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by David F.P.

NEW BRITAIN, CT- Veterans’ Stadium in Willowbrook Park has hosted many a soccer match and Saturday evening the Women’s Professional Soccer league came in to play. The Boston Breakers hosted the Atlanta Beat in their home away from home and despite going down 3 to 0 rallied to score 2 before falling before a good crowd of hardcore soccer fans. It was a nice atmosphere, with the Rock Cats stadium next door, there facility was more than ready for the game.  The WPS has a lot of heralded athletes playing for their teams including Breakers player and CT native Kristine Lilly. Each team has a handful of current national team members. Fellow nutmegger Alyssa Naeher also plays for Boston, and the Beat’s Kia McNeil is also from CT giving the game a local flavor. Numerous college and club teams from the region were also in the stands.

Atlanta had pulled out to an early lead about 10 minutes in when Lori Chalupny scored.  Much of the rest of the half was spent with Atlanta goalie Hope Solo and her defense fending off attacks from the Breakers. Boston was unable to get the ball into the net though and play resumed in the second half. Eniola Aluko scored 66 minutes into the game, and then again at the 72 minute mark to give her team a 3-0 advantage. [Editor’s note: Summer’s are busy for an unpaid blogger, it is not always possible to stay through full events as compared to Fall and Winter, thus I was unable to remain for the full length of the game.] the WPS reported afterward that the Breakers fought back to get the game within 1, but time obviously ran out.

More info can be found at the WPS website.