Gold Pride-Red Stars: Red Card and Ghost of Nemesis Past Spell Death for Chicago

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif.—The Chicago Red Stars fell to first-place FC Gold Pride, 2-0, on Saturday in Women's Professional Soccer play at Castro Valley Athletic Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Red Stars fans who are looking for a way to explain away yet another disappointment in the early season have such an opportunity in the fact that more than two-thirds of the match was played short-handed.

Those who are looking for a silver lining in this very dark cloud can cling to the fact that though the Red Stars were defeated 2-0, their keeper, Jillian Loyden, put on a stellar performance, logging seven saves against the league's best offense (aka the ghost of LA Sol Past).

FC Gold Pride came out of the LA Sol dispersal draft as the largest beneficiary, landing the world's best female soccer player, Brazil's Marta, as the best among several weapons poached from the demise of the league's most talented club. The Bay Area club even copped LA's sponsor, looking hauntingly like the defunct club, sporting the Amway logo on their jerseys.

Chicago played a woman down for nearly 65 minutes. In the 25th minute, Red Stars defender Ifeoma Dieke drew a red card for fouling Gold Pride's Kelley O'Hara in the box. It could have been worse but the Bay Area's Tiffeny Milbrett missed the penalty kick.

With the ejection of Dieke, Chicago head coach Emma Hayes pulled the club's leading scorer, Casey Nogueira, inserting Natalie Spilger to reinforce the defense. The move proved effective for most of the rest of the half.

The Red Stars came oh so close to escaping at half-time unscathed, but Milbrett managed to make up for her miss in the 45th minute. The US international legend followed up her own rebound, slipping an unassisted goal past Loyden for the 1-0 Gold Pride lead. The Red Stars' deflation was nearly audible as the Puma sphere penetrated the plane of the goal.

"We hoped to get into halftime scoreless, and them scoring a minute before halftime was a blow for us," Red Stars head coach Emma Hayes said of Milbrett's goal. "Chasing the game for 60 minutes is just too difficult for this level."

Chicago's defense continued to play somewhere between admirably and heroically, but in the damage-control configuration, the down-graded offense had no chance. The combination of Gold Pride's arsenal and Chicago's short-side sealed the Red Stars' fate. In the 78th minute Bay Area's Kelly O'Hara landed another blow, assisted by Kimberly Yokers, erasing any doubt about the outcome. 

For the first time this season, the Red Stars were out-shot during a match, 19-4, translating into added pressure on keeper Loyden. Despite giving up two scores, her coach called Loyden the player of the game.

"Jillian had a fantastic game," Hayes said of the Chicago goalkeeper. "She was our player of the match. She had a great game and kept us in it."

Loyden's counterpart, Nicole Barnhart, had two saves and the clean sheet for Gold Pride.

Gold Pride leads the all-time series against Chicago with a 2-1-1 record.

"I don't think we played well tonight," Hayes said. "It took us too long to get going, and they came out gunning at us. They dominated us in every way, and we were out-played."

Next up for the Red Stars is a 6:00 pm match on Saturday, May 15, when they host the expansion Philadelphia Independence at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. Chicago plays its next three league matches at home, with a Gold Pride rematch on May 29 and a match against WPS's other expansion team, the Atlanta Beat, on June 6.

Chicago Red Stars at FC Gold Pride
May 8, 2010—CVHS Athletic Stadium, Castro Valley, Calif.
FC Gold Pride 2, Chicago Red Stars 0
Red Stars       0 0 - 0
FC Gold Pride 1 1 - 2

Scoring Summary

1. FCGP—Tiffeny Milbrett (unassisted), 45; 2. FCGP - Kelley O'Hara (Kimberly Yokers), 78.
Red Stars: Loyden, Dalmy, Markgraf, Dieke (red card, 25), Engen, Rapinoe (Masar, 46), Formiga, K. Chapman, Carney (Sitch, 76), Nogueira (Spilger, 30), Cristiane
FC Gold Pride: Barnhart, Riley, Buehler, Dew, Graczyk (Wilson, 82), Gulbrandsen (Yokers, 69), Edwards, Milbrett (Bosio, 69), Marta, Sinclair, O'Hara

Statistics

Shots: Red Stars 4, Gold Pride 19
Shots on goal: Red Stars 2, Gold Pride 10
Saves: Red Stars 7, Gold Pride 2
Corner kicks: Red Stars 2, Gold Pride 5
Offsides: Red Stars 0, Gold Pride 1
Fouls: Red Stars 4, Gold Pride 4
Referee: Marlene Duffy
Referee's assistants: Said Ravanfar, Maurizio Laundani
Fourth official: Colin Arblaster
Attendance: 3,153