Athletica’s Loyden is player of the week; belated weekend thoughts
Not surprisingly, Athletica backup goalie Jillian Loyden was named the WPS player of the week. (I say not surprisingly because a) I voted for her, so I know she had at least one vote, and b) because no player in the league scored two goals, which is the key to winning.) Athletica players have been named POY after the team’s past two games — two weeks ago it was Lori Chalupny — and they’re tied for second with Washington for POYs. Los Angeles has had three.
Loyden was ecstatic after the game. We talked in a hallway under the stadium (one of my colleagues regularly describes this as the bowels of the stadium) about her play:
“I felt like we knoew Hope was going to be gone when I got here so I knew had to be prepared for that moment, or if she got hurt, so I had been preparing just like any other player and tonight I finally got that opportunity and it was so much fun.
“Being able to celebrate on the field and being able to accomplish something with my teammates and see a result from it was amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better feeling right now. It’s amazing.
“I think our defense played amazing today. It’s a testament to our team that we could come together under adversity, missing some of our best players like Hope, who’s the anchor of our defense, Lori, who’s our midfield, I just think the girls did an amazing job and I could not be prouder today.
“(Going up 1-0) took the pressure off a little, after the second goal, I had a good feeling. It gave me more confidence, stepping up more. I’m on Cloud Nine. It’s overwhelming this feeling right now.”
Was this her biggest win? “One of them. It’s the first step to a bigger picture for me. I’ve done the college thing and this was the next step and now I realize how much more work I have to do now. This is something I want to pursue in the future.
“We lost the first game and had a little bit of vengeance in our eyes. We wanted to play for those players who aren’t here, Lori, Hope, Daniela who’s back in St. Louis injured. We played for them and put them in our hearts and I’m sure they’ll be proud of us when we get back with three points.”
You would have to think that with a Philadelphia team entering the league next season, a Villanova grad like Loyden would be a likely candidate to be taken in the expansion draft. Barring injury, she’ll get two more shots in goal, in July when Chalupny and Solo, presumably, will be gone against for national team duty.
xxxx
Here’s a valuable lesson learned from my trip to beautiful Bridgeview on Saturday to see what is no longer the battle for Illinois supremacy: Eat before you get to the ballpark. I don’t dine at the concession stand very often, but the $4 soda was a bit steep.
I should note that the grass at Toyota Park looked spectacular. No wonder stadium employees were urging everyone to get off the field after the game, even if we were just standing on the sidelines.
The announced attendance was 4,461, which I have to assume was the number of tickets distributed. Either that or my math skills are suffering because I was figuring about 2,500 in the house.
xxxx
Kerri Hanks hurt her arm late in the game Saturday — she came out in the 88th minute, replaced by Christie Welsh — and was getting treatment on the sidelines after the game. Her arm still hurt on Tuesday at practice. I didn’t see what happened.
It’s interesting to note that Welsh, who was the victim to a numbers game in Los Angeles where she couldn’t get off the bench, could be in the same situation here, playing beyind Eniola Aluko and Hanks, and since a Hanks-Welsh combo doesn’t make sense, that’s where the competition will be at forward.
Welsh did an excellent job of running out the clock on Saturday. I personally am no fan of players taking the ball into the corner and grinding the game to a halt, but I’ve got to say Welsh does it well.
On more than a few occasions, the Athletica defense made Chicago look bad. On more than a few occasions — and Tina Ellertson did it several times — Chicago attackers were expecting Athletica defenders to play kick the ball to safety and play long balls out of the back, only to see the Athleticans keep the ball on the ground, cut it back behind a flying-past Red Star, and start a controlled attack up the field rather than turning it over.
xxxxxx
Erin Walter made her first appearance of the season, coming on in the 70th minute for Lisa Stoia. That leaves only No. 3 goalie Erin Kane, oft-injured Amanda Cinalli, and finally-done-with-school Stephanie Logterman as players who haven’t gotten in games. Of those three, Kane has been on the active list just once, Saturday, and the same for Cinalli. Logterman hasn’t been active at all, but she’s with the team on a permanent basis now.
xxxx
Though Athletica is in fifth in the standings, they have played just six games, at least one less game than everyone and in some cases, two less. If you go by points per game, the Athletica are ahead, by percentage points, of fourth-place Washington.
xxxxx
Athletica coach Jorge Barcellos is not one inclined to short answers, and when you add the fact that assistant coach Carlos Machado has to translate everything, his comments take twice as long. His opening comments after the game took 4 1/2 minutes, and an answer to a later question also took 4 1/2 minutes.
Here’s what Barcellos said:
“To play against Chicago is always a complicated thing because there are a very good team. I think we did everything we needed to do. I need to congratulate our players on a good game. We were in a situation similar to the one Chicago was in (the Red Stars have now lost three in a row), we lost two games, tied a couple games, we were able to find our game today and get three points away from home and that’s good. This last week we had a bye, I think that was very helpful to work on things we needed to work on. We’re missing some players to national teams, and we did OK. We were also missing six players for today’s game, Daniela, McNeill, Tancredi to the Canadian team. We were without (five) of our starting players. I’m very happy because we don’t have just a group, feel we have a family kind of environment in St. Louis. I think today did prove we have a strong team and are capable of making it to a final. The tendency now is that the team will grow more. I can’t guarantee it, but the tendency is there that we’re going to improve. I”m sure we’re going to work even harder this week and keep doing that. Our long term goal is to make it to the playoffs. That’s what we’re working on to accomplish, that’s our goal. I dedicate this game to the St. Louis players that worked very hard this week, dedicate to the fans we have in St. Louis and the ones that came to St. Louis. I’m certain Chicago has a good enough team to come out of this situation they find themselves in and they have a good leader, Emma.”
Later, he was asked if his team is a playoff contender:
“It’s too early to talk about that. We’ve been working two sessions some days, a lot of people tell me we came out of a complicated situation when we lost the two games. Then last week we basically worked on the physical conditioning the whole week, and there was a lot of questions if the players would be tired. The best weapon I have is the quality of the team today, the quickness. My team is not a strong team physically, it’s a fast, quick team with a lot of speed. We’ve lost a lot with Daniela going out. Thank God she’s recovering quite well. There’s nothing like having Hope Solo back there to give us the security we need, at the same time, we’re also very thankful for having Loyden. She’s almost the same type of player and gives us the same kind of security. Our group is improving, growing every day that goes by. I want to be in the playoffs with a competitive team and I want to fight for the championship. To try to bring the happiness that the people of St. Louis would love to have. I stay till 3 in the morning working on things to try to bring those things to St. Louis.”
He’s up till 3 in the morning? Was is he, in the NFL?
xxxx
Though the team is moving to Fenton, or at least, St. Louis County right next to Fenton, for this week, they’re still practicing at SIUE. It looks like the complete move won’t come until next week.
True to my techno peasant procrastinating nature, I find myself well after the Athletica – Red Stars match getting online to catch-up on the latest soccer think. Yet still on my mind are some striking takeaways from Saturday evening. It underscores these professional athletes’ commitment and why with every game I get drawn deeper into wanting to see this league to thrive. I especially continue to be amazed at the sincere attention these professionals show their young fans post-game. That alone will keep bringing me back.
Truthfully, I had mused during the drive up that leaving nose grease on the Shedd’s aquarium glass would justify the trip. Despite my love for strange finned colorful things that blow bubbles, Athletica proved to be highlight of the weekend. From the opening minutes, Loyden’s performance and the defensive line in front of the net minder erased any concerns I had that Athletica would show gaps given the call-up of its NT reps. Woznuk’s enduring ability to intercept and truncate the opposition’s playmaking was evident - again. Fletcher’s second half intelligent dogging of Carney made me wonder if she had found a way to interlace boots with the tricky speedster. Welsh and Walter off the bench makes me eager to see more of their discipline and tenacity respectively. Aluko/team collective offside calls shows assertiveness that at times has been missing. I particularly enjoyed Hank’s late game mugging of a Red Stars defender. While I recognized it as frustration, it did exemplify a professional’s heart and verve that was the pervasive order of the night.
The trip to first-rate Toyota Park was worth it. Yes! I ate beforehand. Kudos to Laclede’s Army for providing my right ear, from 400 feet away, with a familiar tempo just about canceling out the monotonous grunt of the Chicago drums in my left.
I look forward to Athletica’s ability to shutdown Marta and solve Cox.
Grandma was slow but she was old!
Tom: It’s great to see a P-D reporter traveling to cover a soccer game; it feels like a WC warm-up!
And with this additional commentary, I felt like I was there after final time was called watching our “Athleticans” bask in the glory of victory before being shooed off the field.
I hope you get to cover all the remaining road games.
Again, thanks for the coverage. I agree with almost everything except the attendance. I guessed between 4200 and 4500 and a Chicago supporter agreed with me. Remember, Toyota only has an upper deck on one side. From my point of view, since their are three decks, one on one side, two on the other, one third of the stadium was two thirds full. So I’m saying 2/9’s or about 4,000 or so.
We tailgated with the Walters and Webers before the game. It was so great to come up to Walter’s parents after the game and their daughter had gotten in for 20 minutes. They were so happy.
Glad someone heard us (I’m with Laclede’s Army). Thanks for the mention, Rick.
Another thing to pass along, we were trying to get our drums into the game and security wasn’t going to let us through. All of a sudden a gentleman walks up and tells security that it’s okay to let us in with our drums. Turns out, it’s Peter Wilt, the Chicago owner. Then, when he sees that the section we are in is crowded and not conducive to drums, he personally took at least 20 minutes of his own time to make sure we got moved to a section that was better for us (and the other fans). He gave Laclede’s Army president his number, in case we had any problems with security. He even chatted with us for a few minutes. Wilt is a class act and a heck of a guy.
kc — Coincidentally, Peter Wilt came up to join us in the press box and we chatted while watching the first half, including about the competing drums in the stadium. The Red Stars drummers in the south corner needed a livelier beat. Peter’s a good guy.
As for the attendance, I figured that each of the sections on east grandstand was 20 seats across and 20 rows high for 400 seats. There were seven full sections like those, and then two smaller partial sections where the stands start to curve. So in the main section, I figured 3,200 or so seats. In the second half, after the rain, just about everyone in the stadium was seated in those sections, and it wasn’t full up. Hence, my estimate. Now, if there 25 seats across and 25 rows high, my numbers would be off.
Follow-up as to Peter Wilt. I was walking through the gate at the time KC described below. It was impressive how the situation was handled. Reading Tom’s experience with Peter prompted me to seeking out Peter’s email. Two minutes after I sent my note I received a nice reply back from Peter thanking me for my thoughts.
Peter is not only nice guy but a passionate owner and savvy business person. These little extra touches already have me thinking of the Red Stars as my second team. From a devote Blackhawk and Cub “hater” that says something.
This may be a niche or boutique sport but frankly that is exactly what my entertainment spend is look for right now.
Peter gets it!