Marta's strike lifted the Los Angeles Sol to a 1-0 victory over Sky Blue FC Friday evening. (Michael Janosz | isiphotos.com)

Boxscore (all statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial)

CARSON, Calif. (May 15, 2009) - The Los Angeles Sol defeated Sky Blue FC (NJ-NY) by a 1-0 margin on Friday night at The Home Depot Center. A strike from Brazilian forward Marta was the difference as Los Angeles (4-1-2) won its second straight match against their cross-country rivals.

With the game-winning goal, Marta sent Sky Blue FC (1-3-2) to defeat for the second time this season. In the first meeting between the teams, the Sol attacking midfielder connected twice in a three minute span late in the first half to give Los Angeles a 2-0 victory.

Los Angeles claimed the best opportunities in the opening 45 minutes. The Sol nearly opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Aya Miyama’s low shot slipped through Sky Blue goalkeeper Jenni Branham’s hands and squirted to Aly Wagner on the end line, but her rebound went untouched across the goal mouth and Sky Blue cleared it out of danger.  The next close call for the Sol came in the 21st minute, as forward Han Duan played a low ball perfectly to Wagner’s right foot just inside the penalty area, but Wagner’s shot flew wide and high of the goal.  In first half stoppage time, Marta made a nice move into the box before firing a left-footed shot past the far post.

The second half was a more even battle and it appeared as if Sky Blue FC would get the draw on the road against the league leaders. But Marta had other ideas as she broke the deadlock in the 80th minute. She ran onto a long ball behind the defense, avoided a sliding goalkeeper in Jenni Branam, and finished past two defenders into the vacated net.

To make matters worse for Sky Blue FC, forward Natasha Kai was lost to an apparently serious injury about a minute later when she collided with Los Angeles Sol goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc and had to be taken off on a stretcher.

Sky Blue FC had two good scoring chances in the game but couldn’t capitalize on either one. Both came in the second half with the first in the 73rd minute. Heather O’Reilly served a cross into the box from the right side and Kai rose up to head the ball, but her effort was cleared off the line at the right post by the Sol’s Liz Bogus.

In the closing moments of stoppage time, Meghan Schnur had a golden opportunity to knot the score. A misplay on a cross by the Sol fell right to Schnur, who had ventured forward after playing left back for most of the game, but her awkward shot rolled harmlessly past the left post from six yards out.

The win kept the Sol at the top of the WPS standings with a 4-1-2 mark for 14 points after the win. The victory was the first since April 19th for the Sol, which snapped a three-match winless run. After claiming its first victory of the season last weekend, Sky Blue FC dropped to 1-3-2 for five points. Sol goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc posted three saves to record her sixth shutout of the year - the fourth time Sky Blue FC has been held scoreless this season.

Sky Blue FC completes a run of five straight road games when it travels south to take on the Washington Freedom on May 23rd at 4:30 p.m. at RFK Stadium.  The Los Angeles Sol, meanwhile, travel north to face California rival FC Gold Pride on Sunday, May 24 in a match that will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel (7pm ET/4pm PT).

Boxscore (all statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial)

POST-MATCH QUOTE SHEET

Los Angeles Sol Head Coach Abner Rogers

“It was a close battle and each team had opportunities, we had better opportunities in the first half, but we just didn’t capitalize. But, at the end of the game, we scored the goal that mattered.”

“We had a great fan base tonight; the fans really got to see an exciting match and we were able to reward them with three points.”

Los Angeles Sol Forward Marta

“Even though it was an individual play that I scored the goal on, it was the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of my teammates.”

“We have a lot of players who are just getting used to one another, the goals will come.”

Sky Blue FC Head Coach Ian Sawyers

“Overall, we were unlucky not to come away with a win. The difference was Marta’s breakaway that led to the only goal of the game.”

“We didn’t play well in the first half, so we made some adjustments at halftime and dominated a large part of the second half.”

“Overall, we are disappointed, but the team played well.”