Sports stats



Beat Looking for Immediate Revenge Versus Carolina

June 9, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
Atlanta Beat News Release


ATLANTA (June 9, 2003) - The Atlanta Beat fell to the Carolina Courage on Saturday, but has a chance to exact revenge, as the team travels up to Cary, NC, to face the Courage in the second game of the season series. The Courage holds a 1-6-1 all-time record over Atlanta and has never lost at home to the Beat. The Beat will be looking to gain ground on the league leading Boston Breakers, who sit only two points ahead in 1st place.

Atlanta Beat vs. Carolina Courage Preview - Saturday, June 14, 7 p.m. ET, - SAS Stadium The Beat and Courage will meet on Saturday in a rematch of the Courage's 2-1 win over Atlanta on June 7 at Herndon Stadium. This will be the first back-to-back meeting the Beat has had with another WUSA team. The Beat will look to get its first road win ever against the Carolina Courage.

The Beat, 1-6-1 all time versus Carolina, has never found a rhythm versus the defending WUSA champs. In 2001 the Beat lost to the Courage twice and tied them once, even though Carolina struggled, eventually finishing in last place. In 2002 the Beat grabbed its first ever win over the Courage, but still had two losses, as Carolina completed its worst to first season. The Beat was then defeated by the Courage in the WUSA semifinals. With the Courage struggling out of the gates again this season, their mastery of Atlanta is still present.

The Courage defeated the Beat on Saturday, June 7, 2-1, as Danielle Fotopoulos and Birgit Prinz notched early goals to put Carolina ahead. The Beat fought back with a first half goal from Maribel Dominguez, but it would not be enough and missed opportunities sent the Beat to only its second loss of the season. A second half missed penalty kick from Dominguez and a late Kristin Luckenbill save on a close range Conny Pohlers shot, sealed the Beat's fate.

Key matchup: Nancy Augustyniak versus Birgit Prinz - While both Prinz and Danielle Fotopoulos lead the Courage attack, Prinz finds open spaces very well and is one of the best players in the WUSA at running with the ball directly to goal. After sitting out this past weekend's match due to a red card suspension, Augustyniak will slide back into the central marking back position, where her speed and knack for finding the open player will be a welcomed return to the lineup.

Tom Stone's quotes on match versus Carolina: "I think in this situation, you have to look at the things we did right and emphasize them, and then look at the things that did not go well for us and spend time addressing those areas, so they are not repeated.

"My hope is that we can create as many chances in this game, as we did in the first match. Hooper, Pohlers, Dominguez and Bivens all had chances that they normally would finish. We have many concerns this week. We will be without Bri, Cindy and Sawa, and three other starters will be flying in from Mexico the night before (Hooper, Dominguez, Nonen). We will have many unanswered questions when we take the field on Saturday night that we will most likely have to solve as the game progresses."

"Fortunately, losing Sawa last week did not deter us from getting to the goal. We did fine in that regard. However, we missed Sawa late in the game, when we pushed everyone forward, because she is so hard to deal with when teams are scrambling to defend and can't focus in on just her."

Courage 2, Beat 1 - Game Recap - June 7, 2003 The Courage came to Atlanta tied with the Philadelphia Charge for the fewest points in the league, four, but left after defeating the Beat for the 6th time in eight games. The absence of Nancy Augustyniak in the center of defense (red card suspension) forced the Beat to change around the lineup at the back, and the absence of Homare Sawa (national team duty) in the midfield gave the Beat one less attacking minded presence.

Julie Augustyniak, who prior to Saturday started only one game this season, moved to the left marking back position. Leslie Gaston, the regular starter at left back, moved to the right back position, and Kylie Bivens, the usual starter at right back, moved into the center back position. The Courage exploited the Beat's defense, which seemed unorganized in the first 15 minutes. The Courage scored the first goal in the 7th minute after Marci Miller was whistled for a hand ball in the penalty box. Fotopoulos took the spot kick and sent a hard shot into the top left corner of the goal. The Courage went ahead by two goals in the 11th minute when a Beat clearance found a wide-open Unni Lehn at the top of the penalty area. Lehn passed to Prinz, who was open in the penalty box. Prinz sent a one-time shot past Briana Scurry for the goal.

The Beat got the team's only goal late in the first half on a great effort by Cindy Parlow, Charmaine Hooper and Maribel Dominguez. Parlow played a give and go in the midfield with Hooper and then dribbled 40 yards before laying the ball off to Dominguez, who dribbled past Courage keeper Kristin Luckenbill, before sliding the ball into the open net.

The Beat missed a penalty kick in the second half and had some clear opportunities saved or stopped by the Courage goalkeeper and defense.

Tom Stone's Quotes on match versus Carolina: "I never thought we were going to lose. We fought back and earned a penalty kick, but we couldn't finish the penalty. It was clear who the dominant team was on the field, but we couldn't put it away."

"Playing Carolina twice in one week is an advantage, but it gets tougher for us because Bri (Scurry) and Cindy (Parlow) will be gone next week with the National Team."

Injury Report - (Week, June 9-14, 2003)

None

Additional Notes

Atlanta's Penalty Kick Woes

Through nearly two and a half seasons of WUSA competition the Atlanta Beat has attempted six penalty kicks during the regular season while netting only two goals. The Beat's 33% penalty kick success rate falls short of the league wide success rate of approximately 76%. On July, 26, 2001 Charmaine Hooper netted the team's first every attempt at a penalty against Carolina Courage goalkeeper, Kristen Luckenbill and then on July 13, 2002, Nikki Serlenga put one past New York Power goalkeeper Saskia Webber. This season Siri Mullinix saved a Nikki Serlenga penalty kick on April 26, in a 1-1 tie with the Washington Freedom. In the Beat's 2-1 loss to the Courage on Saturday, June 7, Maribel Dominguez sent her penalty kick off the top of the crossbar and over.

Beat to Train with Limited Resources this Week

The Atlanta Beat will be without the services of five players this week during training and potentially could be without three players for the game on Saturday versus the Courage. Charmaine Hooper (Canada), Sharolta Nonen (Canada), Maribel Dominguez (Mexico), Kylie Bivens (USA), Cindy Parlow (USA) and Briana Scurry (USA) will all be competing with their respective national teams this week. Canada and Mexico play a two game series in Mexico on June 12 and June 14. Dominguez, Nonen and Hooper will play in the match on June 12, in Guasave, Mexico, and will return for the Beat's match on June 14, versus Carolina.

The Beat's U.S stars, Bivens, Parlow and Scurry, will train with the U.S. Women's National Team in preparation for a match versus Ireland on Saturday, June 14, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. The U.S. will have 23 players in camp and 20 will be selected for Saturday's match versus Ireland. The game will air live on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET. Parlow and Scurry are regular starters for the U.S. women, while Bivens is trying to gain a regular position with the national team.

Beat Stars Become WUSA All-Stars

Four Atlanta Beat players and Head Coach Tom Stone were named selected to participate in the 2003 WUSA All-Star game on June 19, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. ET in Cary, NC. The game will air live on ESPN2. Atlanta Beat Head Coach Tom Stone will coach the World Squad at the 2nd annual WUSA All-Star game. Three Beat stars were named to the starting squad for the World Stars - Maribel Dominguez (Mexico), Sharolta Nonen (Canada) and Homare Sawa (Japan). Sawa will be competing with the Japanese Women's National Team at the Asian Championships and will not play in the match. Briana Scurry will start in goal for the WUSA's American stars. The reserves for the WUSA All-Star game will be named later this week.

Beat Offense & Defense Still Tops in the League

The Atlanta Beat is currently tied for the league lead in goals scored, with the Washington Freedom, as each team has notched 19 goals to date. The Beat also has the league's number one defense, allowing only 0.78 goals per game. Only Atlanta and the San Jose CyberRays have allowed under 10 goals this season. The CyberRays have allowed nine to date. Atlanta's defense, over two and a half seasons, has given up the fewest goals and has a goals against average of 1.12 per game. The CyberRays rank second with a 1.22 average. At the bottom of the pack are the Courage who give up 1.76 goals per game and the Power, who have given up 2.16 goals per.

• Discuss this story on the Women's United Soccer Association message board...

Women's United Soccer Association Stories from June 9, 2003


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central