Beat 3 Power 0
It was supposed to be a battle for first place. Instead, it was a match that showed just how far the Power have to go to catch the Atlanta Beat.
“This was a little humiliating,” said defender Gro Espeseth, whose primary responsibility was to contain Atlanta’s Charmaine Hooper. “I hope we can pull ourselves together before we play them again.”
There will be a lot of cleaning up to do. The Beat scored three goals in the second half and outclassed the Power in a 3-0 win last night in front of 4,382 at the Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale. Atlanta improved to 7-1-6, 27 points, while the Power stayed in second place (6-3-5, 23). It was the most goals the team has given up.
Perhaps more disheartening than the lopsided defeat was the way in which the Power collapsed after they fell behind. They had controlled much of the play before halftime, getting most of the better chances. Atlanta keeper Briana Scurry stopped all comers, some spectacularly, including two kick saves. And when Hooper notched the first of her two goals in the 51st minute, everything fell apart.
“Something happened when we scored that goal,” said Atlanta head coach Tom Stone. “And Charmaine was just great.”
While the Power properly lauded Atlanta’s forward, who was coming back from a red card, they were equally hard on themselves.
“More significant than anything else was how the last 25 to 30 minutes went,” said Power head coach Pat Farmer. “Some people were wanting for effort.”
Farmer didn’t call anyone out specifically, but he was right. Hooper beat three defenders and keeper Gao Hong in the 68th minute to tally the second goal.
“I was very surprised I scored,” said Hooper, who has six goals on the year. “They had two opportunities to take the ball away from me.”
They didn’t and the game was effectively over. Despite massive changes late in the game by Farmer, the Power couldn’t muster a comeback. In the 80th minute, Atlanta’s Emily Burt scored on a brilliant header after a nice cross from Kylie Bivens.
“In the second half, we were taken totally out of our system,” said Espeseth. “It seemed like Atlanta had a lot of players coming at us all the time.”