What is it about this Courage team that has our number. They are the only team to have beaten our Beat thus far in the season, and now they have dealt us a draw. We have one more chance to beat this team and I hope we will have a healthy team to do it with. Heck, Carolina is in last place.
Going into this match, we knew that the Beat would be severely short-handed. Sun Wen is still battling an ankle injury and she didn't even make the trip. Marci Miller was injured in the Spirit match and is out for the season. Cindy Parlow was out due to a red card in the previous match. Brianna Scurry is still hurt and while in Carolina, she didn't play. Amy Walsh and Sharolta Nonen were surely a little tired from their European tour, but they started. Charmaine Hooper, who scored Canada's lone goal in a 9-1 loss to Norway, didn't start, though she did come in at halftime. Essentially, this was Atlanta's "B" offensive team playing today with only one of the Big Four (Homare Sawa) starting the match.
Fortunately, the defense as strong as usual. Nonen didn't show any signs of fatigue as her hustle circumvented what could have been possible Courage scoring opportunities. In the 6th minute, she did a good job of forcing Meredith Florance outside on a run in the box. It forced a tough angle shot which went away harmlessly. Nonen also caused Danielle Fotopoulos fits as she constantly made good runs into space. Kryzkowski also did an excellent job on Fotopoulos, particularly during a dangerous play in the 16th minute where, without a good shield on Fotopoulos, she goes in and takes a shot on Beat keeper Melanie Wilson. Kylie Bivens' defense was also commendable and vital to holding the Courage to one goal. Although Dayna Smith wasn't promiment in this match, the defense was solid, as usual. The Beat defense remains the best in the league.
The offense, while not able to sustain its play as well as might be desired, did create several dangerous chances, despite only having one of the big four starting. Sawa Homare's quickness created the Beat's first scoring opportunity of the match when she intercepted a pass just outside the box. Unfortunately, she rushed her shot and it weakly rolled to Kristin Luckenbill, the Courage keeper. Kerry Gragg had an opportunity as the first half was coming to a close. Bivens gave her a great ball in the box. Unfortunately, Gragg couldn't pull the trigger as two Courage defenders closed in on her, allowing Luckenbill to come up and collect the ball. The match went into halftime tied at 0.
Where the first half seemed rather lackluster from both sides, both teams turned up the play a notch in the second half. Hooper, after coming in at the beginning of the second half, provided the best scoring chance of the match to that point when she bolted into the box, created space for herself and rocketed the ball of where the post meets the crossbar. There is no way Luckenbill would have had a chance of getting that bullet off of Hooper's foot were on target, but alas, it bounced harmlessly away after stricking the woodwork.
Five minutes later, Courage midfielder Staci Burt showed it isn't power, it is location, with what looked like a fluke goal. Burt was advancing along the flank after a good pass from Fotopoulos. It looked like Burt was trying to cross the ball to a teammate. Wilson, the Beat keeper, appreared to think that as well. The ball never curled in as would be expected off a right foot and floated into the goal just out of Wilson's reach. Burt looked as surprised as Wilson and as surprised as I was. It looked harmless, but it gave the Courage a 1-0 lead.
At this point, I am thinking, what is going on here? Of all the teams in the league to have our number it would be the team we SHOULD have a rivalry with due to proximity, AND a team that is in last place in the league. Soccer is a funny game, isn't it.
Fortunately, the Beat didn't give up. They kept up the fight. In the 65th minute, Nikki Serlenga made a dangerous cross to Kelly Cagle in the box. Cagle got her head on the ball, but put it just over the crossbar. The team was showing hope of getting the equalizer. The equalizer came eight minutes later complements of Canadian international Hooper. The play began with a punt from Wilson to Cagle in the midfield. She turned and volleyed an awesome ball to Kylie Bivens. It was a ball Pele would have been proud of. Bivens took the ball and passed it over the Courage defense to Hooper who calmly lobbed it over Luckenbill with her left foot. Match tied 1-1.
The Beat weren't done yet, they were going for the win. Just three minutes after the goal, Nancy Augustyniak sent in a beautiful ball to Hooper which set up a corner. Unfortunately, nothing came of the corner. In the 83 minute, Hooper broke the defense at the edge of the area. She made a beautiful ball to Serlenga, who made a well-timed trailing run, at the penalty spot. Unfortunately, a Serlenga miskick sent the ball harmlessly wide to the right. Finally, in the 88th minute, Sawa had the ball in the area and it appreared she may have been fouled. Coach Tom Stone sure was livid. It may have been a cumulation of things as a second look at the play was inconclusive at best.
Like the last match, this was largely the "B" team. Road draws are ok so long as you are winning at home. Fortunately, home wins are now becoming common, and draws on the road a given. Keep this up, and the Beat will stay right up there with the Power in the battle for the regular season championship. This draw leaves the Beat behind the Power by two and ahead of the third place Charge by three. Next week's match on the cement at Philly is vital to hold onto second and to keep pressure on New York. Unfortunately, Parlow and Serlenga are lost to U.S. national team duty, and the three Canadians (Walsh, Nonen, and Hooper) may potentially be called up for national team duty as well. I hope Sun doesn't play on the Philly cement. This will leave our team even more depleated than it was this week. So long as the Beat can get through this week, everyone (except Miller) should be back for the July 7th match against the Washington Freedom (Mia Who?), and hopefully, for the homestretch as the playoffs approach in late August. GO BEAT!