WUSA week 5 news and notes

by WUSA Press Release
Published on May 16, 2001 under Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA)

WUSA Press Release

WUSA PLAYER OF THE WEEK - TISHA VENTURINI, BAY AREA
"Probable" was how Tisha Venturini was categorized for Sunday's match against the Carolina Courage after coming off the seven-day injured list just two days prior. Seeing action for the first time since the Inaugural Game in Washington, DC on March 14th, Venturini played 79 minutes on Sunday. With Mother and Grandmother looking on, Venturini took a lovely pass from Sissi off her chest and calmly found the corner of the net for the game winner.

WEEK 4 WRAP-UP - IT AIN'T OVER TIL IT'S OVER

Atlanta Beat 1, San Diego Spirit 1
The Beat were on their way to their second straight 1-0 victory behind a goal scored by Charmaine Hooper and the saves of Briana Scurry as the clock ticked into the 83rd minute. San Diego set up for what appeared to be a harmless throw-in, but no throw-in by the Spirit's Kim Pickup should be considered harmless. Using her flip throw method, Pickup sent the ball flying toward the Beat goal. Scurry tried to punch the ball out of the box, but ended up punching it into her own goal for the game-tying goal.

Boston Breakers 2, Washington Freedom 2
Down 2-0 as the game entered the 58th minute all appeared lost for the Breakers. As it turned out, that's just when the comeback began. Maren Meinert struck a blast past a diving Siri Mullinix from 22 yards out to put the Breakers on the board. The score stayed that way until stoppage time when Keri Raygor found the back of the net with just seconds left to knot the game for good. The Freedom had built their lead on goals by Tracey Milburn and Pretinha.

Bay Area CyberRays 2, Carolina Courage 1
You need great players making great plays to win in the WUSA, but don't discount the importance of luck. The CyberRays certainly don't after coming back to defeat the Courage, 2-1. The luck came from an own goal late in the first half. The great play came from WUSA Player of the Week Tisha Venturini, returning from a broken arm, who scored the game-winner off a pass from Sissi. Danielle Fotopoulos converted a penalty kick to give Carolina the early lead.

New York Power 2, Philadelphia Charge 2
Continuing the trend of second half action and late goals, the Power jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Philadelphia behind a scorching free kick from Tiffeny Milbrett and some sweet passing that lead to a Kerry Connors tally. The Charge answered right back on Rebekah McDowell's goal off a rebound from a Gao Hong save. That goal was followed by a number of unfinished chances by the Power, that could have put the game away. Instead the Charge counterattacked leading to a cornerkick that bounced around the box, off a few players, before Rakel Karvelsson knocked it in for the game-tying goal in the 80th minute.

MOVE OVER SIR CHARLES
During halftime of this past Friday night's NBA on TNT playoff game telecast between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors the WUSA's Julie Foudy and Briana Scurry were the special guests of studio hosts Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

A miniature soccer goal was set up in the studio for a showdown between Barkley in goal and Foudy taking the shots. "The Round Mound of Rebound" saved the first shot, but couldn't stop the second attempt. As the crew sent it to commercial Barkley said, "It (the second shot) was so fast, I didn't even see it."

MOVE OVER SIR CHARLES
During halftime of this Friday night's NBA on TNT playoff game telecast between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors the WUSA's Julie Foudy and Briana Scurry will be the special guests of studio hosts Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

TAKING IT TO THE MAX
For each WUSA national televised game one player will be chosen as the ERA Max Player of the Game. In recognition of that player's efforts, ERA Max will make a donation in the amount of $1,000 in the player's name to the Women's Sports Foundation. Below is a list of the winners from this season's games.

Date	Event			ERA Max Player of the Game
April 14	Bay Area at Washington	Siri Mullinix, Washington
April 21	New York at Atlanta	Gao Hong, New York
April 28	Washington at Carolina	Mia Hamm, Washington
May 12	San Diego at Atlanta	Charmaine Hooper, Atlanta

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP
Join hosts JP Dellacamera and Wendy Gebauer for Inside WUSA Soccer on Discovery Channel and CNN/SI at 8:00 am ET/PT this Saturday May 19.

This week's show features:

• Siri Mullinix of the Washington Freedom takes us inside the mind of the goalkeeper.
• Sissi, the gifted Brazilian midfielder for the Bay Area CyberRays, explains the beauty of "Samba Soccer".
• And we find out how former track star Naomi Stone raced to a place in the WUSA with the Carolina Courage.

Plus highlights and analysis of all the great goals, saves and celebrations from a full weekend of WUSA action!

TWICE AS NICE
This past Saturday's showdown between the Washington Freedom and the Boston Breakers was a doubleheader with DC United - the first WUSA-MLS doubleheader in history. The attendance for the Freedom game (based on the number of fans in attendance by halftime of the game) was 21,682, with a total attendance of 35,528 for the doubleheader. WUSA Week 5 News & Notes - Page 3

WE'VE GOT IT ALL COVERED
The WUSA announced that every game played by the league's eight teams will be televised during its inaugural season. The ambitious national and local television package will include more than 250 hours of programming that will be broadcast over a combination of a dozen regional sports and cable affiliates in addition to a 22-game nationally televised package on TNT and CNNSI.

Regional sports networks carrying WUSA games include: AT&T 3, CNNSI-Regional, Cox 4, Comcast SportsNet (Philadelphia and Washington DC), CN8, Fox Sports Bay Area, Fox Sports NY, Fox Sports South, MSG Network, Metro Channel, KICU (San Jose), and WJAL (Washington DC).

WUSA-CHINA RELATIONS
China Central Television (CCTV), the national TV network of the People's Republic of China, will air the remaining 18 WUSA national games shown in the United States currently on TNT and CNNSI.

WUSA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Below is a list of the WUSA Players of the Week from this season.

Week WUSA Player of the Week	Notes
1    Kelly Smith			goal, forced pk
2    Mia Hamm			game-winning goal, assist in return to UNC
3    Shannon MacMillan		first-ever WUSA multiple (2) goal game
4    Tisha Venturini		game-winning goal, returning from injury

WUSA TRANSACTIONS
Boston Breakers: Placed Maren Meinert and Bettina Wiegmann on the national team duty list. Called up Christine McCann from the reserve squad.

San Diego Spirit: Returned Carly Smolak to the reserve squad. Activated Kristin Bengtsson and Ulrika Karlsson from the national team duty list.

WUSA INJURY REPORT
Philadelphia forward Kelly Smith will be sidelined for 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture of her right ankle. The Charge will also be without goalkeeper Melissa Moore for 4-6 weeks due to a fractured right hand.

Carolina's Nicole Roberts will miss the rest of the season with a broken right leg. The Courage placed the midfielder on "Cap Relief".

Women's United Soccer Association Stories from May 16, 2001

• WUSA week 5 news and notes - OSC Original by WUSA Press Release

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.