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Megan Rapinoe notched two goals in 2009. Increased goal-scoring from the WPS All-Star will be a key factor for the Red Stars in 2010.

Oct. 28, 2009 - A quick look at Chicago’s game by game record this season and one thing pops out at first glance: this team was streaky. An undefeated April was followed by a winless May. Three ties to start June were succeeded by three straight losses in the second half of the month. The team showed some life in early July with back-to-back wins for the first time to get back into the WPS Playoff race, only to follow that with two tough 1-0 losses effectively ending the Red Stars hopes of post-season play.
 
All these streaks led to an astonishing stat: 10 times this season Chicago’s result in a game mimicked the result from the previous game, proving the old adage that all things come in bunches. And Head Coach Emma Hayes knows there was one thing she would have liked to have in bunches: more goals.
 
The Red Stars featured a quartet of offensive-minded stars in Cristiane, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Lindsay Tarpley, but a three-game goalless stretch in May was followed by a four-game goalless stretch in June from which the Red Stars never recovered. Now a member of Sky Blue FC after signing with the New Jersey club, Lloyd, U.S. Soccer’s 2008 Player of the Year, didn’t score her second goal until the penultimate game of the season.
 
Mixed in between was a four-goal explosion against Boston, the league’s first hat trick from Cristiane, a free agent the Red Stars are still hoping to re-sign, in a win over FC Gold Pride and an exciting 3-1 victory over regular season winners Los Angeles Sol in front of 8,000 jubilant fans at Toyota Park.
 
Indeed, if the game against Los Angeles is a harbinger of things to come in 2010, then good times will descend upon Bridgeview in WPS’s sophomore season. The team looked exciting on offense, creating several opportunities, and shut down the potent Sol attack until the 90th-minute, despite giving up the edge on possession.
 
But the Red Stars will also have to tighten up defensively. Chicago was led during the season by standout ‘keeper Caroline Jonsson of Sweden, who notched four shutouts on the year and led the league in saves – a stat that the Red Stars defense might not want to boast about. The Swede proved to be both durable and resilient in the process and will look to anchor the defense again in 2010 with the dangerous Marian Dalmy on the outside and Kate Markgraf, who took 2009 off to have twins, returning at center back. In midfield, 2009 WPS All-Star Brittany Klein showed versatility while Karen Carney had moments of brilliance, as did Tarpley and Rapinoe, whose two goals this season both belong on year-end highlight reels.  Tarpley is hoping to be back on the field when pre-season begins after tearing her ACL in the last week of the 2009 WPS season.
 
Indeed, excitement wasn’t lacking at Toyota Park – just the consistency to show that stuff every week. The Red Stars will seek to solve that riddle in 2010.