YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Jones to Cook to Mia to Abby who two touches it into the roof of the goal!! THE BULGE IN THE ONION BAG FINALLY!!
Well good goal by Abby. However I have to say that SD played absolutly STUPID defense. One of the defenders raised her hand and even LOOKED at the flag to see if an offside was called. If she had used that time to actually try to recover position she would have at least troubled Abby as it took some time to get the shot off because of a less thatn stellar first touch by Abby. I guess the defender was reverting to a four year old and asking to leave the room to go poo poo.
To be secure Washington NEEDS another. Siri just looks insecure. She just had trouble on a slow rolling low shot. One more would be good. If Washington has really dropped into a defensive shape this early it is a STUPID move and with any other teama near gaurentee of a loss or tie but SD has shown enough incopetence to loose even whe the other team plays stupidly.
Jones just muscled Mascaro off the ball... good header by her to Cook who loses it...we got it back... holding...slowing the pace a bit... Pu Wei loses it, Mia gets it... nothing
Washington MUCH too slow coming out of the back but they are fortunate in that SD is making the poor straight ahead pass instead of switching.
Throw in at the Freedom's end... lot of nothing from it. throw in for Freedom, they're showing foudy drinking when they should be showing the damn GAME. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Mac rips one into the box, cleared out. Little to Mia, fouled by Pickup, Yellow card, free kick - nada. damn.
Well Sd is trying to make sure they have no chance. THey keep sending the long high ball into the center but they have not had anything positive hapen from that route all game. It looks like Washington will win no matter what they do as SD seems incapable of playing with any smarts at all.
Damn, Mia's fun to watch, even if she doesn't convert! She just got a corner kick out of that and Wambach heads it wide. damn.
damn! Jaqui was free and shoots it wide!! Final whistle! THREE POINTS!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! We stay ahead of the Beasts by a point! That is IF they win. I'm counting on Carolina to KICK THEIR ASSES!! Norma
In the last four minutes SD had three good atacks wasted. They sent a high ball EVERY time and that was easy for Washington to handle. The last attack, number four, was on the ground and it was the only one that looked in any danger of producing a shot. A late break by J. Little was missed wide. Good win for Washington 1:0 but I hope that tonight's games have a bit more excitment and smarter play by both teams.
I liked the play in today's match. It was a little fatigued, but it could have been much worse. I could understand Washington's fatigue, having played Wednesday, but San Diego was a little sloppy when the ball wasn't at Foudy's feet. Good assist by Mia to Abby for the goal. Sloppy first touch, but she cleaned it up and roofed it. Excellent. It's great to be 4 points ahead of everybody else. Excellent work by Steffi today, and great work by Abby for not slowing down even though you could tell she was tired. Who thinks Washington has a shot to get a home game during the playoffs? I know a lot has to happen for that to occur, but I'm not ruling it out.
I spent most of last season rambling on about how we really needed a solid presence on the field. I begged for months for a Bad Ass German. Well we got one this year and all I have to say is.... Damn! I loves my German!!!! Steffi Rocks!
short synopsis Freedom Edge Spirit WASHINGTON (AP) - Abby Wambach scored in the 67th minute on an assist from Mia Hamm to lead the Washington Freedom to a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Spirit on Saturday. Washington (8-5-5) is unbeaten in its last six games and remains in third place in the standings. San Diego (4-9-4) limited the Freedom to just three shots on goal, including none in the first half, but struggled once Hamm entered the game at the start of the second half. Hamm set up the only goal by controlling the ball in traffic at the top of the penalty box, then squeezing a pass to Wambach for the open shot from 10 yards out. Wambach, a rookie forward, scored for the third straight game and leads the Freedom with nine goals this season. Hamm had her own chance to score in the 55th minute but sent an open eight-yard shot over the crossbar.
I love the fact that we are in control and setting the pace for the teams behind us. I love the fact that if we beat Carolina we have a legit chance at 2nd place. It sucked so bad last year when we were at the mercy of other teams. Like Mia said in the pregame... the Freedom are not killing themselves day in and day out to settle on anything less than the playoffs and hopefuly the cup. That's a great attitude. I think that was missing last year. We heard a lot about a lack of comitment from some players last year. This team is good to go!
I have been ranting to myself over the Atlanta/Carolina game for the last hour, so I need to talk about something else... I really do think we can catch Carolina, depending on how well we play the next three games and how well Carolina plays. If we can beat Carolina and Atlanta I really do think we're right there for a home playoff game. I'm not sure what Carolina's schedule is the next few games, but we most definitely control our destiny from here in. Go Washington! I'm really thinking Founders Cup these days, and I never thought I'd think that after last season...
I'm glad we got the win, but I don't think any MLS supporters are going to be buying Freedom tickets anytime soon. Boy that was a dull game! I thought the Freedom controlled the run of play except for the first and last few minutes. They seemed to be able to do 90% of the running and earn corner kicks almost at will (haven't checked the stats - how many altogether? 20? 50?), but couldn't get decent shots going. Thanks in large part to Steffi, we had a midfield this time, unlike the Boston game. San Diego had a couple of scary plays early on, but that was about it - they didn't seem to be able to accomplish much at all. (Kudos to my girl Carrie for once again shutting down a key player - Mac in this case.) We do have a mathematical chance at a home playoff game, but we're going to have to do a lot better than this to beat Carolina on Wednesday.
From the Washington Post: Freedom Closing In on Playoffs Freedom 1, Spirit 0 By Brian Straus Special to The Washington Post Sunday, July 28, 2002; Page D06
Officially 24,240, but that's because it was a doubleheader with DC United. Attendance looked good by Freedom standards (particularly considering the dubious weather), but it wasn't nearly that many until the MLS game started. Having all the youth teams in town for the national championships may have helped, too.
I showed up to RFK late and in a way I'm glad I did because I spotted April Heinrichs walking around with some people (why wasn't she watching the game?!?) Got into our seats just as Grubb was clearing the ball off the line. Yeah, Alana, I agree it was mostly dull. But unlike the May 18th doubleheader where there only seemed to be 6 or 7,000 for the Freedom and then another 12,000 showed up for United game, today there seemed to be at least 10,000 there to watch the Freedom. That was good to see. Other thoughts: *I haven't seen Steffie Jones dribble that much before -- great game from her. * Mia still looks rusty. She shanked that shot from 8 yards out (did Skylar set her up or what? Way to dribble around the defender on the end line, girl!). She also had that cross (shot?) later that was nowhere close to its intended destination (boy that was ugly!) * Zimny had another stupid foul late. The Spirit didn't make anything of it, but still I'd like to see Zimny avoid those late fouls just outside the box late in the game. * Saw Mak pacing around the bench. She looked like she was hungry to be in there. Not limping!