Playoffs push, one word: predictable

By: Melissa | July 19th, 2009

This isn’t going to be a situation where the playoff slots stay open until the last second. Every game from now until the end of the season won’t be a nail-biter. This weekend’s results solidified that for sure. Here’s the current table: 1. Sol, 2. Athletica, 3. Breakers, 4. Sky Blue, 5. Freedom, 6. Red Stars, 7. FC Gold Not-So-Proud. You could walk away from this league and come back in a month, and the table will look almost exactly the same. Perhaps the Freedom move up a spot. But the playoffs are pretty much off the radar for the Red Stars and FCGP.

The Freedom, on the other hand, soldiered through a depleted squad from call-ups to beat STL. But that’s not the story here. Third string goalie, Kati Jo Spisak, hurt herself in the second half and had to sub out. Except, with first choice Mcleod off with Canada and second choice Scurry injured, goalkeeper coach Nicci Wright had to come out of retirement and finish the game. But that’s not even the best part of the story. Did you watch this one? (it was available online – just sayin’) Cause Eric Wynalda was one of the commentators. So when Wright subbed in, he asked, wouldn’t it be funny if she blew the Freedom’s lead? Her players would never take her seriously again… which, of course, would be true but luckily Wright never had to worry about that potential problem. There was even a camera cut-over to Wright after a near miss that showed her nervously laughing and sticking her tongue out.

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The Red Stars/Sky Blue game turned into Natasha Kai injury watch. Girl walked into that with tweaks to both shoulders. She then spent the rest of the game dragging her team to the win and possibly injuring the rest of herself in the process. She created quite a few chances she couldn’t finish and didn’t wind up scoring the lone goal but I bet if she was fit, she’d have gotten a hat trick. Barring any extreme upsets, Sky Blue and the Freedom are really the last teams fighting for a post-season. But with Kai’s injuries and the return of her teammates from national team duty, this may be her last hurrah for 2009. Bit of a bummer considering her great 2008 with the nats.

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I missed the FCGP/Boston game. It wasn’t online, it wasn’t on tv, and I had to deal with some stupid house crap so I couldn’t make it down. But I already knew it was gonna be a loss for the team at the bottom of the table. And after watching the San Jose MLS team sit at the bottom of their table AGAIN, I’ve got a new theory that Buck Shaw stadium is cursed (I’m too lazy to look up the college teams’ stats so my theory is not quite complete). In fact, I’m thinking Sarah Winchester got bored of her unfinished house down the street and moved into the press box. Also, I want Tiffany Weimer traded to another team asap. At the beginning of the season, she was the one to watch and now she’s getting subbed out of the game at the half.

So for the next month, focus on Sky Blue and the Freedom. Sky Blue start off playing the number 2 & 3 teams on the table with Natasha Kai needing to pull more magic out of her ass this coming Wednesday while her teammates on the nats play Canada again. The Freedom have it easy against the last two teams on the table and Boston in between. So by the time these teams face each other on August 8th… well, their last meeting was this past week and ended in a 4-4 tie.

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