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WUSA Week 10 Wrap Wild win puts Boston on topPosted: Tuesday June 10, 2003 9:32 AM
By Scott French, Soccer America NEW BOSS: Boston overtook Washington for the top spot in the WUSA standings with a wild 3-1 victory at RFK Stadium as Maren Meinert netted her seventh and eighth goals of the season to move to No. 1 in the league scoring race. Meinert called the scoring title "not important," but the victory was crucial for the Breakers (5-3-2), who don't play again until June 21. The Freedom (5-2-1), who trail Boston on points, 17-16, have two games in hand and will get an opportunity to go back in front Wednesday at Carolina. SEEING RED: It was a clippy, often brutal affair at RFK, with rookie referee Tony Russo sending off three players. Had he witnessed everything on the field, he might have sent off a fourth. Washington's Skylar Little and Boston's Angela Hucles were ejected for the aftermath of a 74th-minute collision that knocked both to the ground. As they got up, Little grabbed Hucles' jersey from the back, and the Breakers midfielder turned around, picked Little up and threw her to the ground in a classic WWF-type move. Neither player is particularly big, but the 5-7 Hucles has a size advantage on the 5-3 Little. Washington striker Abby Wambach got her walking papers in the 91st minute for a "violent foul" on Heather Aldama. Wambach accepted responsibility for the foul but was livid that Russo thought it warranted a red card and had to be restrained twice by Mia Hamm from going after him. Russo apparently missed Dagny Mellgren throwing an elbow into German debutant Sandra Minnert's face, causing a gash over her left eye. Hamm had to restrain goalkeeper Siri Mullinix from confronting Russo after the final whistle, and Gabarra walked Minnert to the referee to show him the damage Mellgren caused. I think an elbow to the head is a red card," Gabarra said. "I think he had us a little confused." Gabarra didn't blame Russo for the Freedom's second loss, however. "He didn't put three goals in our goal for them," he said. LINGERING DROUGHT: San Jose is struggling to score big time, extending its goalless streak to 209 minutes with a 2-0 home loss to New York. The CyberRays have scored only eight goals in nine games, and Brazilian striker Katia -- last year's WUSA scoring champion and all-time single-season points record-holder -- has found the net just once. Coach Ian Sawyers left her on the bench against the Power, and what was left of the 'Rays' attack managed just four shots on goal. "You've got to score to win games," said Sawyers, whose squad struggled last year because Katia had so little scoring support. "We've got to work hard to look at the tape and see what exactly what was happening. ... It's foolish for us to keep telling ourselves that we're the better team. We better accept responsibility." New York coach Tom Sermanni said the victory, the Power's first in three games, was "bittersweet." He was Sawyers' assistant the first two seasons and says he wants "to see the CyberRays do well." BEST GOAL: Several to choose from, but the most stunning was Melanie Hoffmann's 10th-minute half-volley to give Philadelphia an early two-goal advantage in its 2-1 win at San Diego. It's a candidate for goal of the year. It, like Marinette Pichon's goal a minute earlier, came off a long Jen Tietjen-Prozzo throw-in from the left wing. The ball bounced into traffic, and Hoffman raced in, took a full swing and hammered the ball into the upper-left corner from about 16 yards. EARLY WAKEUPS: Pichon's and Hoffmann's goals were the fifth and sixth the Spirit has surrendered this season during the first 10 minutes of action. It has given up only four goals in the final 80 minutes of matches. "It's something we're even focusing on, which is worse," said San Diego captain Julie Foudy, who scored the Spirit's goal on a penalty kick -- the third successive match in which she's scored from the spot. "We know it's an issue - just lazy defense and not marking up on people. ... If we didn't give up any goals in the first 10 minutes, we'd probably be undefeated." San Diego struggled to score without Shannon MacMillan, out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, or Julie Fleeting, who was in Portugal leading Scotland's national team to an 8-1 victory in a 2005 European Championship qualifier. Fleeting scored six goals in the match. ANOTHER LOST POINT: Atlanta is losing points at the penalty spot. A week after Foudy's 84th-minute PK cost the Beat two points in a 1-1 tie with San Diego, visiting Carolina used a Danielle Fotopoulos penalty in the seventh minute -- after Marci Miller's hand ball -- and benefited from Maribel Dominguez's miss from the spot in the 65th to secure a 2-1 triumph. Nancy Augustyniak's suspension, for a red card late in the game in San Diego, proved costly for the Beat. Kylie Bivens, usually the right back, was moved inside, and the Courage picked on rookie Leslie Gaston, who moved into Bivens' spot. Bivens' inability to effectively clear a ball from the Beat box in the 11th minute led to Birgit Prinz's goal and an early 2-0 Carolina advantage. The teams meet again next weekend, but Atlanta will be without three players -- Cindy Parlow, Briana Scurry, Kylie Bivens, off with the U.S. women's national team in Salt Lake City. ATTENDANCE UPDATE: There were two more sub-5,000 crowds, both on Saturday, with San Diego luring a new Torero Stadium low -- just 3,989 -- for its loss to Philadelphia. Atlanta drew 4,891 to its defeat to Carolina, its second-worst attendance in history. Sunday's games, in Washington and San Jose, both drew in excess of 6,000 fans. In all, there have been nine sub-5,000 crowds in the WUSA -- five of them below 4,000 -- in 35 league games this season. There were seven games that drew fewer than 5,000 people last season and 12 in 2001. Atlanta (4,672 on April 12), Boston (3,518 on May 24), Philadelphia (4,180 on May 31) and San Diego have set franchise lows this year, WUSA SUMMARIES WEEK 10: Road, sweet road
June 7 at Atlanta
June 7 at San Diego
June 8 at Washington
June 8 at San Jose Scott French is a senior editor at Soccer America magazine.
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