Last Saturday night the Atlanta Beat played their last home game of the season, losing 2-0 against the Western New York Flash. This marked the team’s seventh consecutive shutout in what has been a tough season. With one game left against the Flash in New York on August 14th, the Beat, led by captain Lori Chalupny, have a 1-12-4 record with a -23 goal differential.
“Scoring is the hardest part of the game,” said Chalupny after Saturday night’s loss. “Those are the big-time players that put the ball in the back of the net, and I think going forward this team is gonna have to look to find some of those players, but I’m happy with the way that this team has progressed.”
Through the disappointing season, Chalupny and other veterans have done their best to keep morale high and the team motivated. “We kind of just try and keep the younger players positive and just keep looking for the positives in the game,” she said.
Coach Galanis has made an effort to put those younger players in the game towards the end of the season, giving them the experience they need to excel in the league in future seasons. For many of these young women, playing on the Beat this season has been the only playing time in the professional league they’ve had, and they’ve gotten much more action than most other rookies. “They were thrown right into the fire, so it was a sink or swim situation,” Chalupny said, “and I think a lot of them really rose to the challenge.”
Chalupny sees great potential in the young team, and despite the difficult year, she has an optimistic and yet pragmatic outlook on the Beat and its future. “It was a building year, and it’s gonna take a couple years, I think, to get to the top of this league,” she said, “but ultimately, I think we can be the best soccer playing team in this league, so we just have to keep working hard.”
The Beat certainly seem to be working hard, though perhaps nobody on the team has worked as hard this year as Carli Lloyd and Heather Mitts, who both played on the U.S. Women’s National team that lost in PKs to Japan in this year’s World Cup Finals. For them, this season in Atlanta has been a continuation of bad fortune. Chalupny, though, as she does when leading her team, looked for the positives.
“They were kind of bummed about the final,” said Chalupny, “but I don’t think they realize what they did for soccer over here. It was just incredible to watch, and I felt so proud just to be a women’s soccer player. And I think they should be so proud of everything they did.”
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I like to play with pink balls too!