Charge Leading the Pack at Midseason

June 24, 2002 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
Philadelphia Charge News Release


The Philadelphia Charge endured a grueling three-games-in-nine-days stretch, going 2-0-1 and extending their season-long occupation of first place for yet another week. Coming off last Saturday's 1-0 win over Boston, the Charge traveled to Carolina for a battle between the WUSA's top two teams on Wednesday night. Philadelphia, which had already downed the Courage on their own turf once this season, showed why it has yet to spend a day in any position other than first place. Two goals from Marinette Pichon and a season-high 10 saves from Melissa Moore propelled the Charge to the 3-1 win and extended the team's lead in the WUSA standings to five points.

Over the weekend, Philadelphia made the cross-country trip to San Diego to face a Spirit team mired near the bottom of the league. However, the Charge had revenge on their minds, as the team's lone loss this season came on the Spirit's field. San Diego once again played Philly tough-earning a 1-1 tie despite playing most of the game with just 10 players. The tie, coupled with a Carolina win over the weekend, narrows the Charge's (7-1-3, 24pts) league lead to three points at the midseason mark.

Upcoming Opponent

With last week's win and tie, Philadelphia is now 3-0-3 in its last six contests and is actually unbeaten in over a month. The team looks to extend the streak on Saturday, when the Charge host the Atlanta Beat at 7 pm at Villanova Stadium. The first 5,000 kids 14 and under will receive free Charge Autograph Books. The Beat, who knocked Philly out of the playoffs with a 3-2 in the league semifinals last year, enter the weekend in third place and winners of five of their last six games.

The Charge were unable to beat the Beat last season, going 0-2-2 in four games, but helped alleviate the pain of the playoff defeat with a 2-0 shutout in Atlanta in the teams' season opener. Kelly Smith and Zhao Lihong were the goal scorers for Philadelphia and Melissa Moore earned her first shutout of the season, as the Charge started the season in first place and have not looked back since.

Charmaine Hooper leads Atlanta, which is 3-2 on the road thus far this season, on the offensive end. Hooper's six goals and one assist for 13 points is tops on the team and tied for eighth in the league. U.S. National Team goalkeeper Brianna Scurry minds the Beat's net and is tied for third in the league in goals-against average at 1.27 per game.

Mid-Season Report

Through the first 10 weeks of the season, the Philadelphia Charge have made a statement to the rest of the league: last season's playoff berth and championship game near-miss was no mistake. This year's version, again picked by many publications to finish in the middle of the WUSA standings, has grabbed the rest of the league's attention. The Charge lost just once over the course of the first half of the season and are out to the best start in league history.

Philadelphia's impressive run began with a league record four consecutive wins. Then, after falling to San Diego 1-0 on Sunday, May 19, the team hasn't lost since. Philly has rolled off a 3-0-3 stretch in the last six games since its defeat and appears poised to make a run at the Founder Cup in August.

The Charge's chances took what appeared likely to be a deadly blow when the team lost star midfielder Kelly Smith to a torn ACL in a 0-0 tie against San Jose on June 1. Smith, who was leading the league in points when she went down with the season-ending injury, won the Player of the Month award for May and led a Philly attack ranked first in scoring offense in the league with four goals and three assists. Since her injury, however, much of the slack has been picked up by another bright star. French forward Marinette Pichon has garnered a team-high seven goals and her 15 points ranks her sixth in the league in scoring. Her four-game goal-scoring streak was finally snapped on Sunday.

Charge goalkeeper Melissa Moore has been her team's backbone this season and is a leading candidate for the league Goalkeeper of the Year award. Her goals-against average (0.82), wins (7) and winning percentage (77.27) are all tops in the league, while she ranks second in saves (52) as well as save percentage (81.25). In addition, Moore has recorded three shutouts already this season and made a franchise-record 10 saves in Wednesday's 3-1 win over Carolina.

The Charge have been a particularly tough team to mount a comeback against, probably the toughest in the league. After scoring the game's first goal, Philadelphia is 5-0-1 and 4-0-1 when leading at halftime this season. All-time, the Charge are 12-1-1 when scoring first and 10-0-1 when carrying a lead into halftime.

In addition to being in first-place for every day of the season, Philadelphia has the No. 1-ranked defense and second-ranked offense in the league. Defensively, Moore and co. allow just 0.82 goals per game, tops in the league. The Charge have allowed more than one goal by an opponent just once, in the 4-2 win over the Breakers on May 4, and have recorded three shutouts. A large part of this success can be attributed to a stingy defensive corps that has allowed just 125 shots all season long, which is second-best in the league. With 20 goals in 11 games thus far, the first-place Charge are scoring at a clip of 1.80 goals per game, an impressive feat in light of the loss of Smith five games ago.

With 10 regular season games to go, Philadelphia appears destined for a second consecutive postseason appearance. This time, however, the team expects a berth in the Founders Cup final for a chance at the league championship. The Charge will play just four more times at Villanova Stadium after Saturday's game against Atlanta. The team's final regular season match is slated for August 10 at Atlanta and the WUSA Semifinals will be played a week later on August 17th. The Founder Cup is scheduled for Saturday, August 24.

A wire-to-wire first-place run seemed unlikely for any team prior to this season. But Philadelphia isn't proving to be just any team. Head coach Mark Krikorian has the Charge playing a particularly focused and exciting brand of soccer that has caught much of the league by surprise. With 10 games left for Philly to gear up for a title run, opponents are sure to have their sights set on the Charge. Additionally, the club has yet to lose a game on its home turf-as it is currently 3-0-2 at Villanova Stadium this season.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from June 24, 2002


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