The following story was published in the Providence Journal on August 26, 2001.
CyberRays
out shoot Beat for first WUSA title
By Shalise Manza Young
FOXBORO
-- In a nail-biting conclusion featuring two women made famous by a previous
penalty-kick situation, yesterday's inaugural WUSA Championship was decided
by a shootout.
And it was Brandi Chastain's Bay Area CyberRays that got the best of it, four
shots to two, and raised the Founders' Cup as the first league champions with
a 4-3 win over Briana Scurry's Atlanta Beat.
Australian national Julie Murray scored a first-half goal and made the game-winning
penalty kick to take MVP honors. Last week she scored two goals in the semifinal
win against New York.
Chastain, who got the championship-winning penalty kick against China in the
1999 Women's World Cup, was slated to take the fifth shot for her team, but
it never came down to that. She would have faced Scurry, who made the one save
in that WWC shootout that the Americans needed.
Chinese star Sun Wen, who lined up first for the Beat, found her offering stopped
by Rays keeper LaKeysia Beene, who was named WUSA keeper of the year last week.
Bay Area co-captain Tisha Venturini went first, hitting her shot to the lower
left corner, freezing Scurry. Midfielder Nikki Serlenga equalized for Atlanta.
Then the CyberRays went up, 2-1, on a chip shot by defender Carey Dorn.
The Beat were effectively finished when leading scorer Charmaine Hooper, who
had lit up Bay Area for a hat trick in their last meeting, missed her kick wide
right.
"I don't normally go to that side," Hooper said, choking back tears. "I was
absolutely shocked because I've never missed a penalty kick before. I can't
say what happened. I just missed it."
The teams traded shots, setting the stage for Murray. As for Chastain's missed
opportunity to duplicate her 1999 feat: "Thank God it didn't come to that,"
she said.
The teams had finished tied at the end of the regular season, and Atlanta got
the first seed in the playoffs by virtue of its 2-0-1 record against Bay Area.
The high-scoring affair was surprising, given that Atlanta and Bay Area had
the top two defenses in the league this season. But, as Chastain said, the forwards
on both sides were "world-class finishers" and showed their skills often.
Before 15 minutes had passed, three goals had already been scored.
The Rays struck first, with Chastain deflecting a hard shot by Kelley Lindsey
into the net with the back of her head in the sixth minute.
Five minutes later, Kylie Blivens scored for Atlanta. From the left side of
the box, Homare Sawa crossed to Nancy Augustyniak, who passed to Blivens 10
yards in front of the goal. Blivens quickly unloaded her shot past Beene.
Scurry would have a hand in the Beat's second score, scooping up a long ball
from the Rays' Katia, and booming it past midfield. Cindy Parlow headed the
ball ahead to Hooper, and the Canadian lofted the ball over Beene, who had come
out to challenge.
Murray tied the game at 2-2 just before halftime, dribbling in from 25 yards
out off a long through ball from Christina Bell. She beat Scurry with a right-footed
shot.
Each team had a couple of chances in the second half, but it looked as though
Atlanta may have gotten the game-winner in the 83rd minute. A free kick by Serlenga
was headed toward Sun at the left post, and Sun dribbled around Bay Area forward/defender
Gina Oceguera, putting her low shot inside the opposite post.
Again, the lead was short-lived, and Venturini knotted the score when Serlenga
couldn't clear the ball well enough 12 yards in front of the Beat net.
The two 71/2-minute overtime periods were uneventful.
"This is new for me to be at this end of things, but I have nothing but pride
and admiration for my teammates," Scurry said. "When Sun scored in the 83rd
minute, it was the job of her teammates to keep that lead, and we didn't do
it."
"When I scored the third goal, I thought, 'Now if we can hang on and win,' "
Sun said through an interpreter. "When I missed the penalty kick, I didn't think
about the consequences because I very rarely miss penalties in practice."
Scurry said she was ready to go for the shootout, but "I was hoping it wouldn't
come to that. It's an incredible way to win, but it's also an incredible way
to lose."
Bay Area coach Ian Sawyers, who saw his team go from a 1-4 start to the league
title, called the Beat "an incredible team that made us run every blade of the
grass today. It's a cruel end to what went on during the game. I wouldn't have
expected either (Hooper or Sun) to miss."
Co-captains Chastain and Venturini said standing on the podium with their teammates
after yesterday's win was their "most awesome moment on a soccer field" -- high
praise for two of the most decorated women in soccer. With yesterday's win,
Venturini became the first women to win soccer's "grand slam" -- an NCAA championship
(with North Carolina), an Olympic gold medal, a World Cup, and the Founders'
Cup.
"We started with something and made something great," Chastain said of the founding
players and investors. "This is for every single player, every coach, every
staff member, every single volunteer."