC)
8 Diana Matheson (Washington)
8 Alex Morgan (Portland)
7 Sophie Schmidt (Sky Blue FC)
Okay, I admit, I'm not a regular fan, so I was lost reading this. All the writer had to do was list the team names with their city in the opening paragraph(s), and then I could have followed who was doing what, who had achieved what, who was in the playoffs, etc. As it is, I never found out anything, because I didn't know who the Flash was, etc. It's a simple technique for making sure readers can follow along...