A nice win for the team, especially after it looked like they would have to settle for just a point after the late Sky Blue goal. There finally may be some separation between the top four in the league, LA, Boston, Athletica and Washington, and the bottom three. Of course, the big separation is at the top: The Sol need one more win to clinch a playoff spot.

Statistically, the Athletica were very much outplayed on Sunday. Sky Blue had eight shots on goal to Athletica’s 2. (Both of which obviously went in.) Overall, Sky Blue had the edge in shots 21-5. After having 12 corner kicks against L.A. last week and working on them extensively in practice, they had none against Sky Blue, which had eight. Hope Solo had to make seven saves.

Weirdest moment came early in the game when during a brief stoppage, the Athletica players went to the bench to get something to drink. Sky Blue made a quick restart with only a handful of Athletica players on the field and it was a 10 on 2 (Hope Solo and Sara Larsson were back). The Athletica players scattered like seagulls when they saw the play had restarted and Sky Blue didn’t score. But it was weird.

“That was crazy,” Eniola Aluko told me after the match. “The referee should have controlled that better.”

The Athletica are in third now but they could be in fourth by the time they take the field again since Washington has a Wednesday game at Chicago and could jump over them. Then on Saturday Boston plays at Sky Blue. On Sunday, Athletica are at Gold Pride and LA at Washington. If form holds, the Athletica could be back in third with a win over Gold Pride.

I voted for L.A. Karina LeBlanc for player of the week. I could have gone with Marta, I suppose, but LeBlanc had some nice saves in the win here and then a shutout against Chicago.

I asked Jeff Cooper the other day why the team made the Hanks trade ahead of the Sky Blue match rather than after, since it knocked two players off their available list for the game. He said that since work visas for international players are specific to a team, paperwork would have to be resubmitted for Francielle and Walsh. Athletica has time on the injured Walsh, obviously, but Sky Blue wanted as much time as they could to get the paperwork going on Francielle.

Wednesday is the day for rosters to be frozen. It will be interesting to see if there’s any other movement in the league by then. When I spoke to him Saturday, Cooper wouldn’t rule out that possibility.

Eniola Aluko is fifth in the league in scoring, behind Marta, Camille Abily, Christine Sinclair and Kelly Smith. Kristine Lilly and Brittany Bock remain the only Americans in the top 10. Which means that national team forwards Abby Wambach and Natasha Kai haven’t scored much.