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Angela Hucles (right, in action July 12 against Sky Blue FC) scored her second goal of the season in Wednesday's win over Chicago. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com) |
The Breakers (6-6-3, 21 points) got the only goal they would need in the 35th minute from midfielder Angela Hucles. Defender Candace Chapman - who was up in the attacking third for the corner that was taken just seconds before the goal - stopped a potential counter-attack and got the ball to a wide open Kristine Lilly on the right wing.
Lilly looped in a cross that Hucles got a foot on to put it past Red Stars (4-7-5, 17 points) keeper Caroline Jonsson. It was a deserved goal for a team that controlled play for most of the first half.
“I’m really, really proud of the team, and I have been proud of the team (this season),” said head coach Tony DiCicco. “This team has fought really hard. We’ve had some tough breaks along the way, and yet we’re still in the hunt here…If we go out with this type of mentality, we’ll get a home game in the playoffs, and that’s our goal.”
The Red Stars went on the attack in the second half in search of an equalizer. Winger Megan Rapinoe hit the crossbar with a strike from just outside the area in the 55th minute. In the 64th, Breakers midfielder Mary-Frances Monroe cleared a Jill Oakes header off the line off a corner.
Rapinoe created what probably should have been a goal in the 85th. Her cross from the right wing found halftime substitute Ella Masar unmarked just outside the six-yard box, but Masar put her header over the bar.
Otherwise, the Breakers kept Chicago at bay with resolute defending, and they did it with some different personnel. Nancy Augustyniak-Goffi got the start at right back in place of Alex Scott, who is in England on national team duty, and played effectively. Abby Crumpton came on for Heather Mitts after 70 minutes after Boston’s starting left back was injured, and Kasey Moore played the final 10 minutes after replacing Chapman.
For Crumpton, it was her first appearance this year and a good warm-up for Sunday’s game at FC Gold Pride, which she will almost certainly be playing in with Mitts and central defender Amy LePeilbet leaving to join the U.S. national team for a pair of friendlies.
“It was great to see some players get some minutes,” Lilly said. “[Crumpton] was probably a bit nervous…but I thought she did a great job for us. I thought she came in and fought for us and won some balls for us.”
Maggie Tomecka and Mary-Frances Monroe both got their first starts of the season in Boston’s midfield. Tomecka played a strong game in the holding role, digging in with several tackles and doing a reasonable job of possessing and passing, something the Breakers have lacked often at that position this season.
“She was really solid. She was using her strength and her size to really dominate in there and be a physical presence,” Hucles said of the 6-foot Tomecka. “What I really like, though, was she came out with confidence and didn’t skip a beat. If she was nervous, I didn’t see it.”
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Nancy Augustyniak-Goffi and the Breakers' defense earned their fifth clean sheet of the season Wednesday night. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com) |
The Breakers essentially played a 4-1-4-1, with Jennie Nobis as the lone striker and Lilly and Fabiana on the wings surrounding Hucles and Monroe in the midfield. Fabiana played the first 59 minutes and showed a willingness to go at defenders, earning three corners in the process.
“I thought Fabiana started to show what she can give us,” DiCicco said. “We’ll try to get her more minutes every game. She’s so classy with the ball, she escapes pressure so well and she’s got that Brazilian flair. Her speed isn’t all the way back, and when her speed is back 100 percent she’ll be even more dangerous.”
The Breakers also played well without Kelly Smith - also with the English national team - something that hadn’t happened yet this season. Should Boston make the playoffs, they will compete without Smith (and Scott), as she will be representing her country at the European women’s tournament in Finland.
“Obviously, Kelly’s a great player; we’re not going to take that away from her,” Lilly said. “But I don’t think as a team, or even Kelly looks at it like she’s the reason why we win. I think if you look at the games we have won with her, we’ve done it as a group. I think that’s really the difference - if we play together defensively and in the attack, that’s what we have to do.”
The Breakers are in sole possession of third place in the WPS standings after Sky Blue FC played a remarkable 4-4 draw with Washington Wednesday night. Sky Blue is in fourth place with 19 points (5-6-4); the two teams meet for the fourth and final time July 25 in Boston.
Up next, however, is Sunday’s game in Santa Clara, Calif. against Gold Pride. The Breakers will be without seven players - Smith, Scott, LePeilbet, Hucles, Mitts, Chapman and Amy Rodriguez - with their respective national teams.
Hucles admitted after Wednesday’s game she has “mixed emotions” about leaving the Breakers for a week during such a critical part of the season.
“It’s an honor anytime you’re called into the national team, especially with this league - [national team coach Pia Sundhage] can call anybody in right now,” she said. “At the same time, this is a crucial time for my club team here. But I still have faith and confidence in the players that haven’t necessarily had a lot of minutes, but are ready to step in there and perform and make a statement to the coach and the rest of the team.”
More postgame quotes
DiCicco on…
The spirit of the team and Tomecka in particular:
“I just think that we’ve been playing with not 100 percent of players committed to the fight, to the battle. So I played 11 players who I knew would be committed to the battle today, and Maggie certainly is a warrior out there. But she played well, so that was a real bonus for us.”
Having to substitute Mitts:
“We didn’t want to sub for Mitts because I wanted to get Jennie Nobis out, because I knew she was starting to fall out of the game. But we had to sub for Mitts and that gave Abby Crumpton a chance to get some minutes. You don’t like to put a player in the game if she’s getting her first minutes and we’re under pressure, but she did a pretty good job.”
Shutting down Cristiane, who had scored a hat trick Sunday against Gold Pride:
“I thought by closing up the midfield it would be hard for her to get the ball, accept for over the top, and we’re pretty good with balls played over the top. We’re not the fastest team back there, but we got decent speed. We got good starting positions, so nobody ever got a clear breakaway against us. Now, they got in sometimes on the flanks, but they didn’t get anybody in behind our defense. That was kind of the game plan.”
Rapinoe on the Red Stars’ attack:
“I think we kind of turned to playing the long ball a bit much for my liking. That doesn’t suit our style at all. I think we’re the kind of team that likes to put the ball on the floor and play as much as we can. I think we, as the game went on, started to get a little desperate. But we had some good chances; we could’ve put the ball in the back of the net. We just didn’t finish tonight.”
Lilly on team unity:
“The feeling for tonight was that everyone was working together. We were going as a unit. The last couple games we’d have moments of it; tonight we had it for a good 70 minutes. I think [Chicago] had some possession in there where we were just weathering it a little bit, but that’s going to happen.”
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