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Spirit One Win Away Heading to Atlanta

August 12, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Diego Spirit News Release


The San Diego Spirit will take the championship hopes and dreams of a city with them when they travel to Atlanta to meet their archrivals, the Beat, in the second WUSA Semifinal match of the weekend on Sunday, August 17, 3 p.m. PT., live on ESPN2. Washington will meet Boston on Saturday, 1 p.m. PT on PAX-TV in the first semifinal match. "One Win Away," is the Spirit mantra for the week, as they prepare for a tough test, however knowing that with a win in Georgia, they will be playing at home in the WUSA Championship Game, Founders Cup III, at Torero Stadium on Sunday, August 24. In the history of the WUSA, no team has ever participated in the league's title match before their own home crowd. Spirit head coach Omid Namazi is aware of the challenge ahead for his team, but he is confident. "Atlanta is a very good team. I have a lot of respect for them. The first time we played them we were up 1-0 until the last ten minutes. I think that we are a much better team now, than we were earlier in the season. In a one-game situation a soccer match can go either way. We fell confident that we can go in there and get a winning result."

QUICK GLANCE AT THE SPIRIT

NEXT MATCH: WUSA SEMIFINAL - Sun., Aug. 17, 3 p.m. PT, vs. Atlanta @ Herndon Stadium, live on ESPN2
LAST MATCH: Sat., Aug. 9, 2-0 win over Washington @ Torero Stadium
FINAL 2003 RECORD: 8-6-7, 31 pts. 3rd place.
FINAL 2003 LEADING SCORER: Julie Fleeting, 11 goals, 4 assists = 26 points, 7th in WUSA
INJURIES: MacMillan, Torn R ACL, Out; Sullivan, Torn L ACL., Out

SPIRIT PLAYOFF GUIDE IS AVAILABLE The 59-page San Diego Spirit 2003 Playoff Guide is available to all media in a PDF format. The guide was sent via email to media members on Monday, however, if you did not receive a copy or if you need it in a word document format, please contact Jon Greene at 619-278-3186 or jgreene@sdspirit.com .

"AIR SCOTLAND" FINISHES AS TEAM's LEADING SCORER - Julie Fleeting finished as the team's leading scoring with 11 goals and four assists, and was seventh in the WUSA in scoring with 26 points. "Air Scotland" set a team record on her final goal of the season in the second minute of Saturday's match. The goal was the fastest ever scored by a Spirit player from the beginning of a game. Her 26 points is the second most ever scored by a Spirit player in a season (MacMillan 30). Fleeting also set the team's record for most game-winning goals in a season with four, previously held by Julie Foudy (3).

DYNAMIC DUO - Forwards Julie Fleeting and Christine Latham have become the Spirit's "Dynamic Duo" by scoring the last 10 Spirit goals and 13 of the club's last 14 goals. Fleeting finished as the club's leading scorer, while Latham was second. The duo represented 63% of San Diego's goal production during the 2003 season.

SEASON SERIES FINAL RESULTS - The Spirit won the season series against Carolina 2-1-0, San Jose, 2-0-1, New York, 2-0-1 and Washington 2-1-0; while losing to Atlanta, 0-1-2, Boston, 0-1-2, and Philadelphia, 0-2-1. The Spirit used their series win over Washington to break a tie in the standings to gain third place.

DAYLIGHT WINNING TIME - San Diego is 7-1-1 in games played at 6 p.m. or before in 2003 and 1-5-6 in games starting after 6 p.m. The Spirit's WUSA Semifinal game on Sunday kicks off at 6 p.m. ET, which may be a good omen for the team.

RECORDS ARE BROKEN - The Spirit set the team record for most home wins in a season with six on Saturday. In addition to setting the home wins record; the club surpasses the total wins (8), and total points (31) records with the win. San Diego finished the season just two goals shy of tying the club record for goals in a season with 29. The Spirit also set a record for fewest goals allowed in a season by holding Washington to only one goal on Saturday; the team allowed 26 goals. San Diego also set records for most shots (292), offside for (83) and against (63), corner kicks (94) and cautionary cards (27). Individually, Kerry Connors and Kim Pickup tied Shannon Boxx's single-season record of most games started (21) by starting in Saturday's match. Lisa Krzykowski tied the previously mentioned Boxx, Connors and Pickup by playing in 21 games this season.

SPIRIT SEASON SNAPSHOTS - San Diego defense ranks second in the WUSA (1.20 goals allowed per game) while the team's offense ranks seventh (1.30 goals per game...San Diego is 16-1-7 all-time when scoring the first goal... San Diego is 12-0-4 when leading at the half and 16-0-0 when leading at the 75th minute mark all-time...San Diego ended a three-game winless streak and finished the season with a six-game home-unbeaten streak... San Diego set an all-time season attendance record as 63,547 fans passed through the Torero Stadium turnstiles for an average of 5,777 fans per game.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from August 12, 2003


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