The Beat played the Red Stars in their last match on June 4^th and held them scoreless for the first shutout since the opening match on April 11^th against the Philadelphia Independence when Allison Whitworth got the donut.  Former St. Louis Athletica player and recent addition Hope Solo had 8 saves on the night. The USWNT starting keeper was the difference between earning a point and losing their sixth straight game of the season.  All 5 St. Louis players that were picked up prior to the match started and played the full 90 minutes.  Only 5 players from the season opener started this game: Zerboni, Robinson, Yamaguchi, Kerr, McNeil. You may remember that Kerr and McNeil were picked up from St. Louis by trading the first pick in the LA Sol Dispersal Draft.  Having 8 players that have previously been on the Athletica roster makes it understandable why many have nicknamed the Atlanta Beat as “Atlantica”.  Of the 20+ member Atlanta Beat team that was originally formed to compete this year in WPS only 4 started this past Sunday: Robinson, Yamaguchi, Zerboni, and Larkin.  With Miyama added to the fold that number is likely to drop down to 3 this week. Given the transition this team has gone through I think the draw on the road was a fortunate result.

 This time around the new Atlanta Beat hopes to post their first win of the season.  Having played 7 of 24 games the Beat needs to pick-up 36 points over the next 17 games (2.12pts/gm) to slide into a playoff spot if the Independence and Sky Blue FC continue on their current pace of 1.55 pts/game.  That translates to winning 12 of 17 games or a combination of wins and ties (i.e. 11 wins, 3 ties).  In other words they need to be on a slightly better pace then the FC Gold Pride (2.11pts/gm) has had so far this year.  It’s a tall order but with 10 home games left and a revamped roster it should be interesting to see if these changes start resulting in Wins.

One question that I wonder is what all of these changes to one team means.  Is it a reflection of depth in women’s professional soccer or team building.  If it’s a reflection on depth then how can a league that almost started the season with 9 teams, now has 7, can expand to 12 teams in the near future (ownership issues aside).  If depth isn’t a problem would you attribute early season struggles to player selection, coaching, or nothing more than normal struggles that most expansion teams face.  If player selection was an issue I have a hard time questioning Coach Gareth O’Sullivan or GM Shawn McGee’s decisions without understanding the budget they had to work with from ownership.  I can’t really even blame Atlanta Beat Owner, Fitz Johnson, if he did initially attempt to field a young and “cost effecient” team considering the significant outlay of cash that must have been necessary to get the stadium completed. As we’ve seen this is a business after all and managing cash poorly can have devastating results.

The Atlanta Beat continue their quest to become the best in the world this Saturday.  I’ll be at that game. Have all of the recent additions increased your interest in the Beat? Are you planning to come out to the game this Saturday?