A Heart Wrenching Defeat

CURE 3 SAINTS 0

It has been a very unforgiving season so far for Gateway United. The club has made many attempts to right the ship, but nothing seems to be working. The latest setback is the 3-0 defeat to the hated St. Louis Cure. Losing to the Cure at any score is bad. Losing without scoring a single point is heart wrenching. "It hurts beyond words. I am embarrassed for our organization." said the club's owner. The simple truth is the Saints lack depth. Very few players are performing and even those few that are putting up points are not doing so consistently.

Match Build Up: Game 9

You can only practice so much before you just have to play the damn game. The coaching staff has looked at the players from top to bottom and has addressed the issues as best as possible. There are no excuses that Gateway United is missing some key players.

REPORTER: Did you read the press that came out of the Cure training camp?

GATEWAY UNITED: Ofcourse we read it. Nothing would be more gratifying than to wipe those smiles off their faces.

REPORTER: So are you ready for them?

GATEWAY UNITED: The club has searched high and low for some game changers. The truth is there just aren't any out there. Its not like you can find a Donovan or Alvarez just sitting at home waiting for a phone call. That kind of talent is just not replaceable. The rest of the club will just have to step it up.

REPORTER: Win or lose, what is in store for the Saints?

GATEWAY UNITED: We are only 4 points out from a playoff seed. The objective is to stay close until the transfer market opens up.

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ON THE PITCH

Pappa/Ljundberg/Lenhart/Allsopp

Cunningham/de Guzman/Boggs/Ekpo

GOAL KEEPER

Coundoul

SUBS

Saragosa/Noonan/Mwanga

RESERVES

Donovan/Alvarez

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We Are United. Gateway United Takes Show Me Cup

That other club in St. Louis making its way down the I-70 is packing a lot of press. Everywhere you read about how great the Cure are. Well the Saints now hold the Show Me Cup after defeating the Cure in the aggregate 7-6. WE ARE UNITED!!!! GATEWAY UNITED.

One point is just not good enough

SAINTS 1 GREEKS 1

Even with all the preparations for this match, the Saints could not score without their "big 2" in the lineup. Before the match, the Saints picked up a whole bunch of players just for this one week and specifically targeted Crew players that had two games on slate. Wouldn't you know it, those Crew players did absolutely nothing. Chances are if the Cure had picked them up for 1 game they'd had racked up a hat trick each. Words cannot express how frustrating it is to see the offense struggle against a New York club that has followed in the sterotype of New York metropolition teams and given up when the going got tough. (New York only supports winners) The 1-1 tie is in no way being considered half full. We wanted 3 points and just did not get it done. Gateway United will look to restructure its lineup once again to get ready for the rival Cure.

Match Build Up: Game 8

Now is the time in the schedule where the rest of the club is going to have to step it up and play a little harder. Not just because the Captain, Landon Donovan is during his duty for the good ol' USA, but because the Saints really need to start picking up maximum points.

REPORTER: Comments about last week?

GATEWAY UNITED: We got back into some of our bad habits relying too much on our big guns and not diversifying our scoring.

REPORTER: Any changes coming?

GATEWAY UNITED: We have mixed up our lineup for obvious reasons like the World Cup warmups, but not for any performance reasons. Up until the last match we were actually looking a lot better on the scoresheet.

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ON THE PITCH

Cunningham/Ljundberg/Carroll/Allsopp

Lenhart/Saragosa/Alvarez/Moffat

GOAL KEEPER

Coundoul

SUBS

deGuzman/Noonan/Mwanga

RESERVES

Donovan/Pappa

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Depth Still Delivering Bad Results

STAGS 4 SAINTS 2

It appears that the problems concerning Gateway United have yet to be solved. The Saints recent loss to Burud Town was more about the clubs lack of depth then it was about its opponent. The Saints have a few players that seem to be doing the bulk of the work. Trades and free agency have not seemed to help and now Landon Donovan will be missing from the line up for a few games for World Cup duty. Coming into this match Gateway United had seen its points total increase rather nicely, but after equalizing the score 1-1, the rest of the players with the exception of Marco Pappa failed to deliver.

Match Build Up: Game 7

The Saints are starting to get out of the funk they were in to start the season. There is still room for improvement. Lets hear what the club has to say.

REPORTER: Big win last week. Is confidence rising?

GATEWAY UNITED: Whenever you move up the table you feel a sense of accomplishment. That said, it was only one game.

REPORTER: Your next opponent is Burd Town. Any comments?

GATEWAY UNITED: They have talent on their side. They are very capable of putting up points as they have done in previous matches. We will have to perform to get the win. No doubt about it.

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ON THE PITCH

Donovan/Cunningham/Pappa/Allsopp

Ljundberg/Lenhart/deGuzman/Alvarez

GOAL KEEPER

Coundoul

SUBS

Romero/Ashe/Salinas

RESERVES

Noonan/Mwanga

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New England Clam Chowder

PRESS RELEASE

Next up Gateway United will play Burud Town. This is the first time the Saints will play against this opponent from the New England area. Very little is known about this club. The owner is trigger happy, trade happy, and of few words. Burud Town....A place where soccer players go to die? Perhaps.

On gameday, the plan is simple, CHOW DOWN ON BURUD TOWN.

Sweet Revenge, Sweet Victory

SAINTS 5 MONARCHS 1

For the 2nd game in a row Gateway United has scored 5 points. It looks like the offense is coming around after several spouts where the club scored only 2 points. Game 6 pinned us against Montgomery County. The Saints struck first and held on to the lead the entire time. This was not much of a contest. By early Saturday afternoon Landon Donovan had just finished destroying Seattle and Julian deGuzman added an assist to give Gateway United a 4-0 lead. Montgomery County never did get anything going and the final score was inevitable. This was a great win. We beat the league Champions, and we moved up the standings.

Match Build Up: Game 6

Welcome to another edition of Match Build Up where we interview with Gateway United to get into the mind of the club itself.

REPORTER: Thoughts on the match tonight?

GATEWAY UNITED: We have a score to settle with Montgomery County. We even petitioned the commissioners office to schedule this later in the season to give us adequate time to prepare. Originally, we wanted to play them opening day but then changed our minds just incase we needed to make roster adjustments. It turns out we did.

REPORTER: The club finally scored some points last game. Is confidence rising?

GATEWAY UNITED: One game, good or bad, does not make a season. We need a few good ones to get our swagger back. Just like if we had one bad game we wouldn't be in a panic.

REPORTER: 5 games done and you sit 2 points out of a playoff spot. Thoughts?

GATEWAY UNITED: We are not looking at third place. We are looking at first place still. If this was game 16 then we would focus on third.

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ON THE PITCH

Donovan/Cunningham/Ljundberg/Pappa

Lenhart/Alvarez/de Guzman/Romero

GOAL KEEPER

Coundoul

SUBS

Ashe/Salinas/Noonan

RESERVES

Mansally/Mwanga

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No Pitty For Montgomery County

PRESS RELEASE

On Wednesday Gateway United will play Montgomery County. The last time we meet was the playoffs. Revenge has been a long time coming. Now if you look at the standings you might be so inclined to let off a little. They are in last place. GOOD! It would be with great pleasure to put another nail in the coffin to their season. The Saints season hasn't been all success either and it would be in fine form to pick up 3 points on this club. Will this be an easy game? Don't bet on it and the way the season has gone for Gateway United there could be a surprise of two in store. The bottom line... show no mercy and maybe we can rip their championship badges of their sleeves as well.

Saints Show Character In Game 5

SAINTS 5 GUNNERS 5
Is is possible to claim victory without a win. Well for the Saints the feeling is mostly positive after pulling out a point in the standings against the CD Gunners. It was a game we could easily have lost and probably would have earlier this season. The offense was struggling. This week boast out best tally of the year and several players were on the box score. If we continue to play like this, the wins will come. The CD Gunners are a tough opponent and are probably the opponent we fear and respect the most because we have never beat them.

Gateway United trailed in this game the whole time. Angel gave the CD Gunners a quick lead but we fought back. They kept on scoring and we kept fighting back. With the clock winding down Gateway United still trailed 5-4 and Landon Donovan pulled in some late heroics. He is still without a goal on the season but the bottom line is this was a real improvement for our club.