Team returns home for rare springtime game

May 5, 2003 - Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)
San Jose CyberRays News Release


SAN JOSE (May 5, 2003) – Saturday's 7 p.m. home game against the Carolina Courage is the only home game in a six-game stretch for the CyberRays. It has been designated the Lark and Roger Chastain Celebration Game in honor of the late parents of CyberRays captain Brandi Chastain. It honors Lark, who died Sept. 7, and Roger, who died April 8, by benefiting causes that reflect the family values and priorities they promoted as parents. All proceeds from today's youth soccer clinic will benefit Soccer for Hope, which aids children with life-threatening diseases, and the Silicon Valley Children's Hospital Foundation, of which Brandi is a board member. Memorial resolutions from the cities of Saratoga and San Jose, Santa Clara County and the state of California will be presented to Brandi and her brother Chad Chastain.

Week 5 in review: Chastain and Sissi combine for 1-0 victory Sissi didn't start, but when she entered Saturday's game in Atlanta, the momentum immediately switched the CyberRays' way. In the 69th minute, just nine minutes after entering the game, Sissi lofted a 30-yard free kick behind the defense where Brandi Chastain was waiting to head the ball for the game's only score.

Coming in Week 6: First champions match-up A league has to wait at least until its third season for this to happen, and in the WUSA there has never before been a game between former champions. The Carolina Courage is struggling under new coach Jay Entlich and has started off 0-3, but the team had last weekend off to straighten things out. The CyberRays are 0-3 against Carolina in their last three games. Season series: First meeting. All-time series: 3-3-0, (2-1-0 in Spartan Stadium). Top scorers: CyberRays – Katie Barnes, Tisha Venturini-Hoch and Brandi Chastain (1g = 2pts), Sissi (2a = 2pts); Carolina – Birgit Prinz (2g = 4pts), Danielle Fotopoulos (1g+2a = 4pts). Training schedule this week at West Valley College: Off Today. 1:30 p.m. practice Tuesday-Thursday (about two hours each day). Practice at 10 a.m. Friday at Spartan Stadium.

CyberRays-Carolina series notes: Today's game will be the first-ever meeting between past WUSA champions. The CyberRays won the Founders Cup in the 2001 inaugural season, and Carolina won the trophy last season. ... This series is the WUSA's best barometer as to who the eventual season champion will be. The CyberRays swept all three matches against Carolina in 2001. Last season Carolina won all three games against the CyberRays. ... The series is tied 3-3, but Carolina holds a narrow 10-9 edge in scoring. ... This game is one of two visits by Carolina to Spartan Stadium this season. The Courage will return Wednesday, June 25, for a 7 p.m. match.

Key matchup: CyberRays defender Thori Bryan vs. Atlanta forward Maribel Dominguez. Bryan has been effective since moving inside from the flank, but Dominguez has been a rookie sensation, getting a hat trick in her second WUSA match and leading the league with five goals, scoring in every game she's played.

Ian Sawyers on facing Carolina: ``Caroline with three losses will be a threat to us. They have huge threats with Birgit Prinz and Danielle Fotopoulos, and they're going to be hungry for a victory.''

Game notes

Finally a road victory: The CyberRays won only one game on the road in 2002, and that came on May 5 when they downed the New York Power 1-0 on a Pretinha goal. Saturday's 1-0 victory in Atlanta was the team's first road victory since then, and it came 363 days – two days short of a year – later. It also came in a most unlikely place for a CyberRays road victory. Until Saturday, the CyberRays had never won a game in Atlanta. The CyberRays were winless in the regular season against Atlanta until a 3-1 victory July 10, 2002 at Spartan Stadium, the final game of the team's series last season. The CyberRays now have a two-game winning streak against Atlanta, and they return to Herndon Stadium on May 17. There now is only one opponent that the CyberRays are yet to defeat on the road, the Philadelphia Charge, which is odd because the CyberRays are 4-0 against Philadelphia at Spartan Stadium. Also, the CyberRays defeated the Carolina Courage in 2001 at Chapel Hill, N.C., but they are yet to win at Carolina's new SAS Stadium in Cary, N.C., where they were 0-2 in 2002.

Season starts: The CyberRays' 2-2 start this season matches their best-ever start in 2002 and tracks exactly, with a pair of losses sandwiched between two victories, the second on the road. In their championship season of 2001, the CyberRays started off 1-2-1. Here's a comparison of the first five matches of each season:

Venturini-Hoch dominates: Tisha Venturini-Hoch, who played her college soccer at the University of North Carolina just a few miles from the Carolina Courage's home stadium in Cary, N.C., has dominated the six-game series between the two league champions. Of the nine goals the CyberRays have scored against Carolina, Venturini-Hoch has scored four, more than any player on either team in the series. She became the first CyberRay to be named WUSA Player of the Week when she scored the winning goal in the teams' initial meeting while playing with a cast on her broken wrist. It was the CyberRays first official WUSA victory. She picked up her second goal against Carolina in the second match of 2001. Last season, even though the CyberRays failed to win a game against Carolina, Venturini-Hoch scored in the second and third meetings – both in Cary – and those were two of the three goals the CyberRays got against Carolina in the 2002 season. She was voted by her teammates as 2002 Most Valuable Player and winner of the Heart of a Champion Award. Carolina's Danielle Fotopoulos has been the most troublesome player for the CyberRays in the series with three goals and three assists.

CyberRays-Carolina connections: CyberRays goalkeeper Julie Podhrasky made the roster this season as a tryout player after playing last season as the backup goalkeeper for the Carolina Courage. Two Carolina players once were CyberRays: midfielder Venus James, an Oakland native, who was on the CyberRays in 2001, and defender Danielle Borgman, who played in San Jose last season. James was waived just before the 2002 season and won a tryout position with Carolina. Borgman was traded to the Boston Breakers in February for defender Keri Sanchez but later waived and picked up by Carolina. In addition, Carolina defender Brooke O'Hanley is from Palo Alto, midfielder Tiffany Roberts is from San Ramon, goalkeeper Maite Zabala played college soccer at Cal and defender Danielle Slaton is from San Jose and played college soccer at Santa Clara.

Another Beene shutout: Saturday's 1-0 victory over Atlanta was goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene's second shutout in four games this season and the 14th of her career. That keeps her No.2 in career WUSA shutouts behind Atlanta GK Brianna Scurry, who has 15. Beene and Scurry are atop the WUSA this season with two shutouts each. Beene became the first keeper to hold Atlanta rookie F Maribel Dominguez, the WUSA's leading scorer, without a goal. Atlanta remains the highest-scoring team in the WUSA with 12 goals in four games. Beene leads the WUSA in saves this season with 23 and in save percentage with 88.5 percent.

Sissi misses start: Midfielder Sissi missed only the third start of her WUSA career Saturday at Atlanta. In 2001 Sissi was rested along with a group of usual starters in the final regular-season game of the season at Atlanta. She played the second half of that 4-0 loss. The CyberRays had already clinched a home game in the WUSA playoffs. Last season Sissi subbed in the 79th minute of the Aug. 7 game at Philadelphia, the next-to-last game of the season, which was a 1-1 tie.

Offense has slow start: Although the CyberRays are 2-2 after four games, equaling their best-ever start in 2002, their offense has been slow to catch fire. The CyberRays are tied with the winless Carolina Courage for fewest goals in the WUSA with only three, a scoring pace of only 0.75 goals per game. The CyberRays were not a high-scoring team last season, tying for fifth in goals scored. That was despite leading the WUSA in shots and shots on goal. This season there is more of a correlation between attempts and goal production. The CyberRays rank fifth in shots taken and fourth in shots on goal.

Bryan's streak ends: Defender Thori Bryan had played every minute of every CyberRays' game until the April 27 game in San Diego, when she was subbed out in the 78th minute against because of illness. Her streak of consecutive minutes played thus ended at 4,233 minutes. The Washington Freedom's Jen Grubb, who has played every minute of every Washington game, took over the WUSA lead for consecutive minutes played in regular season and playoff games and currently has 4,410 minutes. Kelly Lindsey was the player who replaced Bryan in the San Diego game.

Brazil qualifies with Katia and Pretinha: Katia scored five goals as Brazil defeated Colombia 12-0 last week to win the South American qualifying tournament for this fall's Women's World Cup. Pretinha added two goals in the rout of Colombia. Brazil defeated Argentina 3-2 and Peru 3-0 earlier in the tournament to take the maximum nine points. By finishing second in the tournament with four points, Argentina also qualified for the World Cup.

CyberRays injury update

Thori Bryan (R knee sprain) is questionable; Kelly Lindsey (R knee contusion) is probable.

Quote of the week

``The team has depth. We challenge our starters. We knew it was going to be a very physical game and with Sissi, if she plays 90 minutes, you never know how she will do. It worked for us having her come off the bench.''

- Ian Sawyers on using usual starter Sissi as a substitute against Atlanta.



Women's United Soccer Association Stories from May 5, 2003


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