FC Gold Pride... What happened?

Picture of the WPS interns in the press box at the Gold Pride game against Los Angeles! From right to left: Amy, Grace, me and Abby (taking the picture is another intern, Liz).

I am a fan of FC Gold Pride. Granted I love every team in the WPS, but there is nothing better than cheering on the team that is your "hometown team" (ok so I actually live about two hours away, but they are the closest!). I have attended every home game, except the first one. I have seen some really wonderful plays they have stringed together as well as those that I wish I could scream "what were you thinking!" But for the most part, it has been really enjoyable watching their games.

The Pride can build up some great plays. They can take quality shots on goal. The defense is fairly good. Several players are really versatile, playing different positions throughout the season. They have amazing players on the team. So why are they on an 9-game winless streak?

In their 9 losses this season they have outshot their opponents 109 to 98 (this is according to the figures in the boxscores, not the stats pages). The shots on goal percentage in those 9 losses is not as great (46 for them, compared to 56 shots on goal for the opponent), but they aren't that far behind. It proves they have the offensive capabilities and it really showed last night in the 0-0 tie against Los Angeles.

While each team had 10 shots, the Pride had 3 shots on goal compared to the Sol's one. Tiffeny Milbrett had an amazing game and she came so close to scoring several times. This is the second game in a row for Milbrett (the last one being against Boston) in which she took shots that appeared were going in.

Formiga is also a force to be reckoned with. In last night's game and the game against Boston, she shot two rockets out of nowhere with precision. Unfortunately neither made it in because of superb goalkeeping.

My favorite player to watch on the Pride is midfielder, Tina DiMartino. She creates a lot of the scoring chances, but has yet to have an assist or goal this season.

However, miscommunication is hindering the offense. In one particular play during the LA Sol game, Adriane was looking to pass the ball to Milbrett's feet, while Milbrett was looking for a through ball. The Sol defense easily intervened. Situations like this have been common in the offensive third for the Pride.

There are several other offensive players for the Pride including Christine Sinclair, Tiffany Weimer, Eriko Arakawa, Adriane, Erika and Leslie Osborne. Each of these players can create big opportunities to score... yet the Pride only have 12 goals in 16 games (5 of those coming from Sinclair).

Meanwhile, their opponents have scored against them 22 times. I feel like the Pride has a pretty solid defense, but similar to the offense, miscommunication has been a problem with bigger consequences.

Kandace Wilson was an amazing outside back for them until she got injured back in May. It seems like they were unable to fill that void for some time, but the last two games, Greer Barnes, has been solid in that position. Hopefully as they finish out the season she will continue to contribute on defense as well as offense.

With all that said, I still don't understand why the Pride has been unable to score. They have their chances, but have been unlucky getting it in the back of the net. While they still have a slim chance of making the playoffs (they need a win this weekend against St. Louis and some losses from other teams), it's not likely. Hopefully, they will be able to turn it around next season and come out stronger than ever.

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Comment by snipoppers16 on July 29, 2009 at 12:55pm: I agree. Montoya is awful. I have friend who lives in the Bay Area. She has Quakes season tickets and had season tickets when the WUSA was around. As is, she's only been to one FCGP game this season. She told me that she won't go to another game while Montoya is still coaching. I agree that Wilson's injury was a turning point, but there are so many other factors. Weimer was the team leader in assists up until around that point. Now she probably goes home after games to pull splinters out of her butt because she's been riding so much pine. It just doesn't make sense. I don't know why Sissi was even signed.

I will defend Brandi though. I think Brandi has been more of a help than people give her credit for, although I'm still baffled why the team wasted a draft pick on her. No one else was going to sign her, and I doubt she would have left Bay Area anyway. BUT she has been a good asset for a struggling team in a new league that desperately needs leadership. The last time FCGP played in Chicago and Brandi played defense, most people only saw Cristiane blowing by Brandi, making her look like she was on a walker. What people didn't see was Brandi chewing out Abegg the entire second half. I wasn't in my usual seats in the corner for this one, but in the third row right in front of this little show. Abegg would get up and not get back or overcommit and not get back....basically she would screw up big time and not get back and cover. As a result, she left Brandi hanging out to dry. It was just really frustrating to watch as a fan of FCGP (I have CRS season tickets, but I stood up and cheered when Milbrett converted the PK. lol).

What has really bothered me about their whole season is that the 2 forwards, Sinclair and Milbrett have a combined 199 international goals yet they couldn't win a damn game. That just tells me that there's a problem with the coaching staff for not figuring out a way to get them the support that they need. In fact, I think the problem is that they have to come back way too much to help out and when the ball gets forward, they're not there.

Comment by K C on July 27, 2009 at 9:50pm: The injury to Wilson was definitely the turning point. They have not been able to find another consistent scorer outside of Sinclair. Their midfield hasn't given them a lot of offense. And I think Montoya tinkered too much with the lineup at times. To me, Arakawa has to be in there most of the time.

I'm sorry, but in all due respect, Chastain and Sissi are not the future of the team. If you're in last place now, you better be building for the future and that ain't it. I respect those two players and the careers that they have had, but in a league where the average age is around 25, you can't have two 40+ players being key players on your team.

Gold Pride is not that far away as the last two games have shown. Really, once you get past Los Angeles, there isn't a lot of difference between the teams. Gold Pride builds well, but the finishing outside of Sinclair has been lacking. Maybe they will get a good finisher in the draft. I'm assuming that Gold Pride will draft 3rd behind the two expansion teams and there are a few really good players in this year's draft (Heath, Cheney, and Nogueira among others). Then they need to figure out what to do about the rest of their roster. They have 2 young Brazilian players (Adriane and Erika) who have talent, but Gold Pride hasn't gotten a lot out of them. Do they keep them or move on? I don't know the answer to that one. I agree on Weimer. To me, she almost has to start. She isn't a 5 or 10 minute player. She needs to get into the flow of the game and she can't do that being a late 2nd half substitution or by remaining on the bench.

Comment by Jill Hanks on July 27, 2009 at 5:29pm: Yeah, Montoya's choices have confused me throughout the season. I still don't know why Weimer has not been getting much playing time. Early in the season it looked like she was connecting well with the other forwards/midfielders.

Comment by Ashley on July 27, 2009 at 2:45pm: I'm a big Gold Pride fan too. I think poor coaching is a huge factor, and many others on the Gold Pride fan forums agree with me. Montoya's formation has been weird, and what really drives me nuts is how he doesn't seem to know how substitutes work. He either leaves some of his best players (Chastain, Sissi, Weimer) on the bench for the entire game or nearly the entire game, subs out players that are performing well far too early in the game, or doesn't give his offense rest. I recall one instance where Milbrett seemed to be asking for a sub repeatedly after running her butt off the entire game and scoring, only to not be given one. Next year, Gold Pride, next year. Hopefully we might have a different, better coach. That seemed to work ok for Sky Blue!