PISCATAWAY, N.J. (August 5, 2009) – Sky Blue FC charged into the final weekend of the Women’s Professional Soccer season and moved one step closer to a spot in the playoffs with a commanding 2-0 victory over FC Gold Pride in front of a sold-out, capacity crowd of 5,455 at Yurcak Field. Rosana and Natasha Kai scored the goals for Sky Blue FC.

With the victory, Sky Blue FC moved into a tie for third place with a 7-7-5 record for 26 points. The Washington Freedom and Boston Breakers are the other two teams fighting for the final two playoff spots. Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Washington has an identical 7-7-5 mark but currently holds the tiebreaker with a victory and tie against Sky Blue FC. The pressure is on Boston with the Breakers sitting one point back at 7-8-4 for 25 points.

Sky Blue FC travels to the Maryland SoccerPlex on Saturday to take on the Freedom at 7 p.m. in the season finale. Boston hosts the regular season champion Los Angeles Sol on Sunday at 6 p.m. in a must-win game for the Breakers.

The match was the first for Sky Blue FC with Christie Rampone serving as interim player/coach. The match didn’t start smoothly with goalkeeper Karen Bardsley replacing Jenni Branam in the starting lineup at the last minute forcing Sky Blue FC to use one of its substitutions, but that was the only thing that went wrong all night for the home side.

Sky Blue FC held a 22-6 advantage in shots and Bardsley, who earned a spot on the England National Team for the Women’s EURO Tournament next month, needed just two saves to register the shutout.

Sky Blue FC held an 11-2 edge in shots in the first half but couldn’t break through. Kai headed a corner kick from Yael Averbuch just wide of the post in the 18th minute and FC Gold Pride keeper Nicole Barnhart did a good job to pick the ball off the foot of Kai in the 35th minute.

FC Gold Pride’s best chance of the game came from Christine Sinclair in the 43rd minute, but Bardsley came up big to slide through the Canadian striker on a breakaway to keep the game scoreless.

After halftime, Sky Blue FC took control of the game right away as Rosana scored just 46 seconds into the second half. Heather O’Reilly carried the ball up the right side and floated a serve into the box that the Brazilian midfielder headed into the right side of the goal from eight yards out.

Sky Blue FC continued to threaten as Kacey White curled a 15-yard shot off the left post in the 59th minute. Two minutes later, Collette McCallum, who checked into the game seconds earlier, lofted a perfect ball forward for Kai and the Sky Blue FC striker took a touch before slotting a shot past a charging Barnhart for the 2-0 lead.

Sinclair rolled a shot just past the post in the 67th minute before Barnhart denied Kai once in the 70th minute and twice back-to-back in the 74th minute.

August 5, 2009 – Yurcak Field	1	2	-	F
FC Gold Pride (4-10-5)	0	0	-	0
Sky Blue FC (7-7-5)	0	2	-	2

Lineups:
Sky Blue FC – Jenni Branam (Karen Bardsley 1’); Meghan Schnur, Christie Rampone, Jen Buczkowski, Keeley Dowling; Heather O’Reilly, Yael Averbuch, Rosana, Kelly Parker (Collette McCallum 60’); Kacey White (Kerri Hanks 71’), Natasha Kai.
FC Gold Pride – Nicole Barnhart; Greer Barnes, Carrie Dew, Kristen Graczyk, Rachel Buehler; Tina DiMartino, Tiffeny Milbrett (Kim Yokers 83’), Leslie Osborne, Brandi Chastain (Adriane 60’); Christine Sinclair, Tiffany Weimer (Eriko Arakawa 56’).

Scoring Summary:
SBFC – Rosana (O'Reilly) 46'
SBFC – Kai (McCallum) 61'

Misconduct Summary:
SBFC – Buczkowski (caution) 69’
SBFC – Averbuch (caution) 71’

Game Summary:
Referee – Ted Unkel
Assistant Referees – Teresa Miguel, Danielle Magourik
4th Official – Brian Dunn
Attendance – 5,455
Weather – Clear & humid, 84 degrees

BOXSCORE (All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial.)  

QUOTES

Sky Blue FC Interim Player/Coach Christie Rampone

On if the perspective is any different?

I think it’s definitely a little different as a coach. You’re thinking about some changes you're going to make as well as playing my role and making sure everyone’s playing with confidence and trying to decide what formation we might have to change into if things aren't working out but I think we weathered the storm in the first half. They definitely came at us. We were dropping off but we changed a few things at halftime and wanted to use our wings a little bit more because they were playing a lot more centrally so I think our tactics changed. Then Collette coming in off the bench – she definitely served a great ball and that’s what I expect from her and she put a great ball into Tash and she finished that second goal.

On how substitutions work as player coach

We talked early about all different options – I went through every scenario possible even from a keeper getting injured - being well aware of all of our strengths on the bench. Everyone brings something different in, it’s just a matter of what we need in the game. Mike and I had a really good communication especially at halftime. I wanted to get Collette in the game because I know she’s very crafty and KP (Kelly Parker) has a great engine – I knew she would work their flank for the first half and I figured maybe 10-15 minutes in, put Collette in to preserve us and it paid off - she put a great ball in and she continued to play good service. I think everyone stepped up today and played their role and that’s what we worked on this week at practice just playing their role and being good at their role – go to your strengths instead of way too much worrying about the game and don’t be overwhelmed by the game - just simplify it.

On Jenni Branam’s status

She’s okay. She struggled a little bit during this week and as a player I know how it is on game day. I gave her the chance to try to get ready to go and she wasn’t 100% healthy in my eyes. She wanted to play but I told her, you know what, we have a game on Saturday. Let us deal with this, let us figure ourselves out today and be healthy for Saturday.

How it feels after this week

It feels good now that we got a win. It’s been a great week. I think the team really had some great training sessions. Mike and I were just tweaking little things at training and everyone stayed focused and it really showed in the second half. I think the first half was just pure adrenaline and trying to find our rhythm but I think we came out in the second half really focused and we had nothing to lose at that point.

On this weekend's match vs. Washington

We’ll be changing a few things here and there - not a ton of stuff but we have to go back. I’ve been concentrating so much on Bay Area that I’ve got to look at some film on Washington. We’re going to have a day off so I'll sit home and get my thoughts on Washington and then present it to the team on Friday. We’ll have a nice light practice, get on the bus and go there. But we’ll go with the same mentality and that’s worry about ourselves, worry about what our strengths are and what we need to do on the field to get a victory.

Sky Blue FC forward Natasha Kai

On tonight’s match

We had a few chances in the beginning and a few that I should have put away. Barny (Nicole Barnhart) came up and stopped a couple of good ones. We should have had three in the first half but we came out strong in the second half, got two in with a lucky shot off of Rosana’s ear. Well, she headed it but then got cleated in the ear. We got our three points and we’re happy with that.

On her goal

I was happy. It was an awesome ball from Collette. I knew that ball was coming, it had a little skip and I knew I needed to just crack it one time and it went far post past the keeper and I was just like thank goodness.

How big is the win?

It was big for us. We knew we had to win this game. We knew we controlled our own fate. We know we had to win these next two games. We took care of it tonight and we came up with the three points. We have recovery tomorrow and late practice on Friday and we head to DC. We need to be professionals and keep our bodies healthy and come out the same way we did tonight and come out hard against DC because we’re all fighting for playoff spots.

FC Gold Pride Head Coach Albertin Montoya

On tonight’s match

Obviously I thought we did a little bit better in the first half and dealt with their high pressure. We knew they would come out at us. We had three tough games coming into this game and they had a week's rest and I don’t think our players have played in this type of weather in some time but that’s not an excuse. I thought Sky Blue FC played extremely well today and were very effective in making their runs and the way I look at it, they were just buzzing around everywhere. They had good energy and they played like a team that’s fighting for a playoff spot and we unfortunately didn’t come out with the intensity and energy and I think it cost us in the second half.