Beat Prepares for First Road Match

April 21, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
Atlanta Beat News Release


ATLANTA (April 21, 2003) - After a bye week, the Atlanta Beat is preparing to head on the road for the first time in 2003. The Beat will face the Washington Freedom on Saturday, April 26 at RFK Stadium. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. ET, with the game being broadcast on PAX-TV at 4 p.m. ET. One team's perfect record will fall in this early season battle. The Beat leads the all-time series 4-2-0, but the Freedom has claimed the last two in a row.

Atlanta Beat vs. Washington Freedom Preview - April 26, RFK Stadium, 2:30 p.m. ET

The Atlanta Beat and Washington Freedom face off on Saturday in a battle of undefeated teams. The Beat heads into the game 2-0-0 after a week off, during which the Beat went through a rigorous training regimen that culminated with a match versus college powerhouse, UNC Chapel Hill. The Beat defeated the Tarheels of UNC 4-1 on Friday, April 18, with Emily Burt notching two goals, and Cindy Parlow and Conny Pohlers each tallying one goal. The team did not train over the weekend, but was back on the field Monday morning.

Each of the Beat's two WUSA wins to date has been a shutout and has been in a decisive manner, as Atlanta defeated the New York Power 5-0 on opening day and followed that win up with a 6-0 drubbing of the Boston Breakers. The Washington Freedom heads into Saturday's match with a 3-0-0 record, that includes wins over the defending WUSA Champions the Carolina Courage, the New York Power and the San Jose CyberRays. Most recently the Freedom shut out the CyberRays 2-0. Mia Hamm notched a goal in the win over the CyberRays and now sits one goal behind the Beat's Maribel Dominguez, whose four goals leads the league.

The last time the Beat and Freedom faced off, the Freedom came away with a 3-2 victory on August 4, 2002. Heading into the 2002 season, the Beat held a perfect 3-0-0 record over Washington and added to that perfect mark with a 1-0 win in the first contest of 2002. The Freedom then reeled off two victories in the final two meetings of the 2002 season. The Beat will look to regain the momentum in the series when the team faces the Freedom on Saturday in Washington D.C.

Key matchup - It's likely that each team will have players out due to national team commitments, as Parlow and Scurry for the Beat, and Hamm, Abby Wambach and Siri Mullinix for the Freedom, were called into U.S. camp. In the case that each goalkeeper is kept on the U.S. squad for the match versus Nigeria, the key matchup may be in goal with Melanie Wilson minding the nets for Atlanta and Gao Hong for Washington. Wilson, the Beat's backup goalkeeper has a 3-2-1 career record, with two of those wins coming in 2002. She's performed admirably when called to fill in for Scurry and is highly regarded, as arguably the best backup keeper in the league. On the other side of the field, Gao led the New York Power to the playoffs in 2001, recording a 9-7-5 record, but suffered an injury riddled 2002 and recorded four losses on the season and now has a 9-11-5 career record. She made the move to Washington in the off-season and may be in nets for the Freedom come Saturday.

Quotes from Head Coach Tom Stone Tom Stone on the team's "off week" - "None of our players would tell you we took the week off. We trained as usual, got a training game in on Friday [vs. UNC] and we're ready for our first road game of the year on Saturday."

Tom Stone on Friday's training match vs. UNC: "It gave everyone a chance to get some quality minutes, especially the players that haven't seen much game time this year. Burt scored two goals - this just underscores the incredible competition for our starting 11."

Tom Stone on this week's match-up vs. Washington: "Washington is one of those teams that is always going to be competitive. They've got so many ways to hurt you and they just keep getting better. They're playing with a lot of confidence right now."



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from April 21, 2003


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