Bay Area Shoots to WUSA Title
The WUSA’s first championship game was heading to a shootout, and Brandi Chastain, who has a little experience in these things, had an inkling about how this one was going to go.
“I knew LaKeysia [Beene] would save one, just like I knew Bri would save one in ‘99,” said Chastain, who along with Briana Scurry was a hero of the U.S. World Cup victory two years ago.
Beene stopped Sun Wen in the first round and Charmaine Hooper left-footed hers wide to help the Bay Area CyberRays win the Women’s United Soccer Assn. title with a 4-2 shootout victory over the Atlanta Beat Saturday in front of 21,078 at Foxboro, Mass.
The game was tied, 3-3, at the end of regulation and stayed that way through 15 minutes of overtime.
Chastain, who memorably whipped off her shirt after scoring the winning goal in the World Cup shootout, was on deck for the CyberRays when Julie Murray clinched it. Murray, who also had a goal in regulation, was named the Founders Cup MVP.
“I’m very happy it didn’t make it that far,” Chastain said. Asked if she had any special way of celebrating planned, she said, “No. Nothing.”
Atlanta took a 3-2 lead with six minutes remaining when Sun beat Beene from close range. The CyberRays answered just two minutes later when Tisha Venturini eluded two defenders and scored the tying goal.
Sun, leading off the first of five rounds of penalty kicks, kicked the ball to Beene’s left, where theWUSA goalkeeper of the year was easily able to corral it and put Atlanta in an early hole. When Hooper missed two rounds later, it put the Beat down two goals.
Venturini, Carey Dorn, Katia and then Murray all beat Scurry to give Bay Area the title.
“It’s an incredible way to win,” said Scurry, whose save against Liu Ying in the World Cup set up Chastain’s game-winner. “But it’s also an incredible way to lose.”
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In Major League Soccer:
New York-New Jersey 3, Miami 2--Daniel Hernandez’s goal in the 89th minute gave the Metro-Stars the win in front of 18,247 at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
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D.C. United 2, Columbus 1--Abdul Thompson Conteh’s goal with 10 minutes left gave D.C. United the win at Washington in front of 13,855. The Crew’s nine-game unbeaten streak ended.
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Dallas 3, Kansas City 0--Ariel Graziani scored two goals to lead the Burn before 13,914 at Dallas.
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San Jose 5, Colorado 2--Junior Agogo scored two goals to help the Earthquakes win in front 7,312 at San Jose.
