Garden State Rises to the top
New Jersey's Parsippany and PDA the teams to beat
 Friday, August 03
EPPING, NEW HAMPSHIRE – The best match of the morning took place on field two between MPS women and FC Frederick. The match seemed decided in the early going when Frederick took a rapid three goal lead on strikes from Jenn Ruhe, Kristen Walker and Courtney Whorten but the tide turned just before half when MPS’s potent goal scorer, Brianna Wilson-Bryne carved a hole in her team’s three goal deficient. The remainder of the match belonged to MPS. They completed the comeback, scoring three more in the second half to earn three points in the Group A race. Two goals came from Maria Picard, the other from Wilson-Bryne.
“We always seem to start slow,” said MPS Head Coach Steve Morrison. “Yesterday we got down 2-0 early to the Freedom. Wilson’s goal just before the half saved us today.”
“I told them at the half that we needed to win today to even think about making the final,” added Morrison. “They responded very well to our change in formation from our normal 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3. But when we came even at 3-3 we switched back, not wanting to give up a fourth and lose all we worked to get back. Fortunately, we continued to press and got the go-ahead goal.”
MPS’s attack was impressive as they netted a goal off a kick-off set piece to start the half then continued to roll.
“We like to overload the one side and just make a run on net to start the half,” said Morrison regarding the play.
“We got a fantastic effort from our defense in the first half,” said Frederick FC Head Coach Jeff Gross. “The defense enabled us to get the ball up top and score some goals early but our lack of depth cost us in the end.”
Directly following the MPS/Frederick match on field two was the hottest game of the women’s tournament – the 2006 Super-20 League North American Final rematch between the defending champion, the Washington Freedom and their Super-20 League rival Parsippany SC.
New Jersey’s Parsippany struck first and very early. Off the kickoff the ball was swung wide and sent back in, taking the Freedom goalkeeper by surprise the ball floated into the back corner of the net for a 1-0 lead. Stunned, the Freedom played the next ten minutes on their heels recovering. But after regaining their bearing the Freedom looked more like the defending champs and reeled off thirty straight minutes of pressure. The attack resulted in a 1-1 game when Lauren Weitzman took a cross from Jordan Grant and stuffed it through a group of defenders to level the match.
Parsippany responded nearing the end of the first half with several quick scoring chances but the Freedom escaped thanks to the first half whistle.
The halftime talks realigned the Freedom and the side looked to have regained their form but ten minutes in, Parsippany earned a corner kick which they put to good use. Two-year Super-20 standout Ingrid Wells picked out teammate Jennifer Orlando in a scrum and the defender rose and buried the ball back post for an effective one goal lead. Following the goal, the Freedom took the initiative but was sent packing by a solidified Parsippany defense. The match ended 2-1 in favor of the challengers, effectively ending the Freedom’s perfect season.
Meanwhile on the lower field, another unbeaten also from the Garden State, PDA was looking to add another three points onto their tally against their toughest Group D competition the Brandon Flames FC.
But it was the Southeast side who took the first step towards earning the win. The Flames sent a lofted ball over PDA’s defense. It was ran down by forward Nick Zimmerman who needed two touches to save the ball before moving in on PDA goalkeeper Bryan Meredith. Zimmerman grabbed the attention of Meredith and his defense before dropping a slow roller for teammate Matt Clare to annihilate. Clare complied and sent a frozen rope from his foot to the upper 90 for the 1-0 lead.
It was apparent that PDA was in disarray for the next few minutes but the confident side did not seem to mind. They played out the remainder of the half with increasing efficiency, threatening the Brandon goal towards the end of the match.
“We have changed our midfield around twice in the first half and I still don’t think we have it quite right,” said Flames Head Coach Duke Dunnigan during halftime. “Although they [PDA] came off worried about their middle too. But we cannot rely on our defense to hold them off for as long as they did at the end of the half there.”
If the Flames were meant to win today, they would have to do it defending a 1-0 lead. PDA opened the second half on fire. A few of their chances were quenched by Flames goalkeeper Sanel Boric or a desperate defender from his own goal line but eventually PDA systematically struck pay dirt.
Nearing the ten minute mark, a cross from the left flank was batted around in the box before coming lose to Lamah Sidibeth who one-timed a laser into the back of the net to draw even at 1-1.
 PDA extended their lead from there on the strength of two gritty individual efforts from Jonathan Okafor.
On his first, roughly five minutes following the first PDA goal, Okafor treaded forward despite the lack of help against three Flames defenders.
Okafor beat the first with speed, held off the second with power and looked to center a ball to any late-arriving teammate who may have found their way into the area. Fortunately for Okafor the ball deflected off the third defender and trickled into the back of the net for a 2-1 PDA lead.
“On my first goal I looked up and just decided to take on a few defenders,” said Okafor. “I kind of got lucky and it got knocked into the back of the net by one of their own defenders.”
Okafor broke in again a few minutes later and calmly picked out the far post via a slow roller past the Flames goalkeeper.
“On my second goal I [Brad] Fechter saw me making a run and hit me in stride with a perfect through ball, said Okafor. It was just me and the keeper and I had all day to knock it to the back post.”
The remainder of the match was simply a formality as the three goal run in under ten minutes broke the back of Flames FC.
“Despite the score, I think we played just as well in the first half as we did in the second,” said PDA Head Coach Jim Stamatis. “Give Brandon credit for putting pressure on us in the first half but once we solved that issue defensively we played a fairly solid match.”
“We did make some adjustments at halftime but we started with the same players that ended the first half,” added Stamatis. “Today we got three goals from players who came off the bench and that is good. It shows they can step up when they are needed.”
|
|
