Weekly Preview Of WPS

June 1, 2010 - Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) News Release


Following the shutdown of Saint Louis Athletica on Thursday, just three official WPS games took place on the weekend with the biggest surprise coming out of Chicago, where the Red Stars upset league-leading FC Gold Pride, 1-0.

The Red Stars, which had let go of head coach Emma Hayes earlier in the week and replaced her with interim coach and current General Manager Marcia McDermott, used a second half goal from WPS Player of the Week Kosovare Asllani to get the win and pull even with Boston for fifth-place in the standings with seven points on the year.

Boston went on the road to New Jersey, where they played the reigning WPS champions to a 0-0 tie. The Breakers outshot Sky Blue FC a whopping 23-14 but couldn't break their Sky Blue FC hex as the Breakers are now winless in five games dating back to last year's Inaugural Season against their rivals to the south on I-95.

And another budding I-95 rivalry took place this weekend as the Washington Freedom upended the Philadelphia Independence on a nice give-and-go goal from Rebecca Moros and a penalty kick strike by Abby Wambach. Philadelphia's Caroline Seger received a red card in the 87th-minute leaving the Independence with 10 players for the final minutes of the game, but the Philly side still managed to make things exciting with a late goal before losing, 2-1.

Atlanta, which was previously scheduled to face Saint Louis Athletica, played an exhibition game against Tampa Bay Hellenic of the W-League ending in a 1-1 draw.

Swedish forward Kosovare Asllani is Women's Professional Soccer's Player of the Week for Week 7 after lifting the Chicago Red Stars to their second win this season, a 1-0 triumph Saturday over first-place FC Gold Pride at Toyota Park.

The 20-year old Swedish national-teamer, who won a "treble" last year with Swedish club Linkopings FC, scored her first WPS goal in the 56th minute, redirecting Marian Dalmy's feed past Gold Pride goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart.

The goal was just the Red Stars' fourth of the year, and it was enough to provide victory in General Manager Marcia McDermott's first game on the sideline. Head coach Emma Hayes was dismissed earlier last week.

Asllani is the third Red Stars player to win WPS's weekly honor. Former Chicago forward Lindsay Tarpley won twice last season, in Weeks 15 and 19, and Brazilian forward Cristiane won in Week 16.

The WPS Player of Week is selected by a panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters.

Week 1: Eniola Aluko (Saint Louis Athletica)

Week 2: Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom)

Week 3: Lori Lindsey (Philadelphia Independence)

Week 4: Sonia Bompastor (Washington Freedom)

Week 5: Karen Bardsley (Sky Blue FC)

Week 6: Marta (FC Gold Pride)

Week 7: Kosovare Asllani (Chicago Red Stars)



Women's Professional Soccer Stories from June 1, 2010


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