Sunday, April 5, 200

SANTA CLARA, CA (April 5, 2009) –  For the FC Gold Pride you couldn't of asked for a better season opener.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a crowd of 6,459 on hand at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara, CA witnessing their beloved FC Gold Pride taking on the Boston Breakers.  The faces on the field were mostly new fresh faces with little resemblance to the WUSA's San Jose CyberRays.  Former CyberRay and Brazilian star Sissi is now a assistant coach for the Pride and only Brandi Chastain is the only Ex-CyberRay who is on the active roster.  One thing is for sure, this Pride team did the CyberRays proud by winning their home opener, but it was another former WUSA star formerly of the New York Power, Tiffeny Milbrett who scored the winning goal in the 89th minute from a cross sent in by Kandace Wilson that was initially knocked down by Breakers Keeper Kristin Lukenbill.

The first goal for the Pride was cross sent in by Tiffany Weimer on the right flank to Eriko Arakawa who headed it into the far post, beating Kristin Luckenbill for the first goal of the game and first ever goal for the FC Price in the 15th minute.  This goal ignited the attacking engine for the FC Pride which was a treat for the fans since the first 10 minutes of the match was flat boring soccer.  The pride went into the half up 1-0 and it took the Breakers until the 79th minute for Boston to get on the board and even out the scoring.  Kelly Smith scored from the right side of 18 yard box slicing the ball into the left top corner of the net to knot up the score.  Chastain and Milbrett where both second half substitutions with Chastain coming in for Osborne at the 64th minute and Milbrett coming in for Sinclair at the 69th minute.

Brazil was represented in the starting lineup by Formiga who started in the Midfield along and Erica who started in the Defense.  Of the two Erica had the better game, but was noticeably uncomfortable playing in the middle of the flat-four with no help behind her.  There was one play where Erica completely missed the ball and it rolled past giving the Breakers a golden opportunity to score, luckily defensive help from Rachel Buehler and a great stop by Nicole Barnhart helped stop any Boston scoring opportunity.  At the half Assistant Coach Sissi met Erica out of the middle of the field for a little Brazilian to Brazilian talk.  Formiga looked out of her game and didn't look comfortable with her new teammates. 

Next week the FC Gold Pride travel to NJ/NY to take on the SkyBlueFC for their first road game of the WPS season.