Spoiler Alert! Pride Could Finish 6th

By: David | August 4th, 2009

Wanna know why Kelly Lindsey resigned as coach of Sky Blue FC? Yeah, so do I.

But her reasoning doesn’t much matter, unless of course SBFC continues its weird coaching carousel season by dropping out of the playoff picture after losing to FC Gold Pride this coming Wednesday. Who first suggested FCGP could play spoiler? That’s right, it was me.

FCGP couldn’t stop LA from clinching the regular-season championship, although they played almost well enough to delay the party two weeks ago. They remain powerless to halt the Boston Breakers’ post-season aspirations, although Tony DiCicco seems like maybe he can stop it. And St. Louis was probably going to clinch second, even though FCGP did salvage a tie against them last week.

But Washington! Yes, FCGP delayed the Freedom’s playoff party with a come-from-behind victory last Saturday. Abby Wambach’s side could have clinched a spot last week, since Boston lost too, but ….. well, no.

And now, Sky Blue. After the aforementioned tumultuous bye-week, SBFC stands ready to finish fifth, one place out of the playoff picture. SBFC actually has two games remaining, one more than both Boston (2 pts ahead) and Washington (3 pts). But if SBFC lose to the league’s last-placed team on Wednesday, they would have to beat Washington on Saturday (and still hope for the tie-breaker against the Freedom if Boston beats LA on Sunday).

Oh, and in really big news … Sunday’s meaningless game against St. Louis may not be that meaningless after all. If the Chicago Red Stars lose in their final game on Wednesday against Athletica, The Pride could actually escape the league’s basement with a win and a tie over their last two games.

OK, that’s not really big news (and still darn close to meaningless), but I don’t think anyone else has pointed that out, so there’s that.