FC Gold Pride wasn’t necessarily planning to turn the entire Saturday evening at the Maryland SoccerPlex into one large-scale counterattack. The game just turned out that way, with the Bay Area team on their heels in the first half and then taking advantage of opportunities in the second.

The 4-1 final score was deceptive, and with Freedom keeper Erin McLeod suffering a knee injury bearing all the signs of something serious, the visitors weren’t getting too giddy.

Yet the game showed how much is going Gold Pride’s way this season and how much is going wrong for the Freedom, who tumbled out of playoff position with the loss.

Sympathy for McLeod

McLeod’s injury was particularly tough on Gold Pride forward Christine Sinclair, her Canadian national teammate.

“You don’t want to speculate, but it didn’t look good,” Sinclair said. “She’s one of my best friends, and it’s tough to see. Hopefully, it just looks worse than it is.”

Canada, like the USA, must qualify for the World Cup later this year at the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup. The top two get automatic bids, and the third-place team goes to a playoff. As the U.S. women’s youth teams have shown this year (U-20s knocked out of World Cup quarterfinals by Nigeria, U-17s failed to qualify at all), such things can’t be taken for granted.

Not to say the Canadian team is suddenly doomed — Philadelphia’s Karina LeBlanc would push McLeod for the starting spot, anyway. But McLeod already has gone through an ACL injury, and another serious injury would seem unfair.

“We feel so bad about Erin,” said Gold Pride forward Tiffeny Milbrett, who won the 2006 W-League title with McLeod and the Vancouver Whitecaps. “She’s such a good friend to a lot of people.”

Freedom’s fortunes

Milbrett was the beneficiary of the Freedom’s misfortunes. McLeod saved her first-half shot off Sinclair’s cross, only to see the rebound pop up for Milbrett to score with an easy header. Then with defender Cat Whitehill taking over for McLeod in goal when the Freedom ran out of subs, Milbrett launched a beautiful long-range curler to the upper corner.

“But I’ve been told by every keeper — including Nicci Wright, our keeper coach — that even if a real keeper were back there, they wouldn’t have saved that shot,” Whitehill said.

Gold Pride’s Shannon Boxx wasn’t surprised that her national teammate got the call in goal.

“A long time ago, we tried out some of the field players on the national team, and she was definitely our best one,” Boxx said.

Whitehill will happily retire with a goals-against average in the teens.

“I never want to put this (jersey) on again,” Whitehill said. “I’ll leave that to the real keepers.”

That was Gold Pride’s fourth goal, but the game was sealed on the third, in which McLeod planted her leg badly and was taken off on a stretcher. That goal came while the Freedom pressed for the equalizer.

The Freedom had the better of play through the first half and made a solid run at an equalizer. The final touch just wasn’t there.

“We’re trying everything,” Whitehill said. “We’re trying different formations, different personnel up front. We need some things to fall our way. Abby (Wambach) is heading the ball great, but it goes straight to (goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart). We need a little bit of luck, to be honest.”

The counterattacks

Gold Pride came into the SoccerPlex to find unbearable conditions. The temperature was near 100, and it wasn’t a dry heat. The Bay Area team was tired before taking the field.

“We’ve had a long road trip, playing in Boston on Wednesday night and busing the 12 hours here,” Sinclair said. “Luckily for us, it cooled off in the second half, and we were able to attack them.”

Washington, more accustomed to frying at the Plex, put on the pressure from the start. Nikki Marshall, sticking at forward after spending the first half of the season on the backline, tested Barnhart right away with a run down the center. Barnhardt tipped the shot wide for a corner, not looking particularly comfortable on that play or a few other early shots.

“I thought we had worn them down,” Whitehill said. “Had we played 60 minutes in the first half, I think we would’ve scored four goals on them. We had five good opportunities in the first 15-20 minutes until they scored.”

The Freedom scraped back a goal, with Wambach converted on a rebound.

“They did a good job on us,” Milbrett said. “We had to work hard that first half.”

“They had the better of the chances,” Sinclair said. “We knew they weren’t going to be able to last 90 minutes putting on the pressure they put on.”

Game-changing Sinclair

With shadows cooling the SoccerPlex stadium field, Gold Pride had a stronger start in the second half.

“I think we were a bit more sound,” Boxx said. “We didn’t allow Abby so much space where she back-tracks and gives it off to someone else.”

With the Freedom pressing forward in the 59th minute, Sinclair turned the game around, snaring the ball in midfield and turning to charge at three defenders on the right. Streaking down the left was Marta, who had few chances to show her superior skill but showed she might also win a track meet among WPS players.

“She did hit another gear, and that was a perfect ball by Christine Sinclair,” Whitehill said. “We had numbers up. We should’ve scored while we were up there.”

“We were having trouble getting it out,” Boxx said. “Sinc comes all the way back, gets it out herself and plays a great ball.”

The Sinclair-to-Marta counterattack worked again for the third Gold Pride goal in the 84th minute. Milbrett’s 89th-minute tally was the only Gold Pride goal Sinclair did not set up.

The road ahead

The Freedom haven’t won since May 30, carrying an eight-game winless streak and three-game losing streak.

“We’re hoping it doesn’t get worse than this,” Whitehill said. “We’re feeling pretty bottom.”

Gold Pride have the opposite problem.

“We can’t quit, can’t stop playing because people can catch us, for sure,” Boxx said.

Mathematically, yes. The lead over second-place Philly is 13 points, and the expansion Independence have nine games remaining. Realistically, no.

But Boxx remembers her experience with the Los Angeles Sol, which lost focus late in a dominant season and lost in the playoffs.

“Last year, I learned that you never can stop playing,” Boxx said “It’s momentum going into the playoffs. You want to keep getting better as a team.”