What is it about the Washington Freedom coming to down that brings out the best in exciting soccer? This was another exciting match. The Beat showed its resiliance, coming from behind twice and scoring the game-winning goal in the last ten minutes (the fifth match in a row the Beat scored in the final twenty minutes of the match).
Without Hooper (serving a red card suspension) and Sun (still recovering from an ankle injury), the Beat were in a familiar position, short-handed. This didn't deter the Beat however, as they came right out and pressured the Freedom defense and their goalkeeper, national team starter, Siri Mullinix. As early as the second minute, Kelly Cagle forced Mullinix to go to work, as she placed a shot, albeit weak, on goal. Six minutes later, Cindy Parlow show that she has good ball-handling skills by taking the ball from the mid to about the 18. Unfortunately, she was dispossessed of the ball by two Freedom defenders. Another minute later (the 9th minute), Sawa Homare stole the ball (like we have never seen that before) and ripped a ball from 22 yards out.
Early on, things were looking pretty good. Unfortunately, in the 11th minute, Washington showed how dangerous they can be. Mia Hamm took a corner. Scurry punched the ball out. Unfortunately, the Beat defense was unable to collect and clear. Defender Jen Grubb served the ball back in the box to Mexican national team member Monica Gerardo, who shot the ball past a helpless Scurry. Terrible breakdown in the Beat defense, the best in the league throughout the season. Scurry could point at herself however as all of this happened after she misjudged a ball coming into the box and consequently pushed the ball out of bounds.
The Beat have too much character to let this set them back. The attack continued. In the 15th minute, Emily Burt headed a ball served in by Sawa into the upper-left corner of the goal. Mullinix made the save for the Freedom. Four minutes later, Cindy Parlow, showing more of her underrated ball skills, beat two defenders in the box, including the Chinese international star Bai Jie (perhaps we can teach the Fox Sports people how to pronounce her name correctly). She fed the ball to the middle between two more defenders where Burt adjusted to get to the ball and rocket a shot off of the crossbar. Just two minutes after that, Sawa got the ball in the mid, sent Parlow a beautiful lead pass. Parlow simply blew past Hamm on the flank and touched the ball through the six, just wide of the goal. The Beat clearly carried the play following the first Washington goal, and it finally paid off in the 24th minute.
From the defensive end, Serlenga sprung a counter, laying a perfect ball to Lisa Krzykowski up the right side. She powered by Bai at the outer edge of the box on the side of the goal. She calmly put the ball past Mullinix, who had no chance to make the save. Match tied 1-1.
The Beat continued the pressure following the goal. Four minutes after the goal, Serlenga chipped a beautiful ball to Kylie Bivens at the top of the box. She headed the ball down to Burt who was called offside. After looking at the replay three times, I think it is clear that Bai, who was on the other side of the box, kept her onside. Burt put the ball past Mullinix, but unfortunately, the goal was called back.
In the 31st minute, Hamm and the Freedom made the Beat pay again. Hamm made a nice pass into Pretinha inside the six. Scurry made a kick save a la Patrick Roy. Unfortunately, once again, the defense didn't clean up, and Michelle French put it past Scurry. 2-1 Freedom.
Once again undaunted, the 'Dirty South Darth Vaderettes' (as they have been dubbed by some online) kept up the offensive pressure. Three minutes after the Freedom goal, Parlow headed a loose ball from about 10 yards out toward the right corner of the goal. Mullinix, who may have played her best match this season, made another save. You couldn't keep these ladies off the scoreboard this evening. In the 37th minute, a Parlow shot was headed out of the box. Bivens shot the loose ball from thirty. Sawa redirected the ball past Mullinix. 2-2 tie again. If you have a tape of the match, following the goal, I was on TV in the stands with my "Mia Who?: Go Beat!" sign.
The Beat weren't satisfied with going into the locker room with a 2-2 tie. They wanted to lead at the half. Two minutes after the goal, Sawa got yet another loose ball at the top of the circle. She was stopped, but Parlow collected the loose ball in the box after what looked like a hand ball by Bai and proceeded to shoot the ball over the crossbar. Two minutes later, Parlow ripped another shot, this time from 25 yards out with PLENTY of space. The shot went just left of the goal. One minute later, the fandom of the Beat Nation held its collective breath as Sawa got leveled by Lindsay Stoecker. She got smacked hard on the jaw. Sawa, ever the trooper, got up, shaked it off and continued to terrorize the Freedom. In the 44th minute, Parlow broke the defenseand got the ball to Burt on the flank. Burt centered it back to Parlow, but the ball rolled just out of Parlow's reach. During added time, Bivens carried from the mid and shot from 25 just wide left.
The first half had what I think is the best sustained offense by the Beat this season. Were it not for Mullinix, and the crossbar, it could have been 3 or 4 to 2 at the half. Halftime itself was interesting for once. There was a mascot soccer match. My favorite non-Beat mascots were there (Zhuzhu, the Giant Panda from ZooAtlanta as well as the Chick-Fil-A Cow.) Both played in goal. Apparently, Bang thought it was rugby as he carried the ball toward the goal. However, the feature at halftime was the booting of one of the three mascots off the island. I voted to get rid of Bang, but he lives to see another mascot council as the fans voted off Rave. So long to the pink jumpsuit.
The second half was nearly as exciting as the first half. Washington got the better of the scoring chances during the first ten minutes. In the 54th minute, Hamm found Brazilian international Pretinha at the 18, but she was tackled and the ball was forced over the goal line. Nothing threatening happened with the ensuing corner kick.
The Beat soon re-established control over the flow of play. In the 59th minute, Bai played the ball back into the box. Sawa intercepted the ball and shot from eight yards. Mullinix made the save to keep the game tied. A couple of minutes later, Rave tried to re-enter the stadium (shown on the big screen a la WWF), but was caught by the police. Nice try Rave. Shortly thereafter, Nikki Serlenga collected a loose ball about 35 yards from goal. She pushed it to Bivens who served it to Parlow by the penalty spot. She redirected the ball on net, forcing Mullinix to make a diving save.
To say that the Freedom were without their chances would be wrong. Two minutes after Mullinix's diving save, French served the ball to Bai who headed it from eight yards just over the crossbar. In the 68th minute, Hamm tried to get in on goal, but Sharolta Nonen wouldn't let her get to the ball at the corner of the box by the goal line.
The Beat came back with another chance in the 70th minute. Serlenga served the ball from the half to Nancy Augustyniak at the corner of the box. She chested the ball down and carried the ball to the side of the six. Her show was saved by Mullinix. Cagle shot the rebound toward goal, but once again, Mullinix was up to the task. Nine minutes later, an Augustyniak throw-in found Parlow who then got the ball to Bivens in the arc. Bivens shot rolled six inches wide right.
In the 80th minute, Sawa had another hard collision, this time with Emmy Barr. It looked like her jaw was smacked again. She, as always, got up and shook it off. Personally, I like her hustle, but if she doesn't have a chance at the ball, I would like her to hold off on some of her challenges. She is going to get hurt one of these days.
Immediately following Sawa's second collision was the deciding sequence of the match. Bai gave Hamm a beautiful chip into space. Hamm chipped the ball over Scurry and it looked like the Freedom were fixin' to take a 3-2 lead. Fortunately, as one of our shots hit the crossbar earlier, her shot bounded into the post, cleared by Dayna Smith. Burt got the ball from the Smith clear who got the ball to Cagle down the right side between two defenders into space. Cagle carried the ball to the six where she took the shot that rocked the Beat Nation. She placed it past Mullinix and wham the Beat have their first lead of the match.
We know crazy things can happen at the end of the match, as Liu showed us last week, but the Beat held on to the 3-2 lead and took sole possession of first place with the New York Power losing at Bay Area. While many of the nearly 19,000 in attendence were Mia Hamm fans, the support for the Beat seems to be growing. There were a few anti-Mia signs as well. My favorite was "Hamm: It's whats for dinner." Please don't take this as us hating Mia or anything. When she dons the uni for the United States, we are all behind her, but when she suits up against our Beat, she is the enemy.
I must say this about the Beat players. They are wonderful about hanging at the field after the match to sign autographs and talk with fans. Even Sawa, who had as much reason to run inside and take care of her jaw as anyone, stayed out, signed autographs and talked with fans. I had a rather memorable exchange with her. She was being filmed by a Japanese television crew, and one of the Japanese asked me what I thought of Sawa-san. I said that I really liked the way she played and that she is my second favorite player on the team. Sawa quipped and said oh come on... I said back, "you know who my favorite player is". She said "I know." It was a good natured exchange. I really like Sawa. She is very personable and a wonderful player to watch play. I also met Sun Wen's translater (a Chinese man from Beijing), and had brief conversations with Sun Wen, Sharolta Nonen, and Lisa Krzykowski.
Afterward, some of us working on developing a Beat Supporters Club, the "Beat Brigade" met at Jock's and Jill's on 10th and Peachtree at Midtown. The Augustyniak twins spent about ten minutes chatting with us. Other players stopped by briefly as well. I must say that this was a wonderful experience. How can you not like this team? The play an entertaining style of soccer, and it is very physical. This team does not play "powder puff" soccer. They are also playing more and more like a team that works together and we are beginning to see the results. They are also wonderful ladies who are very personable and approachable. Not like athletes in other sports who do everything the can to separate themselves from the masses. Not the Beat. They rock, and will bring Atlanta a championship this year.