Sky Blue Rematch Awaits Breakers

Boston Looks to Atone for Ugly May 31 Loss

By Mark Goodman

July 3, 2009

Who: Boston Breakers at Sky Blue FC
What: WPS Regular Season
Where: Yurcak Field - Piscataway, N.J.
When: Saturday, 4 p.m.

On June 21, the Boston Breakers avenged their worst loss of the season, turning a 4-0 road defeat to Chicago in April into a 2-0 win on the Red Stars� home field.

Saturday, the Breakers (5-4-3, 18 points) will look to make amends for arguably their second worst performance of the season when they take on Sky Blue FC (3-6-3, 12 points).

Kelly Smith

Kelly Smith's goal was the lone bright spot in the Breakers' last visit to New Jersey, a 2-1 loss to Sky Blue FC on May 31. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com)

The New Jersey-based team defeated Boston, 2-1 on May 31, but the score only begins to tell the story. The Breakers� lone goal came as a result of Sky Blue keeper Jenni Branam dropping an easy cross from Alex Scott, with Kelly Smith in the area to simply tap the ball home.

Otherwise, it was a rather listless showing in attack for Boston. But even worse than that, in the eyes of Breakers head coach Tony DiCicco, was his team�s organization on defense. Natasha Kai and Kacey White both found themselves wide open in Boston�s penalty area for their goals, as some woeful positioning from the Breakers� back four played the opponent onside on both occasions.

�We were awful,� DiCicco said. �We were on diagonals where we needed to be on straight lines. There�s no excuse�That wasn�t the only issue we had. I think we were a little bit embarrassed by Sky Blue in that game.�

While Sky Blue has gone 1-2-1 since then - scoring just two goals in those four matches - Boston is 2-1-1 and undefeated in its last three games. The defense has certainly shaped up since the Sky Blue defeat, conceding just two goals since and none in the last 255 minutes of play.

In the attack, while the Breakers haven�t scored as much as they would like (just four goals in the last four games), the goals are starting to come from different sources. At the time Smith scored against Sky Blue, she had half of Boston�s 10 goals up to that point in the season.

Since then, Jennie Nobis has scored a vital equalizer in the 1-1 home draw against FC Gold Pride on June 17, Amy Rodriguez opener her account in the Chicago win, and Christine Latham scored the only goal in the 1-0 win over Washington on June 24.

�We said that all along; we needed other players to help score,� DiCicco said. �We do need to score more. I think we�re creating more chances�It�s not easy to score in this league. There�s good goalkeeping and good defenders.�

The Breakers will be hoping to build on that win over the Freedom.

�I thought our last game was probably our best game, both from a defensive and offensive standpoint,� DiCicco said. �I�m hoping that we�re coming into stride now and our best soccer is ahead of us.�

Saturday�s game will be the first of three meetings in the span of 22 days between the two clubs. Sky Blue will come to Harvard Stadium July 12 for a 6 p.m. kickoff, and will return July 25 for a 7 p.m. game.

Mark Goodman can be reached at newsdesk@soccernewengland.com.