Tuesday, July 1, 2003

 

TAMPA, FL -- United Soccer Leagues announced today the Teams and Players of the Week for the A-League, USL Pro Select League, Premier Development League and W-League today for Week 11 of the season. USL honored Charleston's Ted Chronopoulos, California's Tony Bussard, Thunder Bay's Doco Wesseh and Vancouver's Andrea Neil as Players of the Week.

With Paul Conway out with an injured ankle this past month, midfielder Ted Chronopoulos has stepped up to provide some punch in the Charleston attack. He scored both Battery goals Saturday in a 2-1 win over the Syracuse Salty Dogs and was named the A-League Player of the Week.

Chronopoulos, who has scored four goals in the club's last five matches, opened the scoring for Charleston in the ninth minute. Forward Josh Henderson played the ball out to him on the left flank. He whipped the ball across and it spun over goalkeeper Paul Nagy's head and into the goal.

Two minutes later he doubled the lead. Again it was Henderson who played him through with a sharp header down at the top of the 18-yard box. He ran onto the pass and hit a bullet-shot past Nagy into the bottom right-hand corner.

The former Major League Soccer player is in his first season with the Battery and is the club's leading scorer with 11 points on five goals and an assist. He tallied just 16 goals in his 156 regular season MLS matches over seven seasons, posting five twice with New England in 2000 and 2001.

The California Gold jumped into the top spot in the Western region of the USL Pro Select League with a win over the perennial power out west Utah Blitzz, 3-1. The win also put California second overall in the league behind the Carolina Dynamo.

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the home side bounced back behind star forward and Player of the Week Tony Bussard, who provided three unanswered goals for a 3-1 win.

Bussard, who earned the honor for the second time this season, scored the equalizer in the 59th minute and added two more in the 73rd and 90th minutes.

The Thunder Bay Chill posted a team high seventh win in a dramatic 4-3 overtime decision in Sioux Falls Friday night with midfielder Doco Wesseh providing the late offensive edge to earn the PDL Player of the Week honor for the second time this season.

Wesseh registered his first point of the night on an assist to Ron Badanai in the 54th minute to give the Chill a 2-1 lead only to see the SpitFire post three straight goals to take a late 4-2 lead in the 85th minute.

Two minutes after Dave Colistro's 86th minute strike pulled the Chill back within one, Wesseh notched the equalizer unassisted to send the game to overtime. His heroics continued in the second period of overtime with the game-winner in the 106th minute, finishing the night with two goals and an assist.

The Vancouver Whitecaps finished a four-game trek through Colorado and Arizona with two impressive performances against the Fort Collins Force and Arizona Heatwave. Leading the way in the 7-1 and 5-0 victories was Andrea Neil, who registered three goals and an assist in the two matches to earn the W-League Player of the Week honor.

In Fort Collins last Tuesday, Neil opened the scoring in the 10th minute and scored her second of the match in the 40th to give the Whitecaps a 3-1 league at halftime.

Two nights later in Mesa, she set up Sasha Andrews a minute into the match for the opening marker and then scored six minutes later for a 2-0 lead just seven minutes into the game as they cruised to a their third win on the trip.