For anyone who likes pure attack-oriented soccer, it might not get any better than today’s WUSA playoff semifinal between the Washington Freedom and Boston Breakers at Boston University’s Nickerson Field.
The Freedom showcase forwards Mia Hamm (11 goals, 11 assists) and Abby Wambach (13 goals, seven assists), the league’s top two points producers. The Breakers counter with forwards Maren Meinert and Dagny Mellgren, who finished tied with Philadelphia’s Marinette Pichon for the league’s goal scoring title with 14. Hamm’s 11 assists led the league.
All three finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award are in this game: Hamm, Wambach and Meinert.
“Their team and our team have a couple of the best finishers in the league,” Wambach said. “Whoever finishes more of their chances is obviously going to win.”
The Freedom (9-8-4) have never won in Boston (0-2-3 in three seasons). In four previous playoff semifinal games, the home team has won three, with the lone win for a visiting team belonging to the Freedom.
“Going into Boston … we haven’t won there, that should be just an internal goal for everyone,” Wambach said. “We need to beat this team. We haven’t beaten them all year [0-1-2].”
If the Freedom are to become the first team to reach back-to-back Founders Cups, they will need to limit the Breakers’ service to Meinert and Mellgren and not let the duo operate in the box.
Boston attacking midfielder Kristine Lilly, a mainstay on the U.S. Women’s World Cup team, provides plenty of balls from the left side for Meinert and Mellgren.
“[The Breakers service] usually comes from outside to a central midfielder or outside to those guys centrally,” Hamm said. “They’re not necessarily a team that gets in line and serves the ball and those two are finishing — either Maren or Mellgren are getting in behind — so we need to be conscious of that.”
The Breakers (10-4-7) are easily the story of the year. Under first-year coach Pia Sundhage, Boston won the league’s regular-season title and the top seed in the playoffs in its first appearance in the playoffs.
Conversely, the Freedom finished fourth. Today’s winner advances to Founders Cup III next Sunday at San Diego’s Torero Stadium against tomorrow’s Atlanta/San Diego winner.
“Everyone is well aware of the fact that you win or you go home,” Freedom captain Jen Grubb said. “We know what we need to do. We know what the challenge is. If everyone steps up and shows up on Saturday, we’ll be OK.”
Momentum isn’t on the Freedom’s side heading into the game. After clinching a playoff spot two weeks ago with a 5-0 drubbing of the San Jose CyberRays — the widest margin in franchise history — the club dropped two straight to end the season.
Despite that, coach Jim Gabarra isn’t overly concerned with his team’s form. Gabarra’s confidence is partly because Hamm and Wambach have not scored goals in the Freedom’s last two games.
“I’m certainly a lot more comfortable having them coming off two games where they haven’t scored at all than when they have hat tricks, or two games where they scored bunches of goals,” Gabarra said. “That’s just the nature of goal scoring, at least with those two. It seems to come in bunches or they get a couple of games where they get a good run. I think we’re playing well, so I’m not too concerned about the results.”
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