Lauren Cheney scores Boston's final goal in its 3-1 victory over the Washington Freedom.  The Breakers wore special PUMA pink uniforms to support Project Pink, an initiative to raise awareness and fundraising for the fight against breast cancer.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 31, 2010) – The third-place Boston Breakers concluded July with their fifth victory during the month, a 2-0 shutout of the Washington Freedom Saturday evening at Harvard Stadium, to improve their record to 6-6-4.  The Freedom’s freefall, meanwhile, continued as the club tied a pair of WPS records by losing its fifth straight game and by going winless in its tenth consecutive match.

Kelly Smith got the scoring going in the 21st minute.  Defender Amy LePeilbet sent a free kick to the right side of the 18-yard box where Jordan Angeli headed it to Smith who buried it in the back of the net.  The goal was Smith’s seventh of the season and her third in Boston’s last two games.

The Breakers extended their lead to 2-0 in the 56th minute as Lauren Cheney found Jordan Angeli during a scrum in front of the Washington goal.  Angeli easily finished for her fifth goal of the season.

Abby Wambach got the Freedom on the scoreboard in the 67th minute with a header.  Second-half substitute Lene Mykjaland set the goal up five minutes after entering the game.  The goal was Wambach’s seventh of the season.  She and Smith are tied for third in the league goalscoring race, six tallies behind FC Gold Pride’s Marta who plays on Sunday.

Cheney put the game out of reach in the 85th minute.  LePeilbet took a shot which bounced off of Freedom goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris and bounced straight to the Boston rookie forward.  Cheney made no mistake with the chance to net her third goal of the year.

With the loss, the Freedom (4-8-5, 17 points) remain tied for fifth place in the WPS Standings with the Chicago Red Stars who are in action on Sunday.  In the defeat, Washington tied the Atlanta Beat (4/18-5/14/2010) for WPS’s longest losing streak at five games and tied FC Gold Pride (5/24-7/26/2009) for WPS’s longest winless streak at 10 games.  The Freedom have not won since a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Independence on May 30.

The Freedom return to Washington to try to change their luck on Wednesday, Aug. 4 when they face the Independence at 7:30pm ET.  The Breakers are also in action on Wednesday, Aug. 4 when they host the Atlanta Beat at 7pm ET.

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POST-MATCH QUOTES

Jordan Angeli - Boston Breakers midfielder
On her streak  of four goals in five games
This is all just a dream to me. I’m playing professional soccer and maybe I had dreamt of being a goal scorer, but this kind of just happened. I mean, Lauren Cheney did all the work on that goal, I just kind of scooped it in there.

Lauren Cheney - Boston Breakers forward
On the significance of the pink jerseys
My grandma had breast cancer and I know a lot of people that have been affected. To be playing for this cause and to be auctioning off these jerseys, it was fun, a good time and it made me want to work a little bit harder.

On her goal
Fabiana checked to the ball, it was a corner kick and she dummied it. Amy LePeilbet had a great shot on goal and Ashlyn Harris couldn’t handle it. The ball hit off of her and I was just there to finish it.

On scoring after so many missed opportunities
It feels good. I’m a forward and that’s my job and it feels fulfilling to help the team score a goal.

Tony DiCicco - Boston Breakers Head Coach
On the closeness of the standings
It’s tough, I mean there are five teams all within two points of each other going into the game, so you can’t have any bad efforts. Washington coming in had gone nine games without a win and we know what that’s like. We knew they were going to put a lot into the game, a lot of effort, a lot of fight and so we had to match it. At times I thought we were very good and at times I thought we gave the ball away too much, and they’re a good possession team. Our back four played very, very well. They have one player who is incredibly fast in Marshall and another who does so many things in Wambach, and I thought they did a very good job on them.

On the victory
It was a good win for us. It was good to see Jordan Angeli score again. It was really good to see Lauren Cheney get another goal. I thought she played strong and the team came out and played a better second half and we’re happy with the win.

Kelly Smith - Boston Breakers forward
On the victory
Real delighted with the win tonight. We scored three goals, which is good for our confidence and I’m just really, really, really pleased.

On her goal
It was a ball in the area and there were a lot of players in that area, so I pulled myself to the back post where I thought someone would head it and Jordan Angeli who had a great header and I was there to put it home.

On other players scoring and taking the pressure off of her
It’s taken a great weight off of my shoulders that other players are stepping up to the plate. Not just putting the ball in the back of the net, but having good individual performances too, from Leslie Osborne, Lindsay Tarpley and Fabiana. The bench players really made a difference tonight in the game.

Jim Gabarra - Washington Freedom Head Coach
On his club’s rough stretch
I think every team in this league over the past two years goes through a very tough stretch at some point. I think we have had a combination of some critical injuries, some National Team call-ups and an overloaded schedule to go with that. Just a really tough stretch and we’ve got to find a way out of it. Tonight was simply defensive presence and hardness. Boston did that very well and we were caught off guard.

Abby Wambach – Washington Freedom forward
On her club’s struggles
It’s obviously not easy to lose a lot of games in a row. For me, I think this might be the longest losing streak I’ve ever had. I think the things that we’re trying to focus on are the positive challenges for this team, because we do feel like we’re still within reach of making the playoffs – we’ve just got to string a few wins together in order to get those points to get into the playoffs. I’m not quite sure what it’s going to take; I think that’s been our issue all along, is we really can’t put our finger on what’s the problem. But that’s why we’re trying to focus on the things we can control and moving forward, we’ve just got to get one win under our belt and then we’ll be alright.