Sports stats



Spirit Ties CyberRays, 2-2, as MacMillan and Fleeting Score

July 14, 2002 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Diego Spirit News Release


SAN DIEGO (Sunday, July 16, 2002) - The San Diego Spirit got world-class goals from Shannon MacMillan and new signing Julie Fleeting, but the Brazilian connection came through once again for San Jose with Pretinha and Katia scoring as the teams tied 2-2 on a glorious, sunny afternoon at Torero Stadium.

"There's no magic formula," said Spirit interim head coach Kevin Crow. "It's getting players to understand that for 90 minutes you have to concentrate out there. You can't allow good players space and time. In this sport, the ball has a funny way of bouncing the wrong way, but it is disappointing getting a draw after being up 2-1."

It looked like it would be another long day for the Spirit as the CyberRays scored in the just the 5th minute as Kim Clark beat the Spirit back line easily by slipping a pass behind the defense to Pretinha, who had an uncontested run at goal. She pushed ball past committed Spirit goalkeeper Carly Smolak and rolled it into the open net from seven yards out.

The Sprit equalized two minutes later on what might be a candidate for goal of the year in the WUSA as MacMillan smacked a vicious, knuckling 35-yard free-kick that powered its way across the goal, off the hand of LeKeysia Beene and into the upper left corner.

"Mac caught LaKeysia inching a bit to far out and she struck it so pure," said Foudy. "It was a great goal."

"I just hit the heck out of it and it swerved away from her," said MacMillan.

Katia terrorized the Spirit defense all match and in the 10th minute she got behind the Spirit defense, but with Joy Fawcett in tow, and hit a shot that was snagged by Smolak, making her first ever start for the Spirit in place of Jaime Pagliarulo. Smolak had a solid game, making five saves.

In the 22nd minute, a long pass bounced past Rhiannon Tanaka and Amy Sauer on the right flank to Katia, who saw Pretinha open in the middle, but a hustling Shannon Boxx cleared the cross away for a corner kick.

In the 50th minute, Fleeting played a pass to Kester into the right side of the penalty area. Kester hit a cross that flew through the goal mouth and was run down by Zhang Ouying, who passed the ball back to halftime substitute Margaret Tietjen, but her blistering shot caught Beene right in the midsection.

Fleeting, the all-time leading scorer for the Scotland women's national team started her first match for the Spirit and scored her first WUSA goal in the 59th minute. MacMillan hit a cross from the top of the penalty area on the right side that skipped through to Fleeting, who took a touch past Thori Bryan and cracked a blistering shot off the underside of the crossbar that bounced down and into the net.

"It's unbelievable here at Torero Stadium," said Fleeting. "The fans had some Scotland flags and it was fantastic welcoming. It's a great place to play football and I'm delighted to be here."

She almost got another three minutes later as Zhang dug a ball out of the left corner and slipped a cross into the middle for Fleeting. Beene challenged for the cross and cut down Fleeting as she went for the ball, but referee Ricardo Salazar did not whistle for a penalty kick.

Salazar would be involved in a bizarre play that equalized the match for the CyberRays in the 69th minute. The Spirit let a high ball bounce in the left side of the penalty area as Smolak came charging out. Anna Kraus failed to clear it, and Smolak couldn't get to it, as Katia swooped in and took the ball to the end line. As Smolak scrambled to get back into the goal, Katia danced around Kraus, then cut a pass back into the middle that was poorly cleared by the Spirit. The ball bounced to Sissi, who cracked a point-blank left-footed shot that was cleared off the line by Shannon Boxx. Pretinha then hammered that rebound into the roof of the net, but Salazar ruled that the ball had hit Boxx's arm, not her chest as Boxx claimed, waived off the goal, gave Boxx a red card and the CyberRays a penalty kick. Katia then rolled her shot into the right corner to tie the game.

"We didn't play our best, we never found a rhythm," said Spirit captain Julie Foudy. "But we battled hard and scored two very good goals. That's a good sign in that we still got a point. I thought the penalty kick call was very unfortunate. Too give a red card and a penalty kick was too much. Give them the goal, but don't give them both."

The Spirit was forced to play a woman down for about 20 minutes as the CyberRays attacking relentlessly looking for a win, out-shooting the Spirit 9-1 on the power play, but some tough and scrambling Spirit defense kept San Jose off the board.

With the tie, the Spirit dropped to 3-8-4 (13 points) and sit alone in 7th place in the WUSA. The CyberRays moved to 6-5-4 (22 points) on the season and are in a three-way tie for third place.

The Spirit hits the road next week and will play at the New York Power on Saturday, July 20, in a game broadcast live on Channel 4 San Diego at 4 p.m. PT, but will have to play without Boxx, who is suspended for that match, as well as Julie Foudy, Fawcett and MacMillan, who will join the U.S. Women's National Team on Tuesday for their match against Norway on July 21 in Blaine, Minn. The Spirit faces Washington at RFK Stadium on July 27 and then does not return home until July 31 to face the Atlanta Beat at 7 p.m. at Torero Stadium.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from July 14, 2002


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central