Spirit to Face the Atlanta Beat in WUSA Semifinal on Sunday

August 10, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Diego Spirit News Release


SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Spirit will make its WUSA playoff debut against the Atlanta Beat on Sunday, August 17, at 3 p.m. PT at Herndon Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., before a national television audience on ESPN2. The Beat tied the New York Power, 1-1, today while the Boston Breakers defeated the San Jose CyberRays, 1-0, giving Boston the regular season championship. Third-seeded San Diego will now face second-seed Atlanta while the Washington Freedom, which finished the regular season in fourth place, will travel to Boston for the first playoff semifinal on Saturday, Aug. 16, at 1 p.m. PT live on PAX TV.

The Spirit had an 0-1-2 record against Atlanta this season, including a tie and a loss at Herndon Stadium. Atlanta is the only team to make the playoffs in all three WUSA seasons. Like San Diego, Boston is making its first playoff appearance.

The Spirit (8-6-7, 31 points) will depart San Diego on Friday in preparation for its first ever WUSA playoff match. Led by U.S. National Team goalkeeper Briana Scurry and Canadian National Team forward Charmaine Hooper, the Beat (9-4-8, 35 points) had the league's stingiest defense (only 19 goals allowed) while boasting the second best offense (34 goals scored) and by far the best goal difference at plus-15.

Atlanta is operated by Cox Enterprises, the parent company of Cox Communications, the operators of the Spirit. The teams have played classic matches in the past with Atlanta holding a 4-2-3 advantage in the all-time series.

"Atlanta is a very good team and I have a lot of respect for them," said Spirit head coach Omid Namazi. "The first time we played them we were up 1-0 until the last ten minutes. I think we are a much better team now then we were earlier in the season and in a one-game situation a soccer match can go either way. It's a tough place to play, but we feel confident that we can go in there and get a winning result."

A brief look at the WUSA postseason follows: Date Matchup Time Network (Live)
August 16 #4 Washington at #1 Boston 1 p.m. PT PAX
August 17 #3 San Diego at #2 Atlanta 3 p.m. PT ESPN2

Following the one-game WUSA Playoff Semifinals, the winners advance to Founders Cup III in San Diego on Sunday, August 24, to battle for the WUSA title. ESPN2 will broadcast the championship game live from Torero Stadium at 1 p.m. PT.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from August 10, 2003


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