Game 1 - Breakers at Torero [R]

Here is what european soccer dot com has to say about the first game match up:

Saturday, April 5, 2003 - Boston Breakers at San Diego Spirit - 9:00 p.m. (ET) - Cox 4 (San Diego)

(Season Series: First Meeting) (All-time Series History: San Diego leads 4-1-1)

Boston and San Diego square off in a rematch of the WUSA's highest scoring game (5-4; July 6, 2002). San Diego's Julie Foudy registered two goals in the match, including the game-winning penalty kick goal during stoppage time. In fact, 14 total goals were scored during the last two meetings between these two teams (July 6 and July 10, 2002).

Key Players to Watch:
Boston's Kristine Lilly (8g, 13a, 29 pts. in 2002) finished last season riding a WUSA-record 10-game point-scoring streak. Lilly holds the team record for points scored in a game (5) after registering two goals and an assist versus San Diego (July 6, 2002).
Forward Maren Meinert (7g, 16 a, 30 pts. in 2002) led the Breakers in scoring and finished tied for fourth among the league's scoring leaders. Meinert set the WUSA record for assists in a season after notching 16 in 2002.
Forward Dagny Mellgren (11g, 2a, 24 pts. in 2002) was the team's leading goal scorer for the second straight season last year. Mellgren's 22 goals are more than any other player in Boston's history.

San Diego's Shannon MacMillan (5g, 8a, 18 pts. in 2002) led the Spirit in both goals and assists last season.
Midfielder Aly Wagner (1st overall pick in the 2003 WUSA Draft) will look to add a spark to San Diego's offense in 2003. Wagner, the 2002 MAC Hermann Trophy Award winner, will be the Spirit's "field general" this season.
San Diego midfielder Foudy (5g, 4a, 14 pts. in 2002) was tied for the team lead in goals scored (5) during the 2002 campaign. The U.S. national team captain has logged more minutes than any other player in a Spirit uniform (3,445).

Key Matchup:
(Boston midfielder Kristine Lilly versus San Diego defender Joy Fawcett) - Lilly will look to extend her league-record, 10-game point-scoring streak this weekend. Fawcett will lead San Diego's defense, looking to improve on a defense that allowed 2.00 goals per game in 2002.

The "Inside Scoop":
San Diego holds a 3-0-0 record at Torero Stadium. This match will mark the coaching debuts for the San Diego's Omid Namazi and Boston's Pia Sundhage. Boston's "Big 3" will look to continue to dominate offensively. The three players combined for 72 percent of the Breaker's 36 goals in 2002. San Diego will have a new look this season as the team will sport a blue jersey with blue shorts at home. Along with the uniform change, the team will feature nearly a half-a-dozen new faces , including Wagner, Christine Latham (Canada) and Daniela (Brazil).

They Said it: "We are anxious to get the season going, and get off to a good start, especially at home. I know we'll keep improving as the season goes on and I'm looking forward to watching the team come together." - San Diego Head Coach Omid Namazi on the start of the 2003 WUSA season.

Referee: Kari Seitz. Referee Assistants: Emiliano Monje, Sandra Belmont. 4th Official: Bryan Elliott.

 

The Breakers beat the Freedom 4-2 in their last tune up game yesterday. I'm not sure what that means, considering that their opponents substituted liberally.

http://www.washingtonfreedom.com/350701.html

 

There is a new article at the WUSA site on Boston becoming more defensive minded. I wonder how much that will affect their offense...

http://www.wusa.com/press_room/351072.html

 

Breakers come to town

CSN article on the first game, and how the two teams are similar in not having made the playoffs, etc.

http://www.cybersoccernews.com/wusa/sandiego/030403sandiego-bostadv.shtml

 

Breaker forum thread

The Breaker forum just started a thread for the game...

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=42408

***

They should feel right at home during the game, as the temperature is expected to be in the mid to low 60s.

 

Zhang has made it into town. She was late for a number of reasons, including waiting for a flight from Beijing instead of Hong Kong, because of the SARS situation...

 

Spirited Soccer has it listed, along with the Ch4 schedule, in this thread:

http://www.spiritedsoccer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240&sid=e259ff7c75b67a9f1564918a3d2438c8

So the first Orange County broadcast isn't until the 27 April game...

 

This was a weird game - it actually could have ended up with a score like the last time these two teams tangled in San Diego.

Boston did deserve the win. Their midfielders did a good job of hounding Aly and Julie - there always seemed to be 3 or 4 players right on top of them as soon as they received the ball, and both Meinert and Mellgren were extremely dangerous the entire game. Their first score came off a corner kick, with the kick going to the far side of the box, being headed back the other way into the middle, and then being headed in. The second came on a through pass to the right that Meinert did a good job of scoring on. Some people thought that it was offside, but I didn't. Boston was caught offside a lot, though.

Boston could have been given two penalty kicks for times that players went down in the box - but they also could have been given yellow cards for dives. And LeBlanc was very lucky not to be called for handling the ball outside the box (assuming that I understand the rule - it appeared that she reached outside box to grab the ball before a Spirit player could get to in, with her feet just inside the box.)

The Spirit defense did look shaky.

 

I hope that the rest of you trying to tape the game kept an eye on things, as channel 4 started showing the game 15 minutes before 10pm!