FC Gold Pride Clinches 2010 WPS Regular Season Title

Published on August 22, 2010 under Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) News Release


SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 22, 2010) - The San Francisco Bay Area's FC Gold Pride clinched the WPS Regular Season title Sunday evening with a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Red Stars in front of 6,089 fans at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. As the winners of the regular-season title, FC Gold Pride earned the right to host the WPS Championship presented by Citi on Sunday, Sept. 26 at 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT, where they will await the winners of the WPS Super Semifinal from earlier that week.

With the WPS Season entering Week 19, FC Gold Pride held a six-point edge over second-place Philadelphia Independence, but needed a fortuitous series of results in order to clinch the title outright this weekend. FC Gold Pride needed to see Boston lose or tie and Philadelphia lose, as well as winning their own game on the road in Chicago to guarantee finishing first this season. And they got all three.

Boston lost to the Atlanta Beat, 3-2, on Saturday, and Philadelphia dropped a 1-0 decision to Sky Blue FC, the first loss in four games by Philadelphia to their New Jersey rivals. And with the score knotted at 2-2 of their own game, Marta scored on a 78th-minute penalty kick to break the deadlock and capture FC Gold Pride's first regular season title in the second season of Women's Professional Soccer.

In an interesting twist of events, Philadelphia and Sky Blue FC's game was delayed almost two hours Sunday due to lightning in the 16th-minute and - rather than finishing before FC Gold Pride and Chicago stepped onto the field - the first game finished just minutes after FC Gold Pride took a 3-2 lead in their game in the 78th-minute, making for an exciting Sunday in WPS Week 19.

FC Gold Pride now has 43 points, nine more than Philadelphia (34). While the Independence could still mathematically catch FC Gold Pride's 43 points with three consecutive wins to finish the season, FC Gold Pride has already clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams by virtue of their two wins earlier in the season (3-1, 2-0) against Philadelphia. The two teams play on September 11 to finish the regular season. No other 2010 WPS Playoff positions have been locked up.

FC Gold Pride will be awarded the WPS Regular Season trophy at one of their final two home games of the 2010 Regular Season at Pioneer Stadium, Hayward, CA. Ticket information for the 2010 WPS Championship presented by Citi will be available soon at www.fcgoldpride.com.

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Women's Professional Soccer Stories from August 22, 2010


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