Updates
Mon, Apr 13th 2009, 12:16
In Home Opener, Freedom Musters a Tie
Showing the kinks of a team still learning to play together, in just the second game of the season in the first year of a new league, the Washington Freedom struggled to capitalize on an abundance of goal-scoring opportunities in its home opener at Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds last night.
In front of 5,028, a record crowd for the venue, defender Becky Sauerbrunn’s second-half goal — the Freedom’s first in Women’s Professional Soccer league history — gave Washington a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Red Stars, earning the franchise its first point.
But the result came with some regret as Washington (0-1-1) dominated play for much of the game and had a man advantage for the final 25-plus minutes.
“We had been knocking at the door all first half, we had a bunch of great chances, so it was really just a matter of time,” Sauerbrunn said. “It just kind of happened. It was extremely frustrating because I really feel that we deserved to win that game, I think we had a lot of quality chances, I think we had a lot more chances than the other team did. It was unfortunate that we didn’t finish them, but I really do think we deserved to get three points out of that.”
Sauerbrunn’s goal came in the 54th minute off a driven, bending free kick from midfielder Sonia Bompastor that Sauerbrunn flicked from her near post run to the far upper corner, leaving no chance for Red Stars goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson.
The goal came early in a half in which the Freedom players continually found themselves on the doorstep but were unable to tuck away any of their several quality chances.
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