Ducar's painful day
By Karyn Lush
August 7, 2001
Fighting for their playoff lives, the Boston Breakers put forth a valiant defensive effort, led by keeper Tracy Ducar. However, their offense failed them as they fell, 1-0, to the San Diego Spirit, ending their playoff hopes.
In a hard-fought battle that felt destined to be won by the first team who could put the ball in the back of the net, San Diego showed more offensive might than Boston. With nine shots on goal to the Breakers' three, the Spirit were finally able to capitalize on their chances while the home team could not.
The Spirit got their attack going in the 21st minute when Shannon MacMillan found Tara Koleski in the box. Koleski attempted to fire her shot over Ducar's head, but Ducar would have none of that, pushing her drive over the crossbar.
On the ensuing corner kick, Julie Foudy leapt into the air to head MacMillan's cross back in the direction it came from, but waiting on the goal line was Kristine Lilly, who headed the ball away from the goal to keep the match scoreless.
Ducar would make another timely stop in the 32nd minute when Koleski sent MacMillan a ball to run onto. Boston defender Heather Aldama attempted
Tracy Ducar - ALLSPORT
to play the ball back to Ducar, but her weak header fell at the feet of MacMillan who blasted the ball towards the diving Boston keeper. Taking the direct force of MacMillan's screamer in her left eye, Ducar kept the ball out of her net, but paid a painful price for doing so.
"Shannon strikes the ball very hard," Ducar said after the match sporting a swollen, black and blue eye. "I have no idea what happened. I wish I knew, but it's like a lava lamp in my eye right now."
Despite having trouble with her vision and being attended to twice during the course of play, Ducar gutted out the full 90 minutes and recorded seven saves in the process.
"That's the way she is," said Breakers head coach Jay Hoffman of his keeper's fortitude. "That's her character and the great thing about having her on the team."
But Ducar's resoluteness was not enough for the Breakers as both teams sought the decisive goal.
The game-winner came in the 81st minute when Spirit midfielder Shannon Boxx threaded a pass to Koleski at the top of the key. Positioned well against Boston defender Kate Sobrero Koleski was able to receive the pass as Sobrero fell to the ground.
With an open look at goal, Koleski's initial shot was blocked by the diving Ducar. Bouncing right back up from the field turf, Koleski tucked the rebound into the far corner, providing the Spirit with the win.
"I wish that I had closed her down a little bit," Ducar said of the play. "I got up and I guess I had expected that I'd have a defender there to pounce on the rebound. That didn't happen so I wish that I had put a little bit more pressure on the shooter."
Even though they allowed a goal, Hoffman applauded the defensive effort.
"I thought we defended really well," he remarked. "Our shape was quite good. I thought we closed things down."
Instead of pointing his finger at the defense, he cited the offense's inability to generate
Tracy Ducar - Allsport
an adequate attack and San Diego's role in making that occur.
"I think a little bit of it was the opposition," said Hoffman. "They played pretty well. They bottled up the center of the field on us.
"I honestly didn't think we played with as much patience and composure as we have been playing with in regards to keeping the ball and knocking it around. With the way they play, if you don't get the ball out of the center of the park quickly, you can run into some problems with being dispossessed."
With the Breakers failure to utilize the width of the field, outside backs Aldama and Keri Raygor were unable to make their customary runs up the wings. Even when the runs were made down the center of the field, as Lilly did a handful of times in the second half, there was no attempt to feed the ball in to the cutting player.
"I don't think on the attacking side we were quite in sync at times," said Hoffman. "I don't think we created a lot of quality opportunities."
Boston's best chance to get behind San Diego's talented defensive line of Joy Fawcett, Wen Lirong, Fan Yunjie, and Margaret Tietjen came in the 23rd minute. After Lilly won the ball from Foudy, she sent a pass to Dagny Mellgren. With an open march towards goal, Mellgren's first touch failed her as she tried to corral the ball and it skipped harmlessly away.
Without any offensive production, the Breakers were left to contemplate being eliminated from playoff contention.
When asked which hurt worse, the injury to her eye or the defeat, Ducar concisely replied, "the loss."
Despite her efforts, the day's pain would not end.