WPS UPDATE - CHRISTIE RAMPONE TO BE A MOM AGAIN

Sky Blue FC player/coach Christie Rampone is expecting another child in March 2010.

Rampone guided Sky Blue to the inaugural title at the Women's Professional Soccer championship on Saturday. They beat the Los Angeles Sol 1-0, three weeks after Rampone took over the coaching duties when Kelly Lindsey resigned.

Rampone, who is nearly three months pregnant, recently competed in two playoff games and the championship game. She played 90 minutes in each.

"It's been an eventful year to say the least, but the timing of this pregnancy is perfect because I was able to finish off this amazing first season and hopefully get back in time to make a major contribution to Sky Blue FC in 2010," she said Tuesday in a statement.

Rampone has been nominated for defender, coach and sportswoman of the year ahead of the league awards ceremony on Saturday. She expects to play in the WPS All-Star game in St. Louis on Sunday.

A native of Point Pleasant, N.J., Rampone has played in three World Cups and three Olympics. She took off most of 2005 to have her first child.

Rampone, the captain of the U.S. national team, plans to return to the WPS in June.

She will miss the US Women's National Team camps and upcoming game against World Champions Germany in October.

Los Angeles Sol v NJ Sky Blue FC Highlights &Trophy Presentation

0-1

WPS CHAMPIONSHIP

Los Angeles Sol v NJ Sky Blue FC Sat Aug 22nd 4pm ET Live on FSN and CSN


Well this is it. The Inaugural season of Women's Professional Soccer comes to a close with the championship game between Los Angeles Sol and NJ Sky Blue FC at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

We are back to where it all started.72 matches down, where the regular season champions, the no1 seeds Los Angeles look to cement themselves a place in history as the inaugural champions against the gritty, New Jersey team who stumbled into the playoffs, then bulldozed through to the Final with grit and determination by upsetting the no2 and no3 seeded teams.

Captains Shannon Boxx and Christie Rampone are very good friends from being in the US National team but all that is put aside as they battle for the title. Both have endured vastly different routes to this moment.

Sky Blue FC – the number four seed – has the unenviable task of playing its third playoff game on the road in eight days, the New Jersey side is also on a roll, playing some of its best soccer of the season. After highly inspirational victories over the Washington Freedom and Saint Louis Athletica in the first two rounds of the playoffs, Sky Blue FC will be hoping that momentum and adrenaline will be key factors to help the team bring home the title.

Los Angeles Sol wrapped up the top seed in the playoffs and the right to host the championship match weeks ago. Understandably, with the regular season title secured, Los Angeles closed the season with some subpar results winning just once in its final four games. The last match for the Sol was two weekends ago – a 2-1 road victory over the Boston Breakers on a penalty kick by Shannon Boxx in stoppage time.

In addition to the lengthy time off, the Sol will also have to deal with the absence of an important player in Camille Abily, who is with the France National Team for the UEFA Women’s Euro Championship. Abily was second in WPS with eight goals in the regular season.
Sky Blue FC will be missing key defender Anita Asante and reserve goalkeeper Karen Bardsley – the two are with England for the Euros – but the team has done well defensively in their absence.

So roll on the Final. How will Los Angeles cope without the calm play in midfield of Abily, how much longer can the legs of the Sky Blue players hold up, which captain is going to be the first ever person to hold aloft that championship trophy?

WASHINGTON FREEDOM 1 - 2 NJ SKY BLUE FC

Sky Blue FC claimed a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Washington Freedom at the Maryland SoccerPlex yesterday to advance to the Super Semi-Finals of the WPS against Saint Louis Athletica.

Natasha Kai and Francielle both came off the bench to score with Francielle’s game-winning goal coming in the 84th minute.

With a 4 p.m. kickoff, the game was played in stifling 92-degree heat and that slowed the pace of the game noticeably.Sky Blue FC held the upper hand in the first half with a 14-5 advantage in shots. Rosana had a great chance in the seventh minute but volleyed right at Freedom keeper Erin McLeod. In the 21st minute, McLeod charged out the block a chance by Kerri Hanks, who started in place of Kai up front.

Washington did not create many chances in the first half. Abby Wambach and Lisa DeVanna did not make the impacts as expected and they looked like they were not on the same page.The whole first half they didn't manage a shot on goal.

In the second half, the Freedom started to create and play well. Ali Krieger hit a great chance over from close range less than two minutes in.

But the game turned in the 54th minute when Kai was substituted in for Hanks. With fresh legs against a tiring defence Kai latched on to a ball from Kacey White, stole the ball away from Cat Whitehill by sneaking in from behind her and rounded McLeod to put Sky Blue 1- nil up.

Washington were shocked into a response as Wambach shot right at Jenni Branam in the 61st minute and then Branam made a key save seven minutes later tipping a blast by Krieger off the crossbar.

The Freedom goal came in the 78th minute off a long ball played forward into the box. Branam charged off her line to box the ball and collided into Wambach in the process. The ball went right to De Vanna and the Australian striker nailed a shot just under the crossbar beating two defenders on the line to tie the score at 1-1.

It looked like the game was going to overtime when in the 84th minute Francielle received a pass from Yael Averbuch to the left side. She froze a defender with a move off the dribble and then unleashed a low shot from 20 yards that nicked off the fingertips of McLeod and into the lower right corner. McLeod should have saved the shot but it just sneaked in the inside of the post.

Sky Blue held out for the win by playing keep ball and making Washington run after the ball which they couldn't do in the searing heat.

Well deserved victory for Sky Blue and Interim player/coach Christie Rampone which keeps their season alive after so many off the field disturbances.They will travel directly to St. Louis to prepare for the WPS Super Semifinal at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo.



Washington Freedom Head Coach Jim Gabarra

"It's difficult to play the same team twice in a row at home.They had a specific game plan, and we didn't get a goal to force them out of it. We let it play into their game plan. It was a very average performance."

On missing Sonia Bompastor

"She has been our security blanket."


Washington Freedom Forward Abby Wambach

"It was a game with a team like them, who were just keeping possession and getting crosses in the box, against a team like us, who were trying to get in behind on the transition. When you have two teams playing those opposite systems, and if we had gotten a little bit lucky, the result could have been totally different."



Interim Player/ Coach Christie Rampone

"I think the heat is just how you handle it. I was telling the girls that everyone was hot – deal with it and make the ball work. I think it definitely slowed the game for both sides but I think we got the better of it; pinging the ball around, especially late in the game, you could see when we were spraying the ball they didn’t want to make the 20-yard run. The key was keeping the ball and not giving away too many balls in the middle.

After our goal, I really felt like the team settled in and even though they scored, I still felt pretty confident in the team. A couple minutes after the goal they had a little momentum but we got it back. They left Fran wide open and she hit a good shot and we finished out better than we normally do."

Sky Blue FC forward Natash Kai

"I knew I needed to come in and help the team out and give that extra fire, that spark.The ball went over and I just saw Kacey with the ball. I don’t know if she was trying to shoot it or if it was more like a half cross. It had a weird spin to it and I knew Cat (Whitehill) had no idea I was behind her. I knew that if I beat her to the ball it was an easy goal for me.

They came back and scored a great goal but then Fran came in and finished an awesome ball. This is what we needed to do – coming into the playoffs we needed to score and play defense as a team. Our three subs that came in played strong and helped the team out."

Lineups:

Washington Freedom: Erin McLeod; Sarah Senty, Cat Whitehill, Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger; Lori Lindsey (Sarah Huffman 73'), Jill Gilbeau (Alex Singer 46'), Homare Sawa, Rebecca Moros (Allie Long 59'); Lisa De Vanna, Abby Wambach(C).

Sky Blue FC: Jenni Branam; Jen Buczkowski, Keeley Dowling, Meghan Schnur, Christie Rampone(C) ; Yael Averbuch, Collette McCallum (Francielle 61'), Heather O'Reilly, Kacey White (Kelly Parker 71'); Rosana, Kerri Hanks (Natasha Kai 54').

NJ SKY BLUE FC 2 - 0 FC GOLD PRIDE

Natasha Kai scored a goal to seal the 2-0 win for Sky Blue FC over FC Gold Pride at a packed Yurcak Field, New Jersey last night.

With a sold-out capacity crowd of 5,455 Sky Blue took one step into the playoffs.

The match was the first for Sky Blue with Captain Christie Rampone serving as interim player/coach. The match didn’t start smoothly with goalkeeper Karen Bardsley replacing Jenni Branam in the starting lineup at the last minute forcing Sky Blue to use one of its substitutions.

Sky Blue held an 11-2 edge in shots in the first half but couldn’t break through. Kai headed a corner kick from Yael Averbuch just wide of the post in the 18th minute and FC Gold Pride keeper Nicole Barnhart did a good job to pick the ball off the foot of Kai in the 35th minute.

FC Gold Pride’s best chance of the game came from Christine Sinclair in the 43rd minute, but Bardsley came up big to slide through the Canadian striker on a breakaway to keep the game scoreless.

After halftime, Sky Blue took control of the game right away as Rosana scored just 46 seconds into the second half. Heather O’Reilly carried the ball up the right side and floated a cross into the box that the Brazilian midfielder headed into the right side of the goal from eight yards out.

Kacey White then curled a 15-yard shot off the left post in the 59th minute. Two minutes later, substitute Collette McCallum just on, lofted a perfect ball forward for Kai and the striker took a touch before slotting a shot past a charging Barnhart for the 2-0 lead.

Gold Pride had a chance near the end.Sinclair rolled a shot just past the post in the 67th minute.

Kai could have got on the board again, once in the 70th minute and twice back-to-back in the 74th minute. Keeper Barnhart was on task to shut her out.

With the victory, Sky Blue FC moved into a tie for third place with a 7-7-5 record for 26 points. The Washington Freedom and Boston Breakers are the other two teams fighting for the final two playoff spots. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Washington has an identical 7-7-5 mark but currently holds the tiebreaker with a victory and tie against Sky Blue FC. The pressure is on Boston with the Breakers sitting one point back at 7-8-4 for 25 points.

Sky Blue travels to the Maryland SoccerPlex on Saturday to take on the Freedom at 7 p.m. in the season finale. Boston hosts the regular season champion Los Angeles Sol on Sunday at 6 p.m. in a must-win game for the Breakers.

FC Gold Pride will return home to take on the second place Staint Louis Athletica for their final game of Inaugural season this Sunday, July 9 at 5 p.m. The Pride is 2-0-1 against the Athletica and will be looking to finish their season on a high note.



INTERIM PLAYER/COACH CHRISTIE RAMPONE

"It feels good now that we got a win. It’s been a great week. I think the team really had some great training sessions. Mike and I were just tweaking little things at training and everyone stayed focused and it really showed in the second half. I think the first half was just pure adrenaline and trying to find our rhythm but I think we came out in the second half really focused and we had nothing to lose at that point."


FC GOLD PRIDE HEAD COACH ALBERTIN MONTOYA

"Obviously I thought we did a little bit better in the first half and dealt with their high pressure. We knew they would come out at us. We had three tough games coming into this game and they had a week's rest and I don’t think our players have played in this type of weather in some time but that’s not an excuse. I thought Sky Blue FC played extremely well today and were very effective in making their runs and the way I look at it, they were just buzzing around everywhere. They had good energy and they played like a team that’s fighting for a playoff spot and we unfortunately didn’t come out with the intensity and energy and I think it cost us in the second half. "



Lineups:
Sky Blue FC:– Jenni Branam (Karen Bardsley 1’); Meghan Schnur, Christie Rampone(C), Jen Buczkowski, Keeley Dowling; Heather O’Reilly, Yael Averbuch, Rosana, Kelly Parker (Collette McCallum 60’); Kacey White (Kerri Hanks 71’), Natasha Kai.

FC Gold Pride: – Nicole Barnhart; Greer Barnes, Carrie Dew, Kristen Graczyk, Rachel Buehler; Tina DiMartino, Tiffeny Milbrett (Kim Yokers 83’), Leslie Osborne(C), Brandi Chastain (Adriane 60’); Christine Sinclair, Tiffany Weimer (Eriko Arakawa 56’).

WPS BREAKING NEWS - SKY BLUE COACH LINDSEY RESIGNS, CAPTAIN RAMPONE IS NEW COACH...

What is going on at Sky Blue FC headquarters?..........

Christie Rampone has become Sky Blue's 3rd coach in as many months.

Sky Blue FC announced today that team captain and US Women's National Team star Christie Rampone has agreed to serve as interim player/coach of Sky Blue FC. Rampone will be assisted by long-time New Jersey coach Mike Lyons. This follows yesterday's resignation of Head Coach Kelly Lindsey.

"We are grateful to Christie for stepping up," said Sky Blue FC General Manager Gerry Marrone. "She has been a tremendous leader and support to the players thus far, and a strong asset to management. We have every confidence both she and Mike will not only fill a void, but do a great job."

Regarding Lindsey's resignation, said Marrone, "We are actually quite shocked. We gave Kelly a great opportunity as Head Coach and she was making progress. We are disappointed that she chose to leave the team ten days prior to the end of the regular season, with two remaining games and Sky Blue FC in playoff contention."

Rampone will assume her duties immediately. The team has two remaining regular season games, and is currently in fifth place and in contention for one of the final three open playoff spots in the inaugural season of Women's Professional Soccer. The Los Angeles Sol has already clinched the number one playoff position.

Read more at SkyBlue.com

CHICAGO RED STARS V SKY BLUE FC

Adam Ant?

Sky Blue FC won their first match, Chicago Red Stars lost their first match. Sarah Walsh scored her 1st goal and so did Natash Kai. A game of many 1st's at Toyata Park, Chicago.
Sky Blue came out to attack from the start with the midfield picking up all the loose balls and harassing Chicago's midfield. Not letting them have time on the ball.Even in the first 5 minutes Sky Blue were looking to put the speedy Australian forward Sarah Walsh through with the through ball.She was just off side.Her Australian international teamate Collete McCallum got the range right a couple of minutes later. In the 7th minute McCallum passed a perfect ball to Walsh(wearing war paint! nah it was sunblock-she is Australian after all) who had timed her run brilliantly slipping in behind two Red Stars defenders.She coolly passed the ball past GK Caroline Jonsson to the left of her goal putting Sky Blue one up and shocking the Red Stars.
Sky Blue never let up in the first half. They were 1st to every ball.Chicago were making mistakes and couldn't get their offensive players on the ball a lot.When they were they were swarmed by orange jersey's. Who were hunting in packs. At times it looked like Sky Blue had more players on the field than Chicago. I even tried to count them just to make sure.
On 10 minutes the very busy Heather O’Reilly played the ball up to Kai and then ran onto to the striker’s flick.As O’Reilly broke into the box alone and took a shot at goal, Red Stars GK Jonsson came off her line to stuff O’Reilly’s shot.Five minutes later, Sky Blue appeared to double the lead after a steal in the box by Julianne Sitch playing in the center of the midfield after playing at right back in previous games. Sitch stole the ball from Chicago's midfielder Frida Ostberg in the box and cut the ball across for Walsh to hammer home but the flag was up for offside.
Chicago's talented offence were held in check by Sky Blues defence brilliantly marshaled by Christie Rampone. The defence played very high. I mean VERY HIGH!They compressed the field knowing that they had the speed in Rampone and English star Anita Asante as insurance. At times the defence were on the halfway line. Chicago were caught out time and time again with offsides. They came close when the ball was fed through the defence by substitute Cristiane. Carli Lloyd and Karen Carney both raced to the ball and ended up getting in each others way. The ref calling offside for Lloyd. Carney was onside and through but Lloyd had touched the ball negating the opportunity.
Sky Blue sealed the game when play started once again by the impressive McCallum in the 78th minute. The Australian playmaker fed a nice through ball behind for Kelly Parker to run onto. As Jonsson charged out off her line, the Canadian midfielder slid a slow roller across the goal and Kai flew in to bury the ball into the open goal from five yards out.
Chicago’s last play came in stoppage time off the foot of Lindsey Tarpley. Carney passed in from the left and Tarpley hit a first time shot from the top of the box but GK Jenni Branam was there to punch her shot wide of the goal. 2 nil Sky Blue.

"Chicago made it very difficult, especially at the end of the game. I’m getting old, but that last ten minutes of the game made me even older. I’m very proud of the players today; they really stepped it up and expressed themselves." Ian Sawyers.

"Collette McCallum and I know each other’s game inside and out so the ball through was perfect. We’ve had three or four games without a goal, so it was just a huge relief to get a goal and to be up. To be honest, I was surprised we were up.""I’ve never been so relieved, to have my club win a game. We worked hard for it and we deserved it." Sarah Walsh.

"The goal came off a great run from Kelly Parker. The ball was probably already going in, but I made sure it went in to secure a 2-0 lead.""It felt good to score not just for me, but for our team in general. I just hope this carries on to our next game." Natasha Kai

“I don’t think any one of our players had a good game today,” “You can’t win games if your players are under performing. Unfortunately, we didn’t do some basic things, got exposed and were punished for it. I don’t think it was one single area, I thought it was everywhere.” Emma Hayes

Lineups:
Chicago Red Stars: – Caroline Jonsson; Marian Dalmy, Nikki Krzysik, Ifeoma Dieke, Chioma Igwe (Natalie Spilger 79’); Megan Rapinoe (Ella Masar 66’), Brittany Klein (Cristiane 54’), Frida Ostberg, Karen Carney; Carli Lloyd, Lindsay Tarpley.

Sky Blue FC: – Jenni Branam; Meghan Schnur, Christie Rampone (Christie Shaner 72’), Anita Asante, Keeley Dowling; Collette McCallum, Julianne Sitch, Kelly Parker, Heather O’Reilly; Natasha Kai (Rosana 82’), Sarah Walsh (Yael Averbuch 65’).

FC GOLD PRIDE 1 - 0 NJ/NY SKY BLUE FC

Robinson to the rescue!

FC Gold Pride kept up their unbeaten record at home in front of the enthusiastic 2,533 crowd. Small crowd maybe due in part to the weather earlier on in the day. It only cleared up 30 minutes before kick-off. The single goal came from the substitute Leigh Ann Robinson in the 86th minute - probably was unlucky not to start the match. She is on the roster as a defender but Coach Albertin Montoya put her on for her speed and to get behind Sky Blue's defence which of course she did.

"What we saw was that we could use Leigh Ann Robinson's speed. She's probably our second fastest player, and we talked about getting in behind the defense out wide, and there's no other player on the bench at that time that I felt could do that at that time as well for us." Albertin Montoya

The match was filled with plenty of physical play. Sky Blue FC midfielder Kelly Parker may have gotten a little too physical pressuring Formiga and was issued a yellow card in the 44th minute. The teams exchanged near misses at the end of the first half. First, Heather O’Reilly hit the post on a sliding, all-out effort to find the back of the net. Tiffany Weimer followed up that attack by bouncing a well-struck free kick off the cross bar to end the half.

Weimer missed a penalty in the 38th minute when Sky Blue Captain Christe Rampone back from injury - brought Weimer down inside the penalty box. Sky Blue FC GK Jenni Branam came up with a big save on Weimer's penalty kick, pushing the shot wide, and keeping the teams even at 0-0.

The goal came because Adriane, who entered the match in the 84th minute, did some serious thinking on her feet. The Brazilian looked left and noticed teammate Eriko Arakawa was in an offside position, so she looked back right and made eye contact with Robinson. Her pass fed through to Robinson perfectly, and Robinson's momentum and speed carried her toward the goal in open space.Robinson ripped a shot past goalkeeper Jenni Branam to the near post.

Gold Pride goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart was up to every challenge, especially in the first half when she had two brilliant saves. Central defender Carrie Dew - back from injury and badly missed and Formiga helped make Barnhart's job a little easier.

Sky Blue have now not won a single match. They were unlucky not to score and with Rampone back they can look to push on but it will be difficult. They are on the road again next week heading to Chicago to play the Red Stars in the FSC game of the week.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the result – to come this far and not get anything out of the game,” said Sky Blue FC Head Coach and General Manager Ian Sawyers. “We had some great chances in the first half and obviously again in the second. We felt we had a couple of golden chances that we didn’t take care of.”

Lineups:

FC Gold Pride - Nicole Barnhart; Carrie Dew, Rachel Buehler, Kristen Graczyk; Formiga, Tiffeny Milbrett (Eriko Arakawa, 57th), Leslie Osborne, Tina DiMartino; Christine Sinclair (Leigh Ann Robinson, 70th), Tiffany Weimer (Adriane, 84th), Kandace Wilson.

Sky Blue FC - Jenni Branam; Julianne Sitch, Anita Asante, Keeley Dowling, Christie Rampone; Collette McCallum (Natasha Kai, 45th), Kelly Parker, Meghan Schnur, Yael Averbuch (Kacey White, 80th); Sarah Walsh (Rosana, 65th), Heather O'Reilly.

SKY BLUE V UNC

Sky Blue took on College champs University of North Carolina in a preseason game. Anita Asante started the game in defence with Christie Rampone.
UNC ran out 2 -1 winners in an entertaining match.

WPS UPDATE

A new franchise has been approved for a team in Philadelphia. They have still to decide on a team name. You know what these americans are like with their names. Anyway thats good news for all soccer players worldwide. Another 22 spots up for grabs.
Heres hoping for the other two teams Dallas & Atlanta to be approved also.In total 66 more players could get the chance to play in season 2010.

NJ/NY Sky Blue have officialy signed US WNT captain Christie Rampone & US WNT player Natasha Kai. Rampone will be captain for Sky Blue.

St louis Athletica have named US WNT Vice-captain Lori Chalupny as captain of the team.
Coach Jorge Barcellos is happy with what he is seeing in pre-season and his team is going to play offensive soccer but with a compact defence.GK Hope Solo will be a big part of that area.HOPE had minor surgery last week on her elbow. She will be back training this week.

Finally some of the teams have put up their headshots for the season. Check them all out here

Anita Asanti

Anita Asante is settling into the Sky Blue franchise by having already taken a few training sessions with the NJ/NY club. Coach Sawyer is looking for her to lead the defence along with US WNT captain & likely Sky Blue captain Christie Rampone.
Here is an interview she gave to the Sky Blue blog.

Getting to Know Anita Asante

What American doesn't love an English accent, and such clever turns of phrase ("We're all finding our feet", a literal football (soccer, to us) and figurative reference). That's my gut on first, albeit brief, conversation with Anita. But what struck me especially is her last comment in the interview. I want you, our fans, to read and remember it. I know I will.

So, what took you so long to arrive?
I was away with the England National Team at the Cyprus Cup. I flew in after the tournament (meeting up with Sky Blue FC at the Washington Freedom game). Our team was preparing for the European Championships in the summer.

You had a good tournament?
We had France in our group, whom we met before and they had qualified for the World Cup. We played South Africa for the first time ever, and Canada in final. For us to win this tournament was a major step for our team, and showed how far we came in last couple of months.

How did you come to play the game?
I started as a kid back home. Typically, the area I grew up in, Edgeware Town in Northwest London, had kids all over playing football, so it was easy to pick up. I suppose also partly because my dad is a massive football fan. He supports Arsenal. My uncle was a massive Liverpool fan. I ended up supporting Liverpool, much to the upset of my dad. I went on to play for Arsenal (Ladies) for ten years, and for the last year, with Chelsea.

Any playing history in the U.S.?
I've never really been out here and played, except once at the San Diego Surf Cup with Arsenal.

How do you find Sky Blue FC in this early stage?
I think we have a very solid defensive unit, and we are quick up front. We are all finding our feet and getting to know each other. There is good team spirit and everyone interacting and interested in each other, and our different backgrounds. This is translating onto the field as well, providing good communication, so we can get the best out of each other.

How do your family and friends feel about you coming here?
Most of my friends are really pleased. They've been pushing me to do something like this for a long time. And for them it's a trip, a chance to come visit. Mom and dad have always supported me, and can't wait to come out and watch.

Anything you want to add?
I want as many people to come watch as possible. It's going to be an exciting league. This team has so much to show. In England, the fans come to home games, and catch up with away games. Wherever we go, we know our fans are there in spirit. Fans make the 12th player on the team.

http://fans.womensprosoccer.com/profiles/blogs/sbfc-daily-diary-fans-make