Atlanta, GA: The Charlotte Lady Eagles defeated the Washington Freedom Futures Friday night at Atlanta Silverbacks Park in sudden death penalty kicks. The score was level at 1 a piece after regulation forcing the teams to play two 15-minute halves of overtime. After adding one goal for each side, the only way to decide who would move on into the Eastern Conference Final was penalty kicks. Charlotte now will look to take on Atlantic Division rivals the Atlanta Silverbacks in the Eastern Conference Final Saturday night at 7:30 pm at Atlanta Silverbacks Park. The winning of the game will receive a bid for the 2010 W-league Championship presented by UMBRO in Santa Clarita, California on July 29-31st.
Over the past two years, the Lady Eagles have met the Freedom Futures twice and twice were knocked out of the playoffs by them. This year would turn out to be a different story, with Charlotte looking to avenge the losses handed to them by Washington.
The first half started in 100+ degree heat on the field turf at Atlanta Silverbacks Park and favored Charlotte. Since they have been able to play many of their games in 90+ degrees of heat, it was easier for them to cope with it and it showed. Charlotte had a handful of scoring chances that ended in nothing more than a zero on the scoreboard.
It wasn’t until the second half that the scoring finally got underway with a long-range blast from Washington’s Megan Lenazyk in the 69th minute.
Charlotte was quick to answer in the 81st minute on a cross from Jessica Rostedt. Christy Rife ran onto the cross but was unable to connect but her presence was enough to freeze Washington goalie Yewande Balogun allowing Megan Bellingham to put away an easy tap-in on the back post.
Bellingham’s goal was good enough to take the teams into overtime. It wasn’t until the second overtime period that Washington was able to get onto the scoreboard again. In the 109th minute Washington substitute Furtuna Velaj was able to put away an awkward rebound coming off the post of the Charlotte goal.
Despite being down again, Charlotte refused to give in and in the 120th and final minute of the game, Bellingham put in her second goal of the game off an unassisted shot from about 20 yards from goal. She was able to smash the ball past the outstretched hands of Balogun to force the game to be decided by penalty kicks.
The game not only went into penalty kicks, but had to go into sudden death kicks. Both goalies made two saves through the first 5 kick takers. In the end it came down to the eighth kicker for each team. Charlotte’s Alyssa Whitehead came up big making a save across her body to deny Washington. This set up Charlotte’s veteran defender Shelley Lyle to be able to send her team to the Eastern Conference Finals by making her kick. The pressure was no match for her poise and accuracy as she buried the kick in the goal.
