The Atlanta Beat was an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in Atlanta, Georgia that competed on a professional level. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010, and played its home games at Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium, the result of a public-private partnership between the team and Kennesaw State University. The club took the name and logo of the former Atlanta Beat (WUSA) of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association.

History

Name and colors

The team's name was announced to be the Beat on June 18, 2009. The name was determined by a fan poll, with Attack, Beat, and Storm as the options. The new Beat logo was the same design as the previous WUSA logo, with the two shades of blue being replaced by Gold and

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

Red.

Building the team

Atlanta began building its team at the 2009 WPS Expansion Draft on September 15, 2009, where it selected six players from the existing seven WPS teams, getting four players from the teams that finished first and second in the league's inaugural season. A week later, Atlanta selected five international players in the

2009 WPS International Draft The 2009 WPS International Draft was a special draft for the Women's Professional Soccer teams Atlanta Beat and Philadelphia Independence taking place on September 22, 2009. Each expansion team picked up to five international players, to be roughl ...

, including three players from Umea IK, and thus now have exclusive negotiating rights to those players among WPS teams.

Inaugural season

The Beat ended the 2010 season in last place with 5 wins, 13 losses, and 6 ties.

2011 season

The Atlanta Beat started off the 2011 season on April 9 in a game against the Boston Breakers in front of over slightly 4,000 spectators at KLS Stadium. The Beat lost 1–4 to Boston with their lone goal coming from

Carli Lloyd Carli Anne Hollins (; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019), two-time FIFA Player of the Year ...

in a penalty kick in the 78th minute.

Players

2011 roster

League suspension

On January 30, 2012, Women's Professional Soccer announced suspension of the 2012 season, citing several internal organization struggles as the primary cause. Some of these included an ongoing legal battle with an ex-franchise owner and the lack of resources invested into the league.

References

External links

* (archived) Association football clubs established in 2010 Women's Professional Soccer teams Women's soccer clubs in the United States B Soccer clubs in Georgia (U.S. state) {{GeorgiaUS-footyclub-stub