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Halftime substitute Jenny Nobis gave the Breakers a deserved equalizer in Wednesday night's 1-1 draw with FC Gold Pride. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com) |
The Breakers had their chances to get the three points. In the 80th minute, Smith found Kristine Lilly in the left side of the penalty area for a clean shot at goal, and the veteran midfielder hit the crossbar. Less than a minute later, Amy Rodriguez’s shot from 15 yards out went high.
In injury time, a cross from defender Amy LePeilbet found the head of Nobis, whose attempt beat Gold Pride keeper Nicole Barnhart but was blocked by defender Rachel Buehler on the line. In the dying seconds, Lilly sent in a dangerous low cross from the left wing but nobody was on the far post to cash in, with Smith’s run a step or two late.
The introduction of Nobis - who entered the game at halftime, along with defender Nancy Augustyniak-Goffi, for forward Christine Latham and midfielder Stacy Bishop - clearly brought a spark that had been missing in the first half. The 25-year old forward’s work rate pushed the issue for a team that was content to just sit back and fire seemingly aimless long balls in the first half.
“She’s been hanging in there. She didn’t play the first seven games, and then she’s gotten a few looks here,” said Boston head coach Tony DiCicco. “Give her credit - she made the most of it. She’s a great athlete.”
Nobis said the substitutions at halftime brought about a fresher approach to the game.
“We made a few changes with the lineup, definitely just not depending on who’s talented enough to play in this league, but who can just bring us energy,” Nobis said. “Obviously, it couldn’t get any worse than the first half. So he (DiCicco) took chances on some people and people stepped up in the second half and turned the game around.”
When Smith came on for defender Candace Chapman at the hour mark, Boston went with an essentially 3-1-4-2 formation, with LePeilbet, Augustyniak-Goffi and Heather Mitts in defense and Kasey Moore in the pivot. Alex Scott, who pushed up from her right back spot to right midfielder at halftime, provided pace and hustle that was sorely lacking in the first half.
“I have a lot of confidence in Amy LePeilbet, Mittsy, and Nancy Goffi did a real good job back there,” DiCicco said. “And then you have [Lilly] and Alex on the outside, so you know they’re going to get back on the weak side if they need to. Both of those guys can run all day. It’s a system we may see a little bit more of.”
Alli Lipsher made her first start in net and turned in a decent performance, making six saves. The biggest came 33 seconds into the second half - although only after Lipsher had given the ball away with a poor throw - when Gold Pride striker Christine Sinclair, from 25 yards out on the right side of the pitch, sent a corker toward the top far corner. Lipsher jumped and tipped it over the bar for the save.
The 23-year old did well in the 88th minute to catch a dangerous cross in traffic from Gold Pride’s Eriko Arakawa.
Asked if Kristin Luckenbill’s backup had earned another start, DiCicco simply answered, “Yes.”
There was little Lipsher could do about Sinclair’s opening strike in the 15th minute. Chapman tackled the ball away from Gold Pride’s Tiffeny Milbrett, but the ball bounced right to Sinclair 25 yards from goal. The Canadian international kept her shot low and on target and it just eluded Lipsher as she was diving to her left.
Gold Pride thoroughly out-possessed Boston in the first half, with Formiga pulling the strings from midfield and a three-pronged attack of Sinclair, Arakawa and Milbrett harrying Boston’s back line. Boston could muster only one shot in the half, a header from Moore off a corner kick that went right to Barnhart.
“You saw the worst and the best of this team, unfortunately,” DiCicco said. “It’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story with them. They were really disappointed in the first half and they came out and showed how good they can be.”
Gold Pride head coach Albertin Montoya said he was pleased with how his team played in those 45 minutes, but that he needs to see more of an end product.
“Possession doesn’t win you games,” Montoya said. “We created chances in that first half which, I thought had we put away, it might have been a different game…We still need to do a better job of putting the ball in the back of the net and putting teams away.”
Montoya also credited Boston’s pressure in the second half for changing the match and said it forced his team into mistakes.
“We really panicked at times that we didn’t have to, and I thought our midfield stopped showing for the ball the way we did in the first half,” he said.
The result leaves both teams with 12 points in the standings and tied for fourth place in the seven-team league, although Boston (3-4-3) has played one fewer game than Gold Pride (3-5-3). Sky Blue FC, also 3-5-3 after its 1-0 win over Chicago Wednesday night, is in that mix. All in all, six clubs have between 11 and 14 points, well behind the Los Angeles Sol’s 25.
“Obviously, L.A. is sort of running away with things, but there’s a huge battle for the remaining three spots in the playoffs,” Sinclair said. “You can’t not show up for games because that’s going to cost you in the standings. I think this last half of the season is going to be exciting to see who can sort of pull away and lock down those final spots in the playoffs.”
The Breakers will travel to take on the Red Stars this Sunday at 4 p.m. Chicago handed the Breakers their worst loss of the season, 4-0 back on April 25. Players spoke to how “embarrassed” they were after that game, something that DiCicco likely won’t have to remind them of.
“If I have to motivate them going back to Chicago, this is the wrong team and I’m the wrong coach,” DiCicco said.
Monroe coming back
Mary-Frances Monroe, who played for the Breakers in the WUSA, is coming back to the team.
The Tarriffville, Conn. native has been playing for the Boston Aztecs and training with the Breakers. DiCicco said after Wednesday’s game the Breakers would sign the midfielder to a contract, either as a developmental player or regular squad member.
The coach declined to say who would be released to make room for Monroe, saying he had yet to speak with that player. The decision was going to be made last night, said DiCicco, who was clearly unhappy with the effort from a couple players in the game - players that he said were “well rested” after having not played in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Saint Louis Athletica.
“You’re a pro now. You gotta be prepared to play every minute,” DiCicco said. “I just thought one or two players don’t give it everything they have, and all of a sudden the whole team is struggling.”
Bishop, Latham, Moore and Lipsher all started Wednesday night after not starting - and, except for Moore, not playing at all - Sunday. DiCicco said he felt Moore played her best game of the year against Gold Pride.
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