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Charge Blank Breakers

June 15, 2002 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) News Release


VILLANOVA, PA - Marinette Pichon's goal in the fifth minute was the difference as the Philadelphia Charge defeated the Boston Breakers 1-0 Saturday evening at Villanova Stadium. With the victory, Philadelphia (6-1-2, 20 pts.) remains in first place in the WUSA, while Boston (2-5-4, 10 pts) heads home with its second consecutive defeat.

Philadelphia made a statement early in the game, as Charge defender Erica Iverson sent a long ball down the middle of the field toward Pichon. A defensive miscue by the Boston defense allowed Pichon to run onto the bouncing ball and beat Boston goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc for her fifth goal of the season. Pichon has now scored in three consecutive matches for Philadelphia.

Although Philadelphia looked to protect its lead, Pichon almost scored again in the 54th minute, when the French national team standout beat Boston defender Kate Sobrero, but LeBlanc came out to snuff the breakaway.

Boston's best chance in the first half came off set piece on the 33rd minute, but Maren Meinert's 25-yard blast sailed over the crossbar.

Boston continued to attack in the second half, outshooting Philadelphia 7-4 in the second period. In the 59th minute, Dagny Mellgren sent a ball into the box that was dummied by Meinert, but Keri Raygor's shot went just wide of the far post.

Philadelphia continued to weather the Boston attack, sending opportunistic balls to Pichon, who was playing as the sole frontrunner, for the majority of the second half.

Boston switched from four in the back to three in the 80th minute to generate additional offense, but the Breakers were still unable to penetrate the WUSA's stingiest defense. Boston best chance to even the score came in the 90th minute off a corner kick. Meinert served the ball to the far post that bounced off of Alexa Borisjuk to Sobrero just outside the six-yard box. However, Sobrero's point-blank shot was directly at Melissa Moore, enabling the Philadelphia goalkeeper to make the save to preserve the victory.

With a 3-0-2 mark at Villanova Stadium, Philadelphia is the lone WUSA team that has not tasted defeat at home in 2002.

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