FC Gold Pride fell short Sunday night as they hosted the Boston Breakers for the second time this season. The Breakers got the early goal in the 13th minute on a goal from Kellly Schmedes and were able to hang on to the lead. The win puts the Breakers in 2nd place, while Pride remain in 7th place with 12 points and a 9-game winless streak.

It seems Pride has all the pieces to the puzzle but can't seem to get it together. Every week, there is a different starting line-up. This week was no different as Nicole Barnhart, Rachel Buehler, and Christine Sinclair were all away on international duty. It makes it difficult for any team to play when you have to play, or start, with new teammates each week.

Greer Barnes who has been with the team for about two weeks was placed in the starting 11, and made her WPS debut, after not seeing any action with the LA Sol. She played the entire game and her game brought strength to the backline.

"I think I did well for my first game," said Barnes.  "I've been practicing with the team for about two weeks now, and I think we did well.  We just need to finish off our opportunities, put the ball in the back of the net. We're good defensively we just have to keep the ball. I thought we did well we just have to get the W."

The problem for Pride seems to be in the midfield and forwards, and not so much on the defensive end. They need to put their chances away. They need to creat something in the midfield. They have the players, but no one is stepping up. Veteran Tiffeny Milbrett had the best chances of the day, but couldn't help her team to at least a tie.

"I want to take responsibility for not being able to tie up this game," said FC Gold Pride Tiffeny Milbrett. "It's not easy when you have missing pieces. Unfortunately were still a very young team and very fragile, we haven't grown enough together. I think what we see right now, is we're putting stuff together. But unfortunately luck is not with us sometimes, also we're not creating our own luck."

At this point in the season, it seems impossible for Pride to get a spot in the play-offs. All they can do now is win as many games as possible so they can walk away with some Pride, knowing they did everything they could.

Their next match is Thursday, July 23rd at Buck Shaw against the LA Sol for their 4th and final meeting this season. The match kicks off at 7pm PT.

The St. Louis Athletica came to the west coast for a match against the Lionesses of the Bay. St. Louis have been picking up momentum, and were able to defeat Pride 1-0 on another spectacular goal by Lori Chalupny.

Sunday marked the WPS debut for Brazilian legend, Sissi. She first came into the team as an assistant coach, but was recently added to the roster. Coach Albertin Montoya gave her the chance the play in the 78th minute.

"It was very emotional for me," said Sissi of her debut. "Honestly I couldn't believe I had the chance to be on the field again and play with this team that I know has good players. I know we lost but in my 10 minutes, I can tell you I was proud because I was trying to do my best.  I'm happy Albertin  gave me a chance to be on the field."

The first time the teams played against each other, Chalupny scored the lone goal on a perfectly bent ball from the corner. This time she blasted a rocket to the upper corner from 35 yards out.

The first half was pretty even. Both teams had their chances, but created nothing too dangerous. The score was 0-0 at the half. FC Gold Pride was on the attack in the second half, but could get nothing past Hope Solo and Athleticas defense.

Chalupny found the net in the 73rd minute, enough to secure the win, and help Athletica stay in 2nd place, two points ahead of the Boston Breakers, and four points ahead of the Washington Freedom.

FC Gold Pride remains at 7th place in the standings, and are now 3-7-3 with 12 points. Their next match is Sunday July 12 at 5pm PT against the Chicago Red Stars at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. The match will be broadcast LIVE on Comcast Sports Net.

Frustrated! I'm very frustrated. This 3-1 defeat to Washington Freedom does not only puts FC Gold Pride on the verge of falling to the last place of the table but also reflects that the team is not following the improvement path of the others on the WPS. And it's not for the lack of talent: Leslie Osborne, Rachel Buehler, Nicole Barnhart, Tina DiMartino, Tiffeny Milbrett, all serve or served the US WNT brilliantly; and we also have the international stars Eriko Arakawa, Christine Sinclair, Formiga...

The team also count on amazing new talents such as Carie Dew and Tiffany Weimer and a great coaching staff with Albertin Montoya, a young, visionary and well-educated coach, and Sissi - one of the best players ever - by his side as assistant coach. Oh, and we can't forget the great atmosphere at the Buck Shaw stadium where the fans sing and chant to the rythm of an authentic Brazilian drum set.

So what is it? Why is it so hard for FC Gold Pride to score goals and win games? We won 3 out of 9 so far. And it's not enough. Not at all. 

Right now Gold Pride has 10 points and "virtually" sits in the 4th place of the table. However, Chicago Red Stars and St. Louis Athletica, who come right behind, have 8 points in only 7 matches; two matches behind FC Gold Pride. Sky Blue FC has 8 points in 8 matches and all these three teams could jump ahead of Gold Pride if they win their following matches. 

Anyway... 

Getting good results in the next matches are extremely important as we reach the middle of the season. FC Gold Pride will face the Chicago Red Stars on June 7th at the Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, CA and then the team will travel to the East Coast to face the Boston Breakers on Wednesday June 17th.

 

Come support the FC GoldPride. Bring your family. This weekend Dad's get in for free and there are also a great package if you want to come with your posse...

 

For most folks, Memorial Day weekend is a time to relax from a long week of work and to anticipate the oncoming summer days.  Unfortunately for the FC Gold Pride, the last thing they got to do this past weekend was relax.  Hoping to salvage some of their "pride" from multiple past losses against west coast rival LA Sol, FC Gold Pride fell again to the team with a 0-2 defeat.  This weekend marked a couple momentous events: a sold out crowd at Buck Shaw Stadium, and the team's first shut out loss on home turf. Lame! 

In the Gold Pride's defense, they played hard against their southernly state rival.  The first of the Sol's goals was scored off a PK that was awarded to Aya Miyama after being taken down in the 18 yard box.  Sol Midfielder Camille Abily took the kick and shot it past Pride keeper Allison Whitworth to put the team ahead 1-0.  Allison Whitworth had a great debut WPS game, making a total of 6 big saves.  Too bad it wasn't enough! 

After the first foul, the officials watched the game pretty closely. They gave cautions to Erika and Marta for unsportsmanlike conduct (seriously refs, let them play) and the game continued on from there.  Brandi Chastain almost scored off a corner kick , but missed that opportunity.  According to Coach Montoya, Gold Pride's main strategy was to shut down Marta, whose quick feet has given them trouble in the past.  Gold Pride definitely marked her tight, but it was Dan Huan who put away the Sol's second goal in the 86th minute. 

Defender Kandace Wilson was given the daunting task of covering Marta. Throughout the game, she did a fantastic job of shutting down the forward, but had to leave late in the 2nd half with a right hip injury.  It has just been confirmed that she will be spending the remainder of the season sidelined.  Let's all just hope that she can pull a miracle recovery and be back in the game asap...we need every player! 

This loss leaves Gold Pride 3rd in the league behind 2nd place Boston Breakers, and 1st place LA Sol.  Gold Pride has 2 more matches scheduled with the west coast rivals before the season is up, so we still have a chance at prove ourselves!

After getting its first win on the road, thanks to Christine Sinclair's single goal on the 30th minute against the Chicago Red Stars, FC Gold Pride will now host Marta and the Los Angeles Sol for a second California clash of this WPS inaugural season.

On the first match between these two teams, on April 19, at the Home Depot Center, the home team got the win with Marta scoring the single goal of the match in the only real opportunity she had. So this time we already know what we have to do:

SCORE IN OUR OPPORTUNITIES.

 

Some numbers 

Nicole Barnhart and Rachel Buehler are the only  two players on FC Gold Pride's roster that played all 630 minutes of the team's 7 matches so far. They are followed by Leslie Osborne with 587 minutes, Formiga with 532, Christine Sinclair with 529and Tina DiMartino with 504 minutes played.

I've been constantly saying that the team needs to score more goals to release the pressure on the defense. Gold Pride scored 8 goals in 7 matches but also allowed 8 goals. Pride has the third best offense, behind Washington Freedom (10 goals) and Boston Breakers (9 goals)and also the third worst defense also ahead of the Boston Breakers (9 goals allowed) and the Washington Freedom (13 goals allowed). CURIOUS FACT: The three best offenses also allowed the most number of goals. 

Tiffeny Milbrett and Christine Sinclair scored 2 goals each, and then we have Tiffany Weimer, Leigh Ann Robinson, Carrie Dew and Eriko Arakawa with 1 goal each.

With the first road win last Saturday FC Gold Pride moved to the third place in the table with 10 points, 1 point behind the Boston Breakers and 4 behind the Los Angeles Sol. 

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The match between the FC Gold Pride and the Los Angeles Sol this Sunday May 24, 4pm PDT at the Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, CA  will have LIVE COVERAGE by Fox Soccer Channel.

BUT if you plan to spend your Memorial Day weekend in Northern California, like I do, you should come watch the match right there at the stadium. I guarantee it will be a great game.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW

CLICK ON THE BANNER BELLOW

I'm obviously not happy with FC Gold Pride losing 0-1 to Saint Louis Athletica. The team demonstrated once again a few problems on the last third of the field and the goals didn't come. However I can't help feeling a small sense of relief for the brave Athletica. The team suffered a great loss with Daniela's injury and a 3-3 tie against Washington Freedom that could've ended differently had Daniela stayed on the pitch. So I have to confess that I'm not totally devastated.

The goal came on a beautiful corner kick from Lori Chalupny. She scored what is known as an "Olympic Goal", by bending the ball directly from the corner kick past the goalkeeper and into the net. That was in the 16th minute of the first half. Right before the corner that originated the goal, keeper Nicole Barnhart took a hard shot on the face and ended up with a broken nose. She didn't leave the field and still managed to save our team from a worse defeat in 4 or 5 other situations.

With at least 74 more minutes to play after the goal there would've been plenty of time for our creative and talented midfield to turn the pressure on and feed our attack in search of the equalizer. The pressure came in the second half but as coach Montoya said "You got to give it to the Athletica, they defended with everything they had. We were dangerous in the second half but we just couldn't put one in the back of the net."

Now it's time to put this one in the past. Learn from and move on to the next challenge. We'll continue in the midwest to pay a visit to the Chicago Red Stars and their solid defense that allowed only one goal so far to keep the team unbeaten until today at least.

I still believe that with Nicole Barnhart, Rachel Buehler, Kandace Wilson, Formiga, Leslie Osborne, Tina DiMartino, Tiffeny Milbret, Tiffany Weimer, Eriko Arakawa and Christine Sinclair, we have on our side one of the most balanced teams in the league with good chances to make it to the final. On the other hand with such a short league, with only 6 opponents, consistency will be the name of the game and our FC Gold Pride is not showing that yet.

We need to start thinking on finishing among the top 4 to make it to the Super Semifinals. In my opinion  Los Angeles Sol and Chicago Redstars will have two of the spots then the other two will be up for grabs. Pride has a good chance but our main opponents will be Boston Breakers and Washington Freedom. But don't count Sky Blue and the Althetica out just yet.

After a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Washington Freedom, Gold Pride rebounded with a 1-0 victory over Sky Blue FC on Sunday.

Both teams stepped up their offensive games, firing seemingly flawless shots at both goal keepers. But it was Gold Pride's keeper Nicole Barnhart who was able to successfully block every shot, resulting in her first WPS shutout game of the season.

The first half of the game was extremely physical. Tiffany Weimer was granted a foul in the box and an opportunity to bring Gold Pride ahead in the 38th minute. Sky Blue keeper Jenni Branam made a huge save and knocked the shot wide, keeping the teams neck and neck.

Sky Blue's middie Kelly Parker kept the pressure on Formiga, resulting in a yellow card in the 44th minute. Attacks from both teams continued until the half, where Heather O'Reilly and Tiffany Weimer both created almost-goals that had Gold Pride fans holding their breath. When the first half finally came to an end, the score remained tied at 0-0.

The second half of the game brought in fresh legs for both teams, who subbed in their remaining 3 players. Gold Pride switched up their entire starting attacking line, bringing in Eriko Arakawa, Adriane and Leigh Ann Robinson, with hope that these new players would change up the rhythm of the game.

It wasn't until the 86th minute that those fresh legs paid off, where Adriane assisted Leigh Ann Robinson with her first AND game winning goal! This win leaves Pride at 4th overall in the WPS and with a renewed vigor to take on the 6th seeded St. Louis Athletica on Saturday, May 9th.

On the 16th, Gold Pride will head to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Red Stars and then back to the west coast for a rematch with the Sol.

I don't know about all of you, but I am stoked for the highly anticipated "battle of the Samba queens" (coined by the WPS official Gold Pride site)!

Stay tuned, good reader... :)

FC Gold Pride dropped very important 3 points yesterday when they lost 4-3 to Washington Freedom at home. It's really hard to criticize players and coaches that I admire and respect so much but although I could see some positive points improved from the match against the LA Sol, especially on the offensive side, our defense made some big and crucial mistakes yesterday.

We all knew that Abby Wambach was going to try everything to get her first WPS goal and allowing her to be in the box would extremely dangerous. And that's what happened. The first goal .came from a long free kick taken by Cat Whitehill and Abby jumped very high to head that ball before Nicole Barnhart could reach it. Nicole who, by the way, didn't repeat the perfomances from the previous matches. 

The match went on with chances for both sides and finally our attack started working really, really well, with the midfielder also taking some shots from outside the box (finally) that helped open some spaces behind the freedom defense and Tiffeny Milbrett scored a BEAUTIFUL goal after an equality beautiful pass from Tiffany Weimer. 

Lori Lindsey and Allie Long put Freedom ahead again but Tiffany Weimer and Christine Sinclair kept Gold Pride alive in the match. 3-3. That would be a good result considering that we would be coming from behind. 

But... 

91 minutes into the match. Probably the last play of the game and Cat Whitehill has another long free kick to take. Abbyis in the box. We all know where that ball is going to be aimed for. Long ball comes, Barnhart decides no to come out this time but the defenders are there covering all the Freedom's players in the box. Abby uses her body as a shield andjustdeflects it into the left lower corner of Barnhart's goal.

I seriously couldn't believe it. Abby's second goal is a repetition of the first and Washington Freedom ends up clinching the three points on the road. 

For us the lesson is there. We need to find the balance between good defense and effective offense. We have the pieces and very good pieces now all we need is to put the puzzle together.

You can watch all the goals here: