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BOYDS, Md. (April 18, 2010) – Behind a goal and two assists from Abby Wambach, the Washington Freedom (1-1-0, 3 points) defeated the Atlanta Beat (0-0-1, 1 point), 3-1, Sunday evening at the Maryland Soccerplex.

"We feel good about the win because we practiced hard this week," said Freedom defender, Sonia Bompastor. "It was an intense game for everyone and it feels good to win."

The Freedom scored just before halftime as Bompastor rifled a free kick from the right flank which Beat goalkeeper Allison Whitworth couldn’t handle.  Abby Wambach was crashing the net and cleaned up the rebound.  The goal, which came in the 44th minute, was Wambach’s first of the season.

"Our first goal gave us confidence going into halftime and that was important for us," said Wambach.

Atlanta came out of halftime strong, scoring the equalizer in the 48th minute as Ramona Bachmann slotted her shot past Freedom goalkeeper Erin McLeod from the right side of the 18-yard box.  The goal was the first in Beat history.

“It was great to get our first goal in the WPS,” said Atlanta Head Coach Gareth O’Sullivan, “but we didn’t get to celebrate for very long.  I think we were still caught up in our own celebration when we gave the ball away and got punished.”

The Freedom responded with Wambach dictating Washington’s second-half attack.  In the 51st minute, Wambach found Sawa who struck her shot inside the near post for her first goal of the season.  Then in the 90th minute, Wambach drew the Beat defense towards herself and fed Christie Welsh for her first goal of the year.

"The win today was huge, because we want to get off on a good start," said Freedom head coach, Jim Gabarra. "I'm happy with the way the players competed today."

“We take the positive from this game,” said O’Sullivan.  “If we can eliminate some of the mistakes we made today, we will compete well in WPS this season. We play the Freedom three times this year, so we hope to have an answer for Abby Wambach who was a handful for us today.”

Washington travels to Philadelphia to face the Independence on Sunday, April 25 (6pm ET/3pm PT) while the Beat head across the country to the Bay Area to take on FC Gold Pride on Saturday, April 24 (10pm ET/7pm PT).

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POST-GAME QUOTES

Washington Freedom

Abby Wambach

"Well this is our home field, so it was great to get the lead giving us that confidence going into half time. That was important.

The ball came to my feet and I was able to get it to Sawa. She put it in the back of the net."

Cat Whitehill

"We sustained the pressure and we just started to play our game which is encouraging heading into next week.

One of the things we talked about was competing. We had a little different formation, which helped to keep Sonia [Bompastor] and Becky [Sauerbrunn] forward.

We are still growing, but we played well especially in the back.

I think that Tobin [Heath] is one of the best in the world. And then they have Bachmann. They are a very good team."

Sonia Bompastor

"It was an intense game, and it really so good to get the win. We played very well.

We have not changed a lot of players [from last year], so we have good chemistry. We are starting to build off last year."

Jim Gabarra, Head Coach

"It was a great result for us, with improvements from last week. Atlanta is a very competitive team and I'm happy with the win, but we still have areas were we need to get better.

We need to work on possession, and dictating the rhythm, and on the defensive play of our younger players.

[Romana] Bachmann is the kind of player who we need to understand can beat us, and we weren't playing that way.

The team responded really well. The team reacted well coming off of last week's game, and we put together a good performance."

Atlanta Beat

Tobin Heath

"Abby [Wambach] and Cat [Whitehill] and a number of their players are very solid. I have great respect for them. Competing against them at this level is awesome.

I've been on a number of teams that win, so I bring that edge. I have the experience which helps with the development of our players, and try and carry the rhythm out there. I just try to be productive on the offensive end and give my team a spark when we need it.

This is only our second game so we are still trying to figure things out, but we have great strengths on the attacking end. We have different personalities, so we are just trying to get those personalities to mesh.

The hardest thing when you score is that first five minutes after, not allowing another one and we had a lapse, and they had that goal right after ours took. My hat goes off to them. They definitely took the wind out of our sails a little bit." 

Gareth O'Sullivan, Head Coach

"I think we played well in patches but on all three goals our defending was poor. On the first goal, it was an error by the keeper. The second goal, we gave the ball away in a dangerous area, and it was a good finish by [Homare] Sawa. We were too committed up front. Then on the third goal we had two chances to intercept the ball and missed it.

We jumped on the team in the second half and you want to build on that. The momentum is huge in the women's game and they scored three goals, and it led to their win.

We are still learning. [Romana] Bachmann is just coming back. [Monia] Ocampo is also coming off injury. We started Tobin [Heath] as the second striker. We have to build on tonight, look at the film, and hopefully we have a better finish next week against Bay Area."