When does the FC Gold Pride head to New Jersey for the game, and who will be on the travel roster? Will they take 16 or 18? Is everyone healthy and ready to play? Who will be the designated twitterers? I am predicting a 2-1 win for the Pride? Thoughts?
Kessler tweeted that today (Wednesday) was their last practice before flying to NY, so we can probably infer that they will travel Thursday. I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that only 16 players get to travel. If that's the case, I'd guess they'll take the 14 that played in the opener plus DiMartino and Whitworth.
Wow, according to the team website, Erika has a "slightly" fractured nose, so she won't be making the trip to NJ. So Erika and Adriane are the two of the 18 that don't get to go. I'm now thinking it'll be Code: Sinclair Arakawa Weimer Formiga DiMartino Osborne Robinson Beuhler Dew Graczyk Barnhart
If that is the starting lineup it means we have Milbrett, Chastain, Wilson, and Yokers available for subs. I remember Brandi playing defensive wing for the US National Team later in her career. What about the others, especially Wilson and Yokers? We do seem light in the back line.
That defense worries me also. Rehashing what was said earlier in the week, Erika made a lot of mistakes-might be a good thing she won't be there. Graczyk looks lost out there. Out of position and not sure of herself. Has Tracy Hamm signed with anyone? We could sure use her. Did anyone else notice that we didn't score in the bay area all star game until Hamm, Oakes and Bogus were in? I was one of the few to sneak into the Storm game. Hamm, playing for the Storm, put so much pressure on Wilson that she either passed the ball to the Storm or kicked it out of bounds. She then switched sides and made Robinson look like she was standing still. The Storm forwards got past the defense three times for 1v1's with the goalie and just couldn't finish or the score would have been 3-2 for the Storm. Pretty scary. Albertin needs to swallow his pride (pun intended!) and ask her back.
Looking forward to seeing how the Pride lineup holds up on the road. Seems rough to have two roster players staying home.
Nice article on Tiffany Weimer in the Mercury News today. She certainly captured the media's imagination last week. http://www.mercurynews.com/sportsheadlines/ci_12120239?nclick_check=1
I agree with what seems to be the general consensus that our defenders -- particularly the outside backs -- are our weak spot, both on paper and on the evidence of the first game. One thing I will say, though, after watching the game rerun, is that the first half was actually pretty well done, even by the defense. My impression is that they didn't really start to fall apart until the middle of the second half. One explanation for that is that Boston wasn't really playing well up until that point and, once they started actually testing the defense, we saw how weak they really were. Another explanation is that they simply ran out of gas in the heat. I suspect it was actually a combination of both, although it's hard to say in what proportion. Weather forecast for tonight in NJ is for temps in the low 50s cooling to mid 40s, so this will give us a great chance to see how they play when heat is not a factor. Or it would if we could actually see the game. On another note, the other thing I figured out from watching the game again is that Graczyk was the other culprit on the goal. It was Robinson who couldn't be bothered to mark Kelly Smith when she made the run across the penalty area, but Graczyk was the one who arrived a little later to pick up Smith. The problem is that instead of actually marking Smith, she just kind of meekly stepped out of bounds. Smith didn't even have to make a fake or anything, Graczyk just ran right off the field. I suppose Graczyk's theory was that Smith is so good that she clearly could have faked Graczyk off the field, so why not just step off the field voluntarily and save them both the trouble and energy of going through the whole fake process.
Starting lineups from Twitter: FCGP: Barnhart, Robinson, Dew, Buehler, Gracyzk, Formiga, Osborne, DiMartino, Arakawa, Sinclair, Weimer. Sky Blue FC: Bardsley, Asante, Schnur, Dowling, Sitch, Buczkowski, Parker, O'Reilly, McCallum, Kai, Walsh.
"Sky Blue FC and FC Gold Pride played to a 1-1 tie Saturday evening at TD Bank Park in Bridgewater, N.J. Carrie Dew finished a Tiffany Weimer corner kick in the 33rd minute to give FC Gold Pride the early advantage, but in the 81st minute Sky Blue FC's Heather O'Reilly equalized."
It sounds like they were lucky to escape with a draw. I think they've got to inject some speed into the defense next weekend or Marta is going to score the first hat trick in league history. A-Rod's speed gave us fits (it's a good thing she couldn't finish to save her life) and now it sounds like O'Reilly's speed was also a factor in the goal. I say we bring in Kandace Wilson in place of Graczyk. I'd also maybe bring in Erika in place of Robinson, but I'm less sure on that one: Code: Sinclair Arakawa Weimar Formiga DiMartino Osborne Wilson Beuhler Dew Erika Barnhart
Some more depth: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4801-NY-Soccer-Examiner~y2009m4d12-Sky-Blue-FC-FC-Gold-Pride-draw-in-New-Jersey
Considering that it took three or four great saves by Barnhart in the first half and the crossbar in the second half of the first game to salvage a win I think something must be done quickly to shore up the defense. Tracy Hamm should be brought back. Abegg should be on the game roster. Robinson and Gracyzk have proven they do not belong at this level - at least not starting. I would give others the chance to show they can. I also like the idea of Abegg since she is familiar with both Buehler and Barnhart and unity on the back line goes a long way to being successful as a unit.
and for the reports that I read, it sound like we forgot to bring our "Attacking mentality" Based on the reports, I think we were lucky to get 1 point.
Here's a video of all the goals scored so far. The goals from the SBFC-FCGP game start at about 2:58 in: http://womanssoccerinsider.blogspot.com/2009/04/wps-goals-weeks-1-3.html I didn't realize our goal came off of a short corner. Dew was a little lucky that the ball popped right to her, but she got a good shot off and it might have gone in even if it hadn't taken a slight deflection. From the description I had been envisioning a own-goal that was generously awarded to Dew, but that was not the case at all. Also, the SB goal really came out of nothing. Just a lack of speed (or fitness) for our back line. IMHO Montoya should use more subs on defense to keep fresh legs in there and not worry so much about getting every big name into the game at striker or attacking mid.
Very good point, and to add to it, why does he make offensive substitutions when his team has a lead? This is two games in a row. Doesn't make sense.