I suspect this game is on PAX but I'm not sure. Spirit in 5th place, 3 points behind Power, but with a game in hand. Spirit should have all their players back, but of course there's always a hitch. They won't have man of them back until Friday, as our national teamers, including Fleeting, will be at the All-Star game through Thursday. Has our whole squad practiced together once since March? After two consecutive losses, and on the outside looking in in the playoff picture, 3 points is a must.
This will be the first time that former Spirit favorites Tietjen, Boxx, and Smolak will be back in San Diego, along with #2 draft choice Welsh. Mags has a goal and 3 assists, Shannon has 4 assists (and is a reserve on the All-Star team) and Smo has a 3-4 record. Christine has reached her stride and now has 6 goals. The team will have it tough, with 4 key players having to fly back out here and then play an early game on Saturday against a team who only has 2 players having to do the same - and the Power have been on a roll after a tough start. Here is an article on New York's defensive resurgence: http://www.wusa.com/press_room/368786.html
Spirit Aiming to Right Their Ship, by John Philip Wyllie "The Spirit defeated the Power in week two, 2-0, but that seems like a long time ago now. Scotsman Tom Sermanni has New York playing some good soccer. In their last three games, the Power have defeated San Jose twice and tied Philadelphia. As a result, the Power will arrive in San Diego confident and motivated to maintain their fourth place position. The game will be a reunion of sorts and mark the return of former Spirit players: Margaret Tietjen, Shannon Boxx and Carly Smolak. The Spirit’s Jen Nielsen and Kerry Connors once played for New York." http://www.sandiegospirit.com/press_room/spotlight_on/369247.html
Mid-Season Report - - Good news, bad news... "The fate of the Spirit season could turn on this one game against New York. Win, and the team is again in the playoff hunt after a two-game bump in the road; lose, and the team is buried at the bottom of the league in a downward spiral." http://cybersoccernews.com/wusa/sandiego/030618sds-nypadv.shtml
Does anyone else think this is do or die time for SD? Lose this game and we might be in last place. We need some people to step up. Namely the rooks!!! Daniela seems to play at a slow speed and only once have I seen her get pissed and play with the intensity that's she needs to play with. Wagner needs to put her game in high gear and start playing like the #1 pick. Latham is very slow too so she needs to play physical and start feeding Julie Fleeting. Oh, and can Zhang quit missing point blank chances?! Put the ball in the back of the net! At this point, I'm all for pushing Joy Fawcett into the midfield if it would produce more goals. I know that having Pickup (not Tanaka) as the central back might be scary, but c'mon you can't win when you're only scoring by PK!!! The defense gave up two without Fawcett last week which seems bad, but the key was that we didn't score!!!! Plus, what boring soccer!!! I'd rather lose 4-2, than 2-0. After all, have you seen the attendance at Torero Stadium lately? Play 3 in the back with Fawcett at defensive mid, Foudy out right, Wagner at attacking mid, and Sullivan at left. Foudy should be able to serve some crosses in to Fleeting and Sullivan's speed allows her to go up and down the field and wear out the opposition. Also, can I see a three forward look, our two forwards, Fleeting and Latham, do not have the speed to cover the whole field and pressure the defense into mistakes. Anyone care to respond, or have the Spirit faithful already conceded the fate of the season (and perhaps league)?
Don, I gotta correct ya on a couple things... 1) Joey Peters was also at the All-Star game playing for the World team. ...and... 2) Ronnie Fair is also an ex-Power player
Fleeting Hopes Spirit Get Back on Track http://wusa.com/press_room/369599.html *** Boxx returns with an improved Power http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/sports/news_1s21spirit.html Note: It is supposed to be cloudy all day, with the temperature at game town around 63, and humidity around 90%.
San Diego Wins 4-2!!! If NY had shot a little better or the keepers hadn't played as well it could have been something like 6-5! Shannon Boxx impressed me a lot, she has improved a great deal since last season. I also liked Christie Pearce a lot, she looks ready to take over her old outside back spot on the national team. *** Scoring Summary: SD -- own goal (Jaclyn Raveia) 12 NY -- Emily Janss 3 (Anita Rapp 2) 36 SD -- Zhang Ouying 1 (Julie Fleeting 2, Julie Foudy 2) 40 SD -- Julie Fleeting 5 (Aly Wagner 2) 62 NY -- Anita Rapp 1 (Tiffeny Milbrett 3, Christie Pearce 1) 68 SD -- Julie Fleeting 6 (Zhang Ouying 4, Aly Wagner 3) 91+ New York Power -- Saskia Webber, Christie Pearce, Jaclyn Raveia, Cheryl Salisbury, Margaret Tietjen (Lauren Orlandos 84), Emily Janss (Lindsey Jones 84), Shannon Boxx, Joanne Peters (Justi Baumgardt 65), Anita Rapp, Tiffeny Milbrett, Christie Welsh (Tammy Pearman 11). TOTAL SHOTS: 19 (Emily Janss 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 10 (Anita Rapp 3); FOULS: 13 (Anita Rapp 4); OFFSIDES: 1 (Emily Janss 1); CORNER KICKS: 7 (Emily Janss 4); SAVES: 9 (Saskia Webber 9) San Diego Spirit -- Jaime Pagliarulo, Kerry Connors, Joy Fawcett, Kim Pickup, Lisa Krzykowski, Zhang Ouying, Julie Foudy, Aly Wagner, Susan Bush (Allie Sullivan 70), Julie Fleeting, Christine Latham (Ronnie Fair 79). TOTAL SHOTS: 19 (Julie Fleeting 5, Zhang Ouying 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 12 (Julie Fleeting 3, Zhang Ouying 3); FOULS: 7 (Julie Fleeting 2); OFFSIDES: 2 (Julie Fleeting 1, Christine Latham 1); CORNER KICKS: 7 (Aly Wagner 7); SAVES: 8 (Jaime Pagliarulo 8) Misconduct Summary: NY -- Margaret Tietjen (caution) 48 SD -- Julie Foudy (caution) 63 NY -- Saskia Webber (caution) 86 Referee: Jesse Johnson Referee's Assistants: -Chris Strickland; Emiliano Monje 4th Official: Bryan Elliott Attendance: 4,783 Time of Game: 1:52 Weather: Cloudy-and-61-degrees *** Note - I've gotten home from the game and am now watching the PAX broadcast. It is obvious that the ref blew the call on Julie Fleetings header that should have been the second Spirit goal. The replay shows that Fleets did *not* put her hands on the defender in front of her - and the ref gestured to Foudy that was what he called to negate the goal. He blew a number of other calls also, and ended up giving Foudy a yellow card later...
I'm still watching a tape of the PAX broadcast, and the last few minutes shows NY getting a goal with a player offsides, and then Fleeting getting hit in back of the head with a fist - and no call...
Here is the WUSA account of the game: "Pair of Fleeting Goals Lifts Spirit Over Power" http://www.wusa.com/press_room/369855.html
hey- i've been bored out of mind tonight, so i did a little bit of "investigating"....basically, beth mowins mentioned that julie fleeting's bfriend colin stewart is visiting from scotland, and that he plays in the scottish league and a keeper... after some seaching...found his bio: http://www.kilmarnockfc.co.uk/player_info/profiles/stewart.cfm elaine <-- who has no life, yes, no life...lol
Yep, that's him! I got to talk to him before the game, gave him some paper towels to wipe off his seat. He put up the big Scottish flag on the railing - this one did have the phrase 'Tartan Army' on it, but unlike the other one that's been up in the past, it didn't have "Fleeting" on it - but did have "Kilmarnock". A full account of the game has been posted at the Spirit site... http://www.sandiegospirit.com/369860.html
Great game I just came from the game - one of the best San Diego has played all year. After watching NY beat SJ last week, and watching SD self destruct last week without their national team members I was apprehensive today to say the least. However, San Diego controlled the game pretty much from beginning to end. NY did a better job at converting their chances in goals (they had far fewer chances). San Diego started playing a very controlled posession game that seemed to frustrate NY, and obviously worked in the scoring department. Pags played a great game - the first NY goal occured on a thrown in frenzy after Pags had made two brilliant saves in a row, but the NY third shot made it through (no surprise). The first SD goal was recorded as an own goal but was well set up by San Diego and just barely dribbles past the goal line on a bad touch by a defender. While it sounds like the ref called back a SD goal that he shouldn't have (haven't watched the PAX replay yet), overall I thought he called a fair close match. There was a lot of grabbing and shoving and he called everything he saw. Foudy played a good game with lots of intensity - I had to laugh at the yellow she got. She had just got away with literally launching herself up the field by grabbing onto a hapless NY player and spinning her around, when a SD player got tagged for some infraction up the field. She ran up the ref screaming about the call (a harmless free kick in the NY end) and after telling her once to shut up he gave her the yellow. Fleeting was awesome today, but the whole team deserves credit for this win. Everyone played hard, diving for head balls, sliding the ball away on defense, etc.
So, of those who usually play, who didn't get in this march? Neilson and Daniela? Any others? Were they injured or did the coach decide not to play them? I thought we played well--maybe this is our best lineup.
Re: Great game NY 19 shots, SD 19 shots NY 10 SOG, SD 12 SOG Webber 9 saves, Pags 8 saves Did we see the same game? SD controlled the majority of the first half, while NY had the majority in the second. Unless hitting the post now counts as goals, NY didn't do a better job of converting the chances or the result would be a NY win... maybe a tie. SD was the team that did a better job of converting their chances. The only stat that doesn't tell the true story of the game is the scoring.
OK, maybe I was a bit distracted looking after my 2 year old at the game. Maybe the game was more even than I originally stated. But it still did look like San Diego had the upper hand in terms of possession for most of the game.
Only 4,700 at the game? I can't believe that. They were loud! Anyway, that was an excellent game and you can see how the game has picked up since the first season.
Union-Tribune report on the game... http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/sports/news_1s22spirit.html
Jen Nielsen did start to warm up along the side lines during the second half, about the same time that Allie Sullivan was warming up. Daniela looked okay when she was warming up before the game and and half time, so I guess Omid thought she needed to sit out a game.
I'm afraid that Californians are really wusses as far as weather is concerned. It had rained that morning and then there was heavy mist up until about an hour before the game. It didn't rain during the game, but all of the seats were wet. I brought a roll of paper towels and some sliced up thick trash can liners for the people around me to use. There were a lot of empty seats on the south side, where the expensive seats are. Anyway, I think that just the threat of rain caused some people to stay home - I was surprised that there were 4,800 there. What did people think of Christine being 'miked up?'
Re: Re: Spirit v. Power, 1pm, 6/21 I want to hear Fleeting miked up - she thanked the fans after the game, and her accent is just to die for!
Wagner emerges to lift Spirit over New York, by Brian Hiro http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030622/63358.html