San Jose, Washington and Atlanta scored emphatic WUSA victories Wednesday night, and what had been a three-team battle for the final two playoff berths suddenly has become a five-team race for four semifinal spots.
Only four points separate the top four teams, with the defending champion CyberRays another three points back, after first-place Philadelphia (10-3-5, 35 points) and second-place Carolina (10-5-3, 33 points) continued late-season skids with one-sided losses.
Washington (9-5-5, 32 points) moved within three points of the lead and one point second place after rallying for a 5-2 romp over the visiting Courage. The Freedom, which has only two games remaining (the other four teams have three games to play), extended its unbeaten streak to seven games.
Atlanta (10-7-1, 31 points) won its fourth in a row, overcoming an early deficit in a 4-1 rout of San Diego (4-10-4, 16 points), which was eliminated from the playoff race.
San Jose (8-6-4, 28 points) made it two in a row, following an indifferent first half with an electric second half in a 2-0 victory over visiting Philadelphia, which would have clinched a playoff berth with a win or a tie.
The CyberRays play at Carolina and Philadelphia plays host to San Diego on Saturday, and Atlanta plays at Washington on Sunday. The regular season concludes Aug. 11.
In Wednesday's WUSA action:
Washington 5 Carolina 2: Abby Wambach scored her 10th goal of the season and assisted on three more goals, and Mia Hamm and Bai Jie scored two goals apiece as the visiting Freedom overcame a 2-1 halftime deficit before 7,214 at SAS Stadium.
Washington scored three goals in an eight-minute span of the second half as it handed the Courage its third successive loss.
Wambach fired the Freedom ahead, with a blast off the underside of the crossbar, in the 23rd minute, but Danielle Fotopoulos evened things with a close-range header three minutes later, and Birgit Prinz chipped Washington goalkeeper Siri Mullinix just before halftime.
Hamm's entrance at halftime transformed the Freedom attack, which dominated play the rest of the way. Bai's blast from 12 yards tied the score in the 53rd minute, and Hamm ran onto a Wambach cross three minutes later to fire the visitors ahead. Bai scored again in the 60th minute and Hamm in the 80th.
San Jose 2 Philadelphia 0: Katia scored her league-best 15th goal of the season and crossed for Tisha Venturini-Hoch's header as the CyberRays dominated the undermanned Charge before 6,653 at Spartan Stadium.
Katia extended her goalscoring streak to five games, tying the WUSA record set earlier this season by Prinz.
Philadelphia, which is winless in three games, played without five starters: injured forward Marinette Pichon (left big toe) and defender Heather Mitts (hip pointer), and defender Erica Iverson, midfielder Zhao Lihong and goalkeeper Melissa Moore, who were given the night off. Rookies Karyn Hall and Andrea Alfiler started on the back line, and midfielder Michelle Demko and forward Tara Koleski got their first starts for the Charge this season.
San Jose was without forward Kim Clark, who will miss the rest of the season while an ankle injury heals. The 'Rays signed forward Erin Montoya, who played last season for San Diego and was on San Jose's preseason roster, to a ''reserve'' contract Wednesday afternoon. Montoya scored eight goals for the California Storm, which plays in the WPSL championship game on Saturday.
The CyberRays hit the crossbar twice early in the second half — using the second to grab a 53rd-minute lead — and Sissi hit the post midway through the second 45.
The first crossbar was struck by Christina Bell in the 48th minute, with Venturini-Hoch's rebound deflecting off goalkeeper Maita Zabala and just wide of the post. Five minutes later, Pretinha's shot hit the bar off Zabala's fingertips, rebounding to the right. Katia flicked it back into the goalmouth, and Venturini-Hoch's header arced over Zabala.
Katia scored a superb goal in the 84th minute. Gina Eagleson's cross from the left deflected off defender Andrea Alfiler and to Katia, who got in front of Karyn Hall at the edge of the 6-yard box. Katia stuck out her right foot and clinically redirected the cross into the lower right corner.
Atlanta 4 San Diego 1: Homare Sawa scored her sixth and seventh goals of the year and assisted on another as the Beat overcame an early deficit before a Spirit home-record crowd of 6,392 at Torero Stadium.
Sun Wen netted her fourth of the year and Charmaine Hooper her 10th for the Beat, who were outshot, 15-14, but played a pretty possession game.
Scottish forward Julie Fleeting scored her third goal in four games from a Jen Mascaro flick in the 18th minute to fire San Diego ahead, but Sun followed up her rebound to tie the score seven minutes later. Sawa netted her first nine minutes after that, running onto a Lisa Krzykowski through ball that Charmaine Hooper dummied.
Hooper scored 26 seconds into the second half, with Sawa feeding from a Cindy Parlow long ball, and Sawa scored again in the 72nd after Julie Augustyniak's cross caromed off Anna Kraus' chest.
WEDNESDAY'S SUMMARIES
July 31 at Cary, N.C.
Carolina 2 Washington 5. Goals: Fotopoulos (Burt, Prinz) 26, Prinz (James) 45; Wambach (Pu) 23, Bai (Wambach, Noftsinger) 53, Hamm (Wambach) 56, Bai (Hamm) 60, Hamm (Wambach) 80.
Carolina — Luckenbill; Burt, Baxter, Fettig, Slaton (Wilson, 75); O'Hanley, Riise (Barnes, 84), Lehn (Yankowski, 81); Fotopoulos, Prinz, James (Anderson, 62).
Washington — Mullinix; S. Little, Moore, Grubb, Barr; Jones, Cook (Noftsinger, 16), Gerardo (Hamm, 46), Pu (Zimny, 73); Bai (J. Little, 61), Wambach.
Yellow cards — Carolina: Baxter 71; Washington: Gerardo 42.
Referee — Todd Perry. A — 7,214.
July 31 at San Jose
San Jose 2 Philadelphia 0. Goals: Venturini-Hoch (Katia) 53, Katia (Eagleson) 84.
San Jose — Beene; Borgman (French, 63), Bryan, Lindsey, Chastain; Nanez; Pretinha (Dorn, 85), Venturini-Hoch, Sissi; Katia (Wagner, 89), Bell (Eagleson, 59).
Philadelphia — Zabala; Alfiler, Tietjen, Hall, Benson; Tullock; Connors (McDowell, 79, Fair, Demko (Liu, 46), Clemens; Koleski (Martin, 46).
Yellow cards — San Jose: Pretinha 10; Philadelphia: Tietjen 61.
Referee — Sandra Hunt. A — 6,653.
July 31 at San Diego
San Diego 1 Atlanta 4. Goals: Fleeting (Mascaro, Foudy) 18; Sun 25, Sawa (Krzykowski) 34, Hooper (Sawa, Parlow) 46, Sawa 73.
San Diego — Smolak; Kraus, Fawcett, Tanaka (Pickup, 73), Sauer; Mascaro, Foudy, Lindsey (Boxx, 77); MacMillan, Fleeting, Kester.
Atlanta — Scurry; N. Augustyniak, Krzykowski, Nonen, J. Augustyniak; Miller, Serlenga; Sawa (Wang, 78), Sun (Cagle, 70); Hooper (Cromwell, 88), Parlow (Burt, 67).
Yellow cards — San Diego: Tanaka 79.
Referee — Mark Arblaster. A — 6,392.
STANDINGS
W-L-T Pts GF-GA
1. Philadelphia 10-3-5 35 32-18
2. Carolina 10-5-3 33 33-27
3. Washington 9-5-5 32 33-25
4. Atlanta 10-7-1 31 30-25
5. San Jose 8-6-4 28 32-24
6. Boston 4-8-7 19 31-34
7. San Diego 4-10-4 16 25-38
8. New York 3-14-1 10 27-52
THIS WEEKEND'S SCHEDULE
Saturday, Aug. 3
San Jose at Carolina, 4 p.m.
San Diego at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 4
New York at Boston, 4 p.m.
Atlanta at Washington, 4 p.m.
All times Eastern
LEADING SCORERS
(G-A–Pts)
1. Katia (San Jose) 15-3–33
2. Abby Wambach (Washington) 10-8–28
3. Tiffeny Milbrett (New York) 10-7–27
Marinette Pichon (Philadelphia) 13-1–27
5. Maren Meinert (Boston) 7-12–26
6. Kristine Lilly (Boston) 7-11–25
7. Danielle Fotopoulos (Carolina) 9-6–24
Birgit Prinz (Carolina) 9-6–24
9. Dagny Mellgren (Boston) 10-2–22
10. Charmaine Hooper (Atlanta) 10-1–21
Hege Riise (Carolina) 5-11–21
11. Homare Sawa (Atlanta) 7-6–20
12. Shannon MacMillan (San Diego) 5-6–16
13. Emily Janss (New York) 7-1–15
Mia Hamm (Washington) 6-3–15
15. Zhang Ouying (San Diego) 5-2–12
16. Julie Foudy (San Diego) 4-4–12
17. Tisha Venturini-Hoch (San Jose) 5-1–11
Bai Jie (Washington) 4-3–11
Cindy Parlow (Atlanta) 4-3–11
Kelly Smith (Philadelphia) 4-3–11
Sissi (San Jose) 1-9–11
22. Pretinha (San Jose) 4-2–10
Nikki Serlenga (Atlanta) 2-6–10
24. Brandi Chastain (San Jose) 3-3–9
Lori Lindsey (San Diego) 2-5–9
Zhao Lihong (Philadelphia) 2-5–9
Bettina Wiegmann (Boston) 1-7–9