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Saint Louis Athletica celebrates Christie Welsh's goal against the Chicago Red Stars.

Saint Louis Finds New Striking Partnership on Eve of WPS Playoffs

Boxscore (all statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial)

ST. LOUIS (August 5, 2009) – Saint Louis Athletica closed out their 2009 Regular Season campaign with a 2-0 win over the Chicago Red Stars at The Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo. in front of 3,437 fans.  Christie Welsh scored both of Athletica’s goals as Athletica Head Coach Jorge Barcellos may have found a new striking partnership on the eve of the WPS Playoffs.

Barcellos elected to give Christie Welsh and Sarah Walsh the start up top and his decision paid off in both halves. Christie Welsh opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when a ball through the box from Sarah Walsh found Welsh open on the left side. Welsh drilled it home with a solid left foot for her first goal of the season.

“I can’t believe I have gone this long without scoring,” said Welsh. “This has been one of the most difficult soccer seasons of my life. The stats, the minutes played, the trade. I believe that I can score goals. The ball that came to me could have easily gone somewhere else but it came to me. Walsh made a run in and the ball from her took a deflection and it came to my left foot and anything that comes to my left I hit straight.”

Welsh would hit the back of the net again in the 64th minute to effectively kill off the game and secure the win. This time Sarah Walsh was again involved, Melissa Tancredi would get the final assist and Christie Welsh again provided a clean, clinical finish.

“The second goal was right there, just right in front of me and I had to take it,” stated Welsh. “Some days you have shots like that and today it went in. Jorge Barcellos has said all along you have to score goals and I believe that. I believe that I can step up and finish. We proved we were a well rounded team. Playing with Sarah Walsh was great. Her speed is ridiculous.”

The new found partnership could not have clicked at a better moment for Saint Louis. With leading goal-scorer and assist provider Eniola Aluko set to leave for the European Championships with England Athletica needed to find a new source of goals. The Walsh-Welsh connection may just be the answer.

Barcellos has been bringing Walsh slowly along working up the minutes played a bit each week. Walsh would play for 72 minutes, her longest stretch yet of the season.”

“It felt really good to run out that long,” said the Australian international. “I didn’t struggle to much in the first half, felt it some in the second, made a lot of runs up and down the wings.”

Walsh was very pleased with how she and her striking partner worked together tonight.

“What I love about Christie is she always is in front of goal. All credit to her tonight. It is reassuring to know we can score goals with Eniola Aluko in the lineup,” said Walsh. “When you have two strikers they have to work together and we did that well.”

For Jorge Barcellos the win was a mission accomplished on three levels; keep up the level of play, find a route to goal, and rest some players. He was able to accomplish all three tasks on the night.

“It was a happy moment for me to see Welsh score because she has been training and fighting hard. We are going to need a player like her in place of Aluko,” said Barcellos. “Tonight is going to give her a lot of confidence. The combination of Walsh and Welsh was good. One is fast and the other has a presence in the penalty area.”

Red Stars goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson made two saves in her team's loss.  Jönsson was on the field for all 1800 minutes this season, becoming the only Women’s Professional Soccer goalkeeper to log all of her team’s minutes.

The loss ends the 2009 season for Chicago.  The Red Stars are awaiting the announcement of the full roster for the WPS All-Star Game, to be held August 30th in St. Louis, to learn how many representatives the team will have on the All-Star squad.

Athletica will be finishing up the regular season at FC Gold Pride in Santa Clara, California on August 9.  From there, the team will move on to the WPS Playoffs and will host the WPS Super Semifinal on Wednesday, August 19th, at 7pm ET / 6pm CT.  The game will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel.

Boxscore (all statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial)