Women's United Soccer Association 2002 Preview

The second season of the Women's United Soccer Association is at hand, with a full slate of games beginning next Saturday. The eight-team league concluded its preseason as of Sunday night, and after a successful inaugural campaign in which over 8,000 fans on average attended matches (which was 20% higher than the predicted per-game average attendance of 6,500) last year, is looking for better things still in 2002. Despite a few missteps by the league which may come back to haunt them in the long run, such as cutting back on the roster size from 23 to 20 and holding their Founders Cup II championship game in Atlanta - in a smaller stadium than the first game in Foxboro, MA, the league is ready to roll.

And so is E-Sports with its WUSA Preview. In alphabetical order, here's the rundown on who improved, who stood still and who may go to the back of the line.

Atlanta Beat (2001 regular season champs, league runner-up Coach: Tom Stone) ANALYSIS: They were the league's stingiest defense (and a lot would say the dirtiest team as well) in 2001; they will be helped out by the return to full fitness of Marci Miller. Alana Kraus of NCAA women's national champion Santa Clara will add to it. Sun Wen, the Chinese national who played only sparingly last year due to injury looks to be back at reasonably full strength as well. It will be a formidable team, with Cindy Parlow and Charmaine Hooper as good a 1-2 scoring punch as it gets. A sure semifinalist for mid-August at the absolute least. Briana Scurry will man the pipes for the Beat again, but she will be hard-pressed to equal her start of last year, with four straight shutouts to begin the season. Not with the way the rest of the league has turned up their offensive firepower as San Jose, Carolina and Philadelphia have. And as the three teams have shown, Scurry can be scored on. Chinese national teamer Wang Liping will also join them.

Boston Breakers (6th place, 2001; Coach - Jay Hoffman) ANALYSIS: Boston picked up a key Norwegian, Raghnild Gulbrandsen, whose dangerous runs may help out their triad of scoring threats - Dagny Mellgren, Kristine Lilly and Maren Meinert get more open in the field. First round draft pick Jena Kluegel will bolster a decent midfield and a bit suspect back. But they have a tough opener at San Jose Saturday which will be shrouded in pomp and circumstance as the CyberRays hoist their inaugural championship banner and receive their rings. Five of their first seven games are on the road, so they'll have to break out of the gate fairly quick.

Carolina Courage (last place, 2001: Coach - Marcia McDermott) ANALYSIS: The league's worst team may wind up being on both sides of the ball the league's most improved. That's what happens when you win the Danielle Slaton sweepstakes (the top pick in the WUSA draft, a defender out of and will immediately strengthen a porous defense), and Unni Lehn (who will compliment fellow Norwegian Hege Riise quite nicely) as well as Brigit Prinz (a tres' dangerous German national player) will bring instant offense to a squad which was led by the imposing Danielle Fotopolous, who is a scoring threat that any team would love to have on their roster, but hate to play against. Nel Fettig, claimed off waivers from our next team's preview, will go a long way to helping out the defense. She'll have to, as Carla Overbeck is once again on the shelf with injury and will not return until summer. The goaltending needs to improve big-time, as Kristin Luckinbill has to improve on her 1.76 GAA, or it will be a long season for the Blue Lions.

New York Power (3rd place, 2001, league semifinalist; Coach - Pat Farmer) ANALYSIS: She scored 53% of her team's goals. She was the WUSA's Most Valuable Player as well as Offensive Player of the Year. But Tiffeny Milbrett will have to uncork an even better campaign this time, as the Power were hit with four key losses and one major injury. The team lost Norwegian standouts Gro Espeseth and Ann Kristin Aarones to retirement, and Kerry Connors (trade to Philadelphia for Kalli Kamholz who later was waived) and Fettig, waived herself and picked up by Carolina. The injury bug hit the Power during the pre-season, as for a time, all three of their goalkeepers were injured. The one that matters most, Gao Hong, will not be available until mid-summer at best. So the inconsistent Saskia Webber will have to hold down the fort, and thus improve on her goals against average. The Norwegians will not be under-represented, as Linda Ormen and Anita Rapp will try to spell Milbrett on the forward line and take some of the enormous pressure off. The New Yawkers will be most hard-pressed to match their 9-7-5 performance of last year. Their first 2 are on the road, then 5 of the next 7 are at home. That will take them into mid-June. It will be an uphill climb no matter from any angle.

Philadelphia Charge (4th place, 2001, league semifinalist; Coach - Mark Krikorian) ANALYSIS: They were predicted to finish 9th in the 8-team league; OK, it just seemed that way. No one gave them a prayer of even sniffing the semifinals, let alone the middle of the pack. They were wrong, Sports Illustrated for Women, Soccer America and Women's Soccer.com were, all of them. They turned out to be the league's Cinderella; in the end, unfortunately, down to the last detail. Midnight came for the Charge in a most foul way, in a scandalous loss to Atlanta in the WUSA's second semifinal last August 18. The Charge led 2-0, scoring more goals against the Beat in a 4-minute stretch of the first half than they did in three games against them. But a bogus foul call against defender Heather Mitts inside the 18-yard box, which resulted in a Sun Wen penalty kick goal, opened the floodgates for an Atlanta comeback in regulation, and Cindy Parlow's second goal of the game, clearly a handball which wasn't called in the second overtime, brought the Charge down, 3-2. The Charge will open their season in Atlanta Saturday.

The Charge, the league's #1 scoring offense, have firepower to burn in the midfield and the front line. Kelly Smith and Liu Ailing will be aided and abetted by a potential monster season from 1999 women's college national player of the year Mandy Clemens, plus the addition of French national sensation Marinette Pichon, who this week led her country to a win in a four-nation tournament which included Canada and Japan; with Atlanta players Hooper and Sharolta Nonen on the former, and defensive standout Homare Sawa for the latter. The Charge's first round draft pick, Stacey Tullock of Arizona State, won't join the team until May, but big things are expected of her. Another pickup for the bench was Connors, who impressed in the pre-season. Due to nagging injury, the Charge were forced to waive midfielder Laurie Schwoy, who contributed two game-winning goals last season.

The problem is, of course, is that they haven't replaced all-universe central defender Doris Fitschen, the WUSA Defensive Player of the Year who retired last fall. But in fairness, what WUSA team could? Karyn Hall, a fourth round draft pick out of Florida, has looked impressive, and will need to, along with the backfield of Mitts, Jenny Benson, Jennifer Tietjen and Erica Iverson to step it up even more this time around, as the Charge's current record going back to the next to last game of the season against WUSA opposition is 0-4-2. Two question marks revealed themselves in the pre-season; goaltending, as Melissa Moore's GAA ballooned up to a robust 2.20 in that 6 game winless skid, and backup Maite Zabala had a second half from Hades in the team's final Villanova tuneup against NCAA Elite 8 team Virginia, giving up three goals in a 15-minute span. Perhaps sensing trouble, the Charge picked up the league's tallest player, six-footer Janel Schillig from Villanova as a reserve.

The other is Zhao Lihong, a Chinese national who had visa trouble, and has not yet gotten in sync, in some observer's minds, with the rest of the team. Lihong will be counted on to be a force from the outside. There won't be too much time for getting on the same page - four of the Charge's first 6 games are on the road, the first two against the Beat and the Power, half of the final four from 2001. If they play like they did against non-WUSA competition this pre-season, then Philadelphians are advised now to reserve their spot on Broad Street for the victory parade. If they don't bid adieu to 0-4-2 and quickly, they may not make the post-season.

San Diego Spirit (5th place, 2001; Coach: Carlos Juarez) ANALYSIS: They were in contention until the final four days of the season of making the semifinals. With Joy Fawcett out for the first half of the season on maternity leave, it made a difference. With her the Spirit were 3-0-3; without, they were 4-7-4. She returns this season full-time, and her national mates, Julie Foudy and Shannon MacMillan will try to reach for the next level. They'll have to do it without Wen Lirong and Norwegian goalie deluxe Bente Nordby (both retirement). Zhang Ouying will provide much-needed offensive punch up front. Kim Pickup, she of the league's most dazzling move, the Pick-Flip throw in, will cause mucho havoc, as she was the one who ended Scurry's season-beginning goal-less streak when they played in Atlanta last May. Shannon Boxx and Margaret Tietjen (sister of Jennifer) will need above-par seasons, as well as Nigerian Mercy Akide; how they do, along with the big 3, will determine how high they finish.

San Jose CyberRays (runner-up, regular season; 2001 WUSA Founders Cup Champions; Coach - Ian Sawyers) ANALYSIS: The champs have had major roster turnover, as nearly a half-dozen of their 2001 roster is gone via retirement, traded or waived. They certainly did not stand pat. The loss of leading scorer Julie Murray will be a disheartening blow, but the Rays feel they've compensated by bringing Sissi and Katia one of their own, Brazilian forward Pretinha. Brandi Chastain may move up to the midfield from her traditional slot in the defense. The goaltending is as good as it gets, with LaKeysia Beene, she of the 6 consecutive shutouts, 624 shutout minutes and league-leading 95 saves. First round draft pick Danielle Borgman and former Washington Freedom-er Michelle French are additions to a solid roster. Again, with the league tooling up on the offense, the Beene-pole will have a little bit tougher time duplicating her stats from last season. But they've retooled as well, and will almost certainly be a semifinalist as well.

Washington Freedom (7th place, 2001; Coach - Jim Gabarra) ANALYSIS: Mia United turned into Mia Fallen From the Radar Screen, as the future hall of famer scored just 6 goals in her inaugural pro campaign and the woeful Washingtonians became the butt of more than a few jokes. Injuries at every turn doomed the Freedom in the second half of the season, going an awful 2-10-1 to be rightfully named the league's most underachieving team. Hamm will not be available until mid to late May while rehabbing from off-season knee surgery. She will probably be put in the front line, like she is for her national team games, and she will have a slew of offensive weapons waiting for her when she gets back. First round pick, forward Abby Wambach of Florida has been everything as advertised, and will instantly contribute to a suspect offense. It doesn't hurt, either, to have the MVP from the Aalgarve Cup in Portugal, a key international women's soccer event, German defender Steffi Jones on the team as well. There's a significant boost in the talent pool which offsets the departures of Pretinha (who admittedlywasn't good in DC,) and French. What may come back to bite them is the waiving of a pretty good defender, Amanda Cromwell.

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So now that you've gotten familiar with the teams, let's pick five games which can make a big impact going into the summer months. Opening Day will have two of those games, as mentioned already.

May 11 - New York at Atlanta: Your basic irresistible force vs. immovable object game; Tiffeny Milbrett vs. last year's best defense. Who will blink first?

Two more will take place May 18:

Atlanta at San Jose, the first rematch of the Founders Cup final;

Carolina at Washington, which will be the first meeting of Slaton and Wambach, the top 2 picks in the WUSA draft.

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The big plus the league has going for it is its new television deal with the PAX-TV network. It will have a WUSA Game of the Week in a fixed timeslot, Saturdays at 4PM eastern, and will be on every Saturday of the regular season. Here is the complete schedule.

4/13 Boston at San Jose
4/20 New York at San Diego
4/27 Washington at Atlanta
5/4 Atlanta at Carolina
5/11 Washington at Philadelphia
5/18 Atlanta at San Jose
5/25 San Diego at New York
6/1 Washington at Boston
6/8 Washington at Philadelphia
6/15 New York at San Jose
6/22 Carolina at Washington
6/29 San Jose at Boston
7/6 Boston at San Diego
7/13 Atlanta at New York
7/20 Carolina at Philadelphia
7/27 San Diego at Washington
8/3 San Jose at Carolina
8/10 Philadelphia at Atlanta
8/17 WUSA Semifinals
8/24 WUSA FOUNDERS CUP II

The timing is impeccable, as the league opted out of its deal with the CNN/SI cable channel, which announced earlier this week that it will go dark for good in May.

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So who will be in those semifinals? The prediction here is that Atlanta will win the regular season crown and host Boston, while Philadelphia will travel to Spartan Stadium to take on San Jose. It will be Atlanta hosting Philly in the final, and in an upset to everyone except the team and its coaching staff, the Charge will exact the ultimate payback and win the second Founders Cup.

We start finding out beginning Saturday...