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Spirit One of Three Teams with Just One Loss

May 28, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Diego Spirit News Release


Heading in the second third of the season, the San Diego Spirit is riding a team record six-game unbeaten streak with a crucial stretch of homes games coming up. The Spirit plays four of its next five at home, and in the WUSA, teams must win at home as road points are valuable and rare. San Diego is one of three teams with only one loss after playing a third of the season (Atlanta & Washington). The Spirit's upcoming match against Atlanta may be the most difficult of the season as the Beat is healthy and playing some of the best soccer in the league. The Beat is by far the best defensive team in the WUSA and finding a way past goalkeeper Briana Scurry has proved close to impossible. Still, the Spirit managed a tie on the road at Atlanta on May 10 in an end-to-end affair that easily could have gone either way, and the Spirit hope a pumped-up home crowd will give them the extra edge needed to pick up a huge win over the Beat.

QUICK GLANCE AT THE SPIRIT
NEXT MATCH: Saturday, May 31, 6 p.m. PT, vs. Atlanta Beat, Torero Stadium, Channel 4 SD, tape delay, 9:45 p.m.
LAST MATCH: Saturday, May 24, 2-1 win over Carolina, SAS Stadium, Cary, N.C.
RECORD: 3-1-3, 12 pts., tied for 3rd place
LEADING SCORER: Julie Fleeting, 4 goals, 8 points
INJURIES: Shannon MacMillan, Torn R ACL, Out
POINTS TARGET: 12 points every seven games - Currently the team is on pace to hit the target of 36 points.

NEXT ON THE SLATE: Atlanta Beat, Saturday, May 31, 6 p.m. PT, Torero Stadium San Diego returns to Torero Stadium to host their bitter rivals, the Atlanta Beat, in an important WUSA match. The Spirit come into the match on a six-game unbeaten streak (3-0-3) and has a chance to move into second place with a win. San Diego earned a 1-1 tie in the first meeting between clubs on May 10 in Georgia.

MEDIA NOTE: SPIRIT/BEAT GAME TO BE SHOWN TAPE DELAY ON CHANNEL 4 SAN DIEGO AFTER PADRES GAME

Saturday's Spirit game against the Atlanta Beat will be shown on a tape-delayed basis following the Padres game at approximately 9:45 p.m.

SATURDAY's GAME PROMOTION - VONS.COM SPIRIT COOKBOOKS

"Cooking with Spirit," a new cookbook sponsored by VONS.com features favorite recipes of the San Diego Spirit players including Shannon MacMillan, Jaime Pagliarulo and Julie Foudy. The cookbook will be given away as a promotional item at the Spirit/Atlanta Beat game on May 31.

Vons.com, which offers online grocery service throughout the San Diego area, produced the 20-page cookbook with the Spirit. Other Spirit players and team personnel contributed recipes to the cookbook. Soccer training tips are also featured in the cookbook, which will be given to the first 4,000 fans entering Torero Stadium.

JUNE EDITION OF "IN THE SPIRIT WITH JULIE FOUDY" TO DEBUT SATURDAY

The new edition of the popular "In the Spirit with Julie Foudy" will debut on Saturday, May 31, 6 p.m., on Channel 4 San Diego. The half-hour show will feature segments on Zhang Ouying learning English at night school, soccer teammates and friends Allie Sullivan and Jen Nielsen, and highlights from the month of May.

FOUNDERS CUP III TICKETS ARE ON SALE TO SEASON SEAT HOLDERS

Founders Cup III tickets went on sale to Spirit season seat holders last week. The 2,000-plus season seat holders have an exclusive period to purchase tickets for the WUSA Championship game to be held in San Diego at Torero Stadium on Sunday, August 24, 1 p.m. Once the deadline of June 1 has passed, mini-season seat holders have the newt window of opportunity between June 1-June 15, before the seats go on sale to the general public.

SPIRIT INVOLVED IN GOT MILK? 3 v. 3 TOURNAMENT

The Spirit will be involved once again in the annual Got Milk? 3v3 Tournament, to be held May 31-June 1 at UCSD Warren Field. This is a 3v3 format with up to 5 people per team. Each person on the team receives a ticket to the May 31 Spirit game against Atlanta, as part of their registration fee.

ROCK 'N ROLLING AT THE MARATHON ON SUNDAY

The Spirit will be participating for the third consecutive year in the Suzuki Rock 'n Roll Marathon on June 1. The team runs the marathon relay-style in 2-mile segments and will be looking break the team record time of 2:30:17 to complete the 26.2-mile course.

SPIRIT SNAPSHOTS

San Diego is two games above .500 for the first time ever...Pagliarulo won her 10th career WUSA game and is unbeaten in her last five starts, a club record...Fleeting tied a club mark with five consecutive game with a point, she failed to set club record for consecutive games with a goal, her streak ended at four, tying the club mark... San Diego is 2-1-3 without MacMillan in the lineup lifetime...San Diego is now 12-1-5 lifetime when scoring first and 9-0-3 when leading at the half...Foudy has six career goals and is one point shy of 25 career points...Foudy is now 2-for-3 on penalty kick attempts...San Diego improved to 6-3-2 in nationally televised games.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

The Spirit has three home games in the month of June, facing Philadelphia on June 7 (6 p.m. PT), New York on June 21 (1 p.m. PT) and San Jose on June 29 (5 p.m. PT). The Spirit will play one away match in June on the 14th at Philadelphia as Spirit head coach Omid Namazi returns to the town where he coached the Philadelphia Kixx to an indoor NPSL championship. That will be a challenging match for the Spirit as they will be without all of their national team players as the USA faces Ireland that day in Salt Lake City.

QUOTES

Omid Namazi on the Atlanta Beat...

"Atlanta is probably the deepest team in the league and we have to play at our best to beat them. Anytime we play them it's going to be a battle, it was in the preseason and it was a few weeks ago in Atlanta in a game that easily could have gone either way. We have to try to match their physical play and if we do that, we might be able to get a good result."

SPIRIT PLAYER SHORTS

SUSAN BUSH, #15, Midfielder
* A four-year letter-winner at UNC.
* Hobbies include golf, hiking, painting, cooking and photography.
* Honored y the Houston City Council and Mayor on May 25, 1999.
* Made her WUSA debut on May 18 vs. Boston.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from May 28, 2003


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