[CONCACAF WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP] For one
evening, Kimika Forbes, who attended tiny
Maine-Fort Kent, was a fortress, holding off an onslaught from the
U.S. women's national team to limit the heavily favored Americans
to a 1-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago in their opening game at
the 2014 Concacaf Women's Championship in Kansas City, Kansas.
The Americans came into the game with a record of nine wins in
nine group-stage matches in Concacaf play, none smaller than 3-0,
and a scoring margin of 67-0, but it could only manage a single
goal by Abby Wambach, her 171st international
goal, in the 54th minute on a header after Alex
Morgan eluded Forbes in the penalty area.
Trinidad & Tobago put nine and 10 defenders behind the ball,
and any time the USA broke through Forbes was otherwise there to
stop the hosts. The USA finished with a 29-7 edge in shots, but
Forbes made nine saves to keep the game close.
Maine-Fort Kent, known for its biathlon program, is so small it
left the NAIA to join the USCAA, where it won the national title in
2013, Forbes' last season with the Bengals. After spending the
summer in the WPSL with the Boston Breakers Reserves, she returned
to UMFK to continue her studies, but she needed to get her former
coach to ask permission of her professors to join T&T.
Funding problems forced the Soca Princesses, coached by
AmericanRandy Waldrum, to show up for
training for the CFU Cup in Houston with what the Houston Dash
coach described as
"nine soccer balls and a plastic garbage bag that carried a few
pennies" and later return to the United States for the Concacaf
Women's Championship with only $500 because funding had not been
yet approved from the T&T sports ministry.
Perhaps Forbes' best save came in the 52nd minute when she stopped
Wambach on a breakaway and Megan
Rapinoe hit the rebound over the goal. In stoppage
time, Forbes again came up big one-on-one, stopping
sub Sydney Leroux with her left leg.
After Wednesday's performance, Waldrum said he was ready to
welcome Forbes to spring training for the Dash's second season in
the NWSL.
-- In Wednesday's earlier match, shorthanded Haiti defeated
Guatemala, 1-0, as Lindsey Zullo scored
the game's only goal.
CROWD COUNT. The opening doubleheader drew an embarrassingly
small crowd of 3,621 fans at Sporting Park. Action continues
in the Concacaf Women’s Championship Thursday at Sporting
Park with Jamaica-Martinique and Mexico-Costa Rica.
Courtesy of http://www.socceramerica.com/