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By CHRISTA MANN

In this sixth week of Womens Professional soccer, teams could not have made it without their internationals.    These were the players who brought a team back from behind, who finished goals and who gave the team a chance to win this week.

For Kelly Smith (England) of Boston and Daniela (Brazil) of St. Louis, setting an early tone with a goal before the first 10 minutes was just as huge Sonia Bompastor's (France) finishes for Washington and Adriane's (Brazil) assist to the game winning Bay Area goal. 

The performances of those four individuals led to Boston handing L.A. its first loss with a 2-1 result, St. Louis scoring its first goal against Washington, Washington making a comeback to tie, and the Bay Area earning its first shut-out with a 1-0 win over New Jersey.

With the first game of the weekend featuring two of the top three teams, the Boston Breakers proved to the rest of the league that the L.A. Sol is in fact a beatable opponent.

When the two sides met on Saturday, last week's missing superstars returned to the starting line-ups.  In a battle between featuring two very skilled attackers, Boston's Kelly Smith, WPS Player of the Month, did her share of play-making to outshine the Marta.

After recording the first goal in only the second minute of the game, not only did Smith set the pace for the Breakers but she also scored the earliest goal in league history.  Now, with a total of four goals over the course of the four games she has played in, Smith averages a goal per game.  Of course official stats would note that she sat out in Chicago, but I'm sure that she and the entire Breakers team have already forgotten about that game.

Kristine Lily finished the second Breaker goal in the 55th minute off of an assist from Stacy Bishop.  But even after considering the impact that both goals contributed to the match, Boston's credit goes to the execution of a game plan set in place by Breakers Head Coach Tony DiCiccio.

His main objectives were to possess well, to get numbers behind the ball defensively (especially when Marta has the ball), and to approach the match with a positive mentality.

The Breakers did well to follow the strategy and  came out on top thanks to some quality finishing. Following an L.A. goal in the 63rd minute by Brittany Bock, the game went back and forth until final five minutes.  At that point, L.A. exhausted every chance and half-chance it could get, but Boston goalkeeper Kristine Luckenbill did well to earn her team the win.

After a surprising result in the first match of the weekend, the televised contest between the St. Louis Athletica and the Washington Freedom brought some of the same excitement. Since both teams are among the bottom three in league standings, a 3-3 in the end wasn't quite what either team had in mind.

As St. Louis created some early opportunities, it appeared for a brief moment that this would be another one of those scoreless days for the Athletica.  However, thanks to astrong second shot by Daniela, St. Louis tallied its first-ever WPS goal in the seventh minute.

That early goal gave Athletica some much-needed confidence and momentum. However, by conceding a goal for the the first time in an opening half, the Athletica defense broke away from one of its more promising statistics.

Up to that point, the Athletica has held three consecutive opponents to a scoreless first half, but Washington's goal in the 29th by Sonia Bompastor halted that streak. 

With the game tied 1-1 and nearing the end of the first half, Daniela cranked one in from distance to give the St. Louis  a 2-1 lead in the just before the break.

After the teams came back out for the second half, weather conditions caused the ball to skip to the advantage of both teams' attacking players.  The Athletica's Eniola Aluko scored the third and final St. Louis goal off of service that skipped a little bit too far ahead of a Freedom defender.

On the other end, it looked like Solo got a piece of DeVanna's goal but the slippery ball crossed over the line to make it 3-2 and then the final goal of the match came from Bompastor to tie the game at 3-3.

Considering that it was indeed a good finish by the French player, it is also important to point out that this goal was partially due to a defender's mistake.  An off- balanced header sent the ball back into the box.  There were two other players tracking Bompastor, but neither of them jumped to challenge her in the air. It's true that maybe she still would have scored even if there had been a challenge or if Solo had come out to get that. But had the defender gotten a clear head on it, there would not have been a goal.

This week, the Athletica also made a change in the starting line-up with Melissa Tancredi starting over Kerri Hanks. Early in the game, Tancredi created some of the better on-target opportunities for the Athletica. In recent weeks the team has been struggling to finish on frame, so a move to make this change was a good choice.

However, Hanks is not handing over her starting job that easily.  After only spending two minutes on the pitch, Hanks sent in the assist that setup Aluko's goal. Immediately she created a scoring opportunity but the Athletic needs someone who can both create and who can finish.  Hanks was a proven finisher at Notre Dame but things are not quite transitioning so perfectly in the WPS.

St. Louis is slowing earning small consideration in this league, but losing a two goal lead to finish in a tie isn't going to earn this team any more respect than it already as the team approached this game.  The Athletica finished on some great opportunities but still allowed the Freedom to make a comeback. Plus, according to the game write-up on the WPS website, Daniela suffered a knee injury in the game.

On the opposing side of things, Washington needs to get things together in the back. This is the second game where the Freedom has given up three goals.  It's just lucky for the Freedom that they were not embarrassed at home on such a special night. 

One good thing that came out of the match for the Freedom is that Bompastor proved what an asset she is truly is to this Freedom team and Cat Whitehill continues to create chances with her dangerous service.

Both teams are still in need of improvement on the defensive end.  Last week it was Washington who lost a two goal lead and this week it was St. Louis. Closing out games is a necessity in the WPS. Right now, that is the one thing that neither of these teams is doing very well.  Yes, the Freedom finished a clutch goal to win last week, but it never would have been in that situation if it could hold on to a lead.

In the final game of the weekend, FC Gold Pride recorded its first shut-out victory by defeating Sky Blue FC 1-0 on a goal in the 86th minute.

The late goal in this game resulted from a series of substitutions.  Eriko Arakawa is one of the better finishers and target players in the league, so it was surprising that she didn't make her fifth consecutive start against SBFC.  Instead, she relieved Tiffeny Millbrett after the first 15 minutes of the second half. 

Other subs for FCGP included Leigh Ann Robinson in 70th minute for Christine Sinclair and a change from Tiffany Wiemer to Adriane for the final six minutes in regulation. 

In only two minutes after making her WPS debut, Brazilian native Adriane assisted Robinson on the game winner.

With constant changes to the starters, maybe Adriane has earned herself a starting spot for next week.

For a game that went back and forth, SBFC did get off a couple of good shots but FCGP had the advantage.  If the Bay Area had started Arakawa, this game could have been put away much sooner and much more decisively.

New Jersey is in the same boat as St. Louis right now.  Neither team can find a win and both at some point have struggled to finish.  As for the rest of the league, L.A. is beginning to slowing fall and Boston is making a case for a higher position.

After the conclusion of Week Six, the league standings and power rankings are somewhat in agreement. Here are this week's SBI WPS rankings:

SBI WPS POWER RANKINGS

1. Los Angeles Sol (3-1-1)

L.A. took its first loss this week, but it still has more wins and more clean sheets than any other team.  Based on performance from this week alone, Chicago is probably a better.  Until these two face each other head to head or another team numerically passes the Sol, L.A. remains at the top.  The rematch between Boston and L.A. happens this weekend, so some things will probably change.

2. Boston Breakers (3-2-0)

Boston has had some tough breaks along the way but is proving to be a strong team when all key players are actually in the game.  As much as the whole world wants to see a rematch between Boston and Chicago, Boston made up for the loss by defeating L.A.  The Breakers have had a tougher early schedule and have played one more game than Chicago. If Boston can pull off another win in the rematch against the Sol this weekend, they move hands down to number one.

3. Chicago Red Stars (2-0-2)

The Chicago Red Stars took the bye week and have played one game less than both L.A. and Boston.  This team is ranked third after Boston's win over the Sol, but I can't overlook the fact that Red Stars have yet to lose a game. Because the Red Stars haven't been challenged by L.A. and becuase they will play SBFC this week, a less competitive early schedule has helped this team remain in the top.  That's not to say that every team in the league isn't a challenge, but it is to put it out there that Chicago will not meet L.A. for the first time until June 3. This means that no matter how well it does, it will still be awhile before we can make a true comparison. If Boston pulls off a second win this weekend, Boston further justifies that Chicago may be even with or less than a Boston team at full strength.

4.  FC Gold Pride (2-2-1)

FCGP holds its spot in fourth this week as it is fresh off of a 1-0 win over SBFC.  There wasn't a strong enough result here to move the team any higher. Although Washington beat this team head to head, Washington had a rough week as well.

5.  Washington Freedom (1-2-2)

The Washington Freedom tied the St. Louis Athletica this weekend and will therefore remain in the same place it was last week.  After battling back from behind to tie against the bottom of the bottom, there is no reward to move this team ahead and no loss to allow it to fall. Plus, the Freedom has a win which is something that neither of the bottom two teams can say right now.  Washington's goals were all good head finishes, but a win would have been the only thing to push this team any higher.

6. St. Louis Athletica (0-2-2)

Scoring early against a decent team shows that there is potential for this team to improve in the standings. On a bad note,  with so many tall players and good headers on the Athletica team, tracking marks in the box was a problem this week. St. Louis is coming upon some of the similar problems that Washington experienced last week.  Once a team has control of the game (winning by two or more goals) it cannot afford to let down or allow the other team to come back. Because St. Louis was able to put away some goals this week, I moved St. Louis out of the bottom.  A tie instead of a loss also pushed St. Louis ahead.

7. Sky Blue FC (0-2-2)

With a record identical to that of St. Louis, SBFC suffered a 1-0 loss to FCGP and therefore moved from sixth to seventh.  Due to this week's loss by shutout, there really cannot be an argument for a higher position.

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What did you think about Boston and L.A.?  Will St. Louis continue to score or find a win? Why is Washington giving up so many goals?  Agree or disagree with the Power Rankings? 

Please share your thoughts below.