The rain showers held off and the temperatures stayed reasonable as the Boston Breakers and Philly Independence played to a spirited 1-1 tie in front of 5286 fans at Harvard Stadium last night.

I thought the Breakers defense was particularly impressive.  Kasey Moore and Amy LePeilbet were solid and playing together very well – and Kasey Moore clearly did a lot of off-season work.  She is a different player than last year’s model.  Well done!  As for Amy – she is such a work horse out there.  Knock her down (as Philly was wont to do … note their 17 fouls) and she’ll pick herself up and still catch you!

The offense still needs to  finish, but watching Cheney post up and field balls like she was in the UConn line-up at the Women’s Final Four was pretty impressive.

And then there was our old friend Karina LeBlanc, who kept it close with some stellar saves off very good Breakers opportunities.  We love ya, Karina – but could you stop?

Jenna P on her blog All White Kit has a very nice write up of the match.  And for some highlights, check out the video from the WPS site:

In other news, the Phillies and Red Sox seem to be running in tandem these days.  Hope they get their offenses going soon!

Oh, and re. all that black smoke coming from Iceland, here’s my theory …

You know how when they are electing a Pope the black smoke indicates a failed ballot … while white smoke means that a new pope has been elected?  Well, isn’t it pretty obvious that God is telling old Benedict that there’s been a big mistake?  Good grief – today is even the 5th anniversary of his election … and he was born on April 16th!

Could it be any clearer?  Black smoke … God is telling you to step down, Ratzo … seriously.  You need to listen!