Thanks Beat management and staff for acting so quickly to schedule a replacement game today. Y'all really do a great job in putting your fans first!
Beat draw with the Tampa Bay Hellenic, 1-1. I really wish that was a typo. No Tobin, Zerboni, or Yamaguchi. Atlanta dominated the game, but the finishing woes continued again. Some of it was rotten luck, hitting the woodwork at least five times on the night. Some of it was just poor decision making again. Ramona trying to dribble through a wall of players far too often. She took a knock with roughly fifteen minutes left and the Beat didn't sub anyone in for her, so hope she's OK. No Robinson or Mundy either. Hamm and Nolin started the match, Nolin got the headed goal which may or may not have crossed the line (I don't think they showed a replay). Also got our first look at Mattern and Schumacher-Hodge in the second half. Keepers split the match, Maron in the first and Whitworth in the second. Whitworth had a nightmare on the goal she gave up, probably not doing herself any good. Best keeper on the pitch was Tampa's Ashley Baker, who made some fabulous saves and showed great command of her area. It's getting harder to excuse these bad results as just being unlucky. Somewhere along the line, you have to create your own luck. Not being able to beat a very pedestrian W-League team that just lost to the Silverbacks 3-0 a week ago isn't encouraging.
Ramona had to try ro dribble through the wall of defenders, as absolutely no one save Rasmussen was going forward with her. We generated some good chances in the first half. We stunk to high heaven in the second half. Putting Thompson in for Ocampo in the second half was really not a great move. I was discouraged to see Heath back in the ankle immobilizer boot. Hopefully she didn't reinjure herself.
partly OT Mami Yamaughi played the full 90 minutes today: Japan 2 0 China Meaning that she and Japan just qualified for World Cup 2011 (but China does NOT )
Yes, thank you to the Beat for re-arranging things. Although the result was disappointing, it wasn't nearly as disappointing a not having a game at all! As a season ticket holder, I greatly appreciated the "personal touch" of receiving a phone call from the Beat's staff explaining what was happening. It was nice having the heads-up and knowing that the Beat's staff was taking care of things on their end. Good job, everyone!
oh no... i saw a synopsis of an article on google (couldn't get to the whole thing cause i'm not registered on the site) and definitely saw the words "Heath," "ankle sprain," and the dreaded s-word tossed in together. no clue if they were related but there it is. idk if it's so much "reinjure" anymore as "staying injured"... i hope this doesn't turn into a repeat of 2007, when all she did was play hurt (that ankle too).
I said reinjured only because I thought I saw her two weeks ago without the boot and without the limp. I was on the opposite side of the field for that game, though, so I could be mistaken.
the tv broadcast that game, it looked like she didn't have a boot or a brace, and seemed pretty comfortable crouching down when mccall/sonia knocked heads. it could also be, though, that they caught something they didn't before... i hope not. maybe it's a precaution? i guess we'll find out Sunday-- this weekend is 6 weeks. i had it marked to try to convince my grandmother to take me to the game (that of course fell through). ah well.