CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With their playoff hopes on the line, the Breakers\u00a0got\u00a0two goals from\u00a0Lauren Cheney, who helped steer her club to a 2-0 victory over Sky Blue FC Sunday night and a WPS postseason berth on the final day of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Cheney, who’s goal 14 seconds into the match was the fastest scored in WPS history, put the Breakers on the board immediately. She added another in the 18th minute, while Alyssa Naeher made seven saves on the night to help steer Boston to its second consecutive WPS playoff appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really good win, it shows the pride in the team,\u201d said Coach Tony DiCicco. \u201cI like where we are right now, I\u2019m really pleased with the effort. Sky Blue is a very good attacking team with lots of options, but our defense really limited their opportunities. We didn\u2019t want to go out with a loss at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Breakers\u2019 energy on the field was unmatched by any other of their performances this season.\u00a0 There was however, added pressure on Boston, who were in a must-win situation if they wanted to clinch the final spot in the WPS playoffs.\u00a0 The result was a let-off for Sky Blue, who entered the match tied with Boston on points but had a better goal differential and only needed a draw to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Boston has arguably been better on paper than on the field, as their roster boasts plenty of talent including nine World Cup veterans.\u00a0 But due to injuries and absences caused by the World Cup last month, the Breakers were unable to train their full team on a consistent basis.\u00a0 But the Breakers trained together last week and used six World Cup veterans in their starting lineup against Sky Blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got back from the World Cup we had five games in fourteen days, so there\u2019s no training in that,\u201d added DiCicco. \u201cFinally we had a week to train, and try to get people back on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Breakers proved that their training paid off, scoring the fastest goal in WPS history just fourteen seconds into the match.\u00a0 Rachel Buehler sent the ball forward to Keelin Winters, who then played the ball into the penalty area for Cheney.\u00a0 Cheney collected Winters\u2019 pass with her chest and volleyed a shot into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was actually a play, and it finally worked,\u201d said DiCicco. \u201cPlay it back, find Keelin Winters, she flicks it on and we\u2019re in behind the defense.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t clean but it was something we designed.\u00a0 And today it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWinters crossed the ball and I don\u2019t think the goalkeeper was expecting me to hit it one time,\u201d said Cheney. \u201c I just got a piece of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheney then doubled her tally in the 18th<\/sup> minute, slotting a feed from Meghan Klingenberg past goalkeeper Jenni Branam for her third goal of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defender lost me a little bit,\u201d said Cheney.\u00a0 \u201cKlingenberg crossed the ball, I beat the defender and then I just hit it in.\u00a0 We changed our formation. We played a 4-4-2, and I think we just had more options forward, and we played more of an attacking style.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCheney was healthier today than she\u2019s been,\u201d added DiCicco. \u00a0\u201cShe\u2019s getting stronger, and you saw today with her two goals. \u00a0And that\u2019s huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 38th<\/sup> minute, Kelley O\u2019Hara found herself on a breakaway off a Cheney feed and hit the crossbar with her right footed shot.\u00a0 Sky Blue cleared the danger and were able to generate their first meaningful attempt of the match, a left footed shot from outside the penalty area by Therese Sjogran that Naeher tipped over the crossbar.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The Breakers will travel to Boca Raton, Florida to take on magicjack in the first round of the playoffs on August 17.\u00a0 The winner of Wednesday\u2019s game will then go on to play Philadelphia in the semi-final.\u00a0 Western New York Flash, who finished the regular season in first place, clinches an automatic place in the final match and will play the winner of the semi-final.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll (be) a tough game,\u201d said DiCicco of the Breakers\u2019 first playoff game.\u00a0 \u201c[Magicjack] have Abby Wambach, but we\u2019ll come up with a tactic.\u00a0 We were embarrassed last time we were there, they beat us 4-0. We played a better game against them last week here, but they still beat us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be better down there again, and we\u2019re getting healthier and that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the WPS playoff race coming down to wire, the Breakers’ 2-0 win over Sky Blue steered them into the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/cheney2.png?fit=480%2C326","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5915,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions\/5915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}