Washington Freedom and Chicago Red Stars draw 2-2

Two goals from Cristiane cancelled early headed strikes from Abby Wambach and Homare Sawa as the Chicago Red Stars (2-4-3) rallied for a 2-2 tie against Washington Freedom (4-2-3) in the teams\' first meeting of the 2010 season. The rain held off long enough for the two teams to play an exciting game in front of 3,249 fans.
 
Washington Freedom started the game off right with two goals in the first 18 minutes of play. The first was a header fired by Abby Wambach in the 11th minute off a free kick on the left side from Cat Whitehill and the second was also a header off of a set piece, scored by Homare Sawa in the 18th minute on a serve from Sonia Bompastor.
 
Freedom continued to play hard, although the Chicago Red Stars kept Freedom goalkeeper Erin McLeod busy, hanging tight in Freedom\'s end. Red Stars forward Cristiane scored on a lunging shot at the far post in the 30th minute, earning Chicago\'s first goal of the game. After an action-packed first half, Freedom held onto their 2-1 lead.
 
"We have to find a way to keep our lead," said Freedom goalkeeper Erin McLeod. "Red Stars have really smart, good players on their team and unfortunately, they ended up finding their scoring abilities against us."
 
Both teams started the second half strong as Freedom and Red Stars moved the ball rapidly up and down the field, keeping the game at a close 2-1 score. Chicago stayed busy in Freedom\'s end, but Freedom defense stifled Red Stars\' attacks until the 82nd minute, when substitute Casey Nogueira dodged the Freedom defense and passed to Cristiane, whose left-footed chip beat McLeod.
 
"We had a two goal lead and we stepped back and gave them too much space," said Freedom defender Cat Whitehill. "The second goal was a little bit lucky on their part. Cristiane is a great player. You hate to give her two goals, but you have to give her credit."
 
The Red Stars nearly earned a win, McLeod made three point-blank saves in the final minutes and Sawa headed a ball off the line.
 
 
QUOTES
 
Coach Jim Gabarra, Washington Freedom Head Coach
 
"With our diamond formation, the goal is to get teams to have to adjust and I think we have started to play with that system.
 
"I think we relaxed a little bit in the last 20 minutes of the first half. We were coasting along and didn\'t take advantage of Abby having a good matchup in back.
 
"Sometimes in sports, you have a two goal lead and you take your foot off the gas when the other team gets a goal, and they are right back in it. In some ways, we are lucky they didn\'t get a third goal."
 
Abby Wambach, Washington Freedom Forward
 
"The [first] goal was a free kick and Cat always has a knack for putting it in a place where I can get to it - and she put it in perfect place. I think their keeper called for the ball and made my defender kind of stop going, so I pushed forward. I didn\'t even see the ball go in the net, but I heard the word."
          
Cat Whitehill, Washington Freedom Defender
 
On tonight\'s game:
 
"We got a lot of opportunities to score and we are not accustomed to having that many opportunities. It is a little disappointing we gave up two goals. We haven\'t given up two goals in a while. Defensively we were doing well, but we gave Cristiane the space she needed to get two goals.
 
"Sonia and I are really starting to get a great chemistry out there, which is really good because I think if Sonia and I can keep going we can be pretty lethal out there.
 
"After we scored that second goal, all of a sudden we started to coast. I think the key is we were doing such a good job defensively of keeping a high line which kept everybody else forward."
 
On the World Cup:
 
"Watching the U.S. game today, I was nervous in the beginning. I thought England came out ready to play, but the U.S. dominated in the last 20 minutes of play. It is encouraging for us moving forward.
 
"Korea was a surprise and I was very happy for South Africa. Greece doesn\'t seem to have anything, and Argentina is looking strong."
 
Omid Namazi, Chicago Red Stars Coach
 
"We were a little disappointed going into the half, but we felt we could play with these guys because in terms of possession, we were able to do things. Maybe our final pass wasn\'t there in the first half so they had to play with their hearts on their sleeves.
 
"They really took it to them and I say we deserved three points. We should have scored a couple again, but you know - it\'s not always going to go your way. One thing that shows us is that we can play with them and maybe sometimes better than them. It\'s a great confidence boost.
 
"I feel that we\'re progressing in the right direction, but the important thing is to keep improving. We\'re going to keep working hard."
 
Caren Karney, Chicago Red Stars Midfielder
 
"Freedom is a great team. They play great soccer and we enjoy coming here. The pitch beautiful here. It was a good game, a good game for the players and a good game for the fans. I am looking forward to coming back in a couple of weeks.
 
"We definitely had to change our formation. We tried to get closer to Freedom, adjust and try match them."