Professional
League
News

WUSA Teams

Atlanta Beat

Bay Area CyberRays

Boston Breakers

Carolina Tempest

New York Power

Philadelphia Charge

San Diego Spirit

Washington Freedom

San Diego Spirit give up two goals in the first eight minutes, but battle back to earn a tie

San Diego Spirit 2, Carolina Courage 2

Torero Stadium, San Diego, Calif.

Aug. 12, 2001 - 4 p.m. PT Kickoff

Attendance: 6,155 (Sell out). Weather: Sunny - 80°F.

Scoring:

Carolina - Burt (Riise ) 59 seconds

Carolina – 17. Burtini (Fotopoulos ) 8 minutes

San Diego 8. MacMillan (Foudy) 57

San Diego –8. MacMillan (Wen) 92

Spirit –

18. Pagliarulo, Jaime

13. Tietjen Margaret (20. Tanaka, Rhiannon 60),

3. Fan Yunjie (10. Kester, Sherrill 83),

7. Wen Lirong,

14. Fawcett, Joy

15. Boxx, Shannon

11. Foudy Julie - Captain,

12. Macaro Jen (9. Arkenberg, Traci 73),

8. MacMillan, Shannon

21. Koleski, Tara

19. Akide, Mercy (6. Montoya, Erin 43).

Courage –

2. Luckenbill, Kristin

3. Burt, Staci

4. Overbeck, Carla_Captain

27. Wilson, Staci

18. Bengtsson, Kristin

10. Riise, Hege

23. Baxter, Erin

5. Roberts, Tiffany

6. Fotopoulos, Danielle

17. Burtini, Silvana

28. Florance, Meredith (20. Hendershot, Maren, 41, 13. Yohe, Sarah 73)

Officials:

Referee: Arnold Baldeaux

Referee's Assistants

Sharon Wheeler

Sandra Belmont

4th: Debbie Hoelscher

Statistical	Spirit	Courage
Shots	12	4
Saves	4	13
Corner Kicks	6	2
Fouls	11	18
Offside	7	1

Game Report:

Game

The Spirit gave up the quickest goal in WUSA history as Courage defender Burt scored just 59 seconds into the game. Riise side-stepped Margaret Tietjen in midfield and before playing a pass to who hit it first-time from 15 yards.

Courage made it 2-0 in the eighth minute after Fotopoulos crossed Burtini who tapped the ball from three yards out.

Just five minutes into the second half, MacMillan was in on goal before Bengtsson chopped her down from behind. Referee Baldeaux ejected Bengtsson and awarded a penalty kick. Foudy hit the right post and the ball bounced away.

With the Courage down a player the Spirit pulled a goal back in the 57th minute when Foudy lofted ball to Shannon MacMillan who put her first-time shot past Luckenbill.

The Spirit would equalize until two minutes into stoppage time as MacMillan bent a shot from a sharp anglewhich deflected off a defender and into the net. One minute later the season was over.

Other

The Courage played the last eight minutes with just nine players after captain Overbeck was ejected for hitting Koleski in the face after Koleski fouled her from behind. Against just nine players the Spirit dominated.