SAN DIEGO (Saturday, May 5, 2001) - The San Diego
Spirit scored the first goals and recorded the first
victory in franchise history as Shannon MacMillan scored
once in each half to lead the Spirit to a 2-0 victory
over the Washington Freedom. <br>The Spirit played in
front of the second straight home sellout crowd at
Torero Stadium as 6,155 fans saw MacMillan streak by the
Freedom defense for both of her goals. It was the first
multiple-goal game and multiple-assist game in WUSA history as
Julie Foudy picked up assists on both goals.
<br><br>The first goal came in the 33rd minute, courtesy of a
nice piece of skill from MacMillan's strike partner
Traci Arkenberg, who made a tough collection about 40
yards from goal while receiving a long ball.
<br><br>She popped the ball in the air, and then without
letting it bounce, played MacMillan behind the Freedom
defense. With Freedom defender Lindsay Stoecker glued to
her hip, MacMillan powered her dribble into the
penalty area and slotted ball past the sliding Freedom
goalkeeper Siri Mullinix and into the lower right corner.
<br><br>MacMillan sprinted to the stands and jumped on a ledge to
high five the fans before being engulfed by her
teammates. <br><br>"We've been hitting the posts too much,
but I guess we were saving (the goals) for the home
crowd," said MacMillan. "They really have been supporting
us. After two sellouts they deserved the goal just as
much as we did. I just wanted to give them all high
fives." <br><br>The goal broke a 213-minute scoreless
streak for the Spirit, who had failed to score in the
first two matches. The Spirit improved its record to
1-1-1 and now has four points. <br><br>"All the build
up is behind us now," said Spirit head coach Carlos
Juarez. "All the hoopla of getting the league started is
over so we can just concentrate on playing our game.
We won as a team. We have been on the verge of
taking advantage of our opportunities and it came
together tonight." <br><br>San Diego out-shot Washington
13-6 and got a deserved second goal just three minutes
from time as the Spirit caught the Freedom defense
pushing up. Spirit captain Julie Foudy played MacMillan
behind the defense with a perfect through ball and she
drove in on goal in the right side of the penalty box,
drawing Mullinix out before deftly lifting the ball over
the sliding goalkeeper from seven yards out.
<br><br>The Spirit defense of Rhiannon Tanaka, Kim Pickup,
Fan Yunjie and Kristin Bengtsson played extremely
well, limiting Washington to just three shots on goal,
all easily saved by Jaime Pagliarulo, who picked up
her second straight shutout. The Spirit now has a
streak of 208 minutes in which they have not allowed a
goal.