Tuesday, July 22, 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, honoring El Paso's Omar Mora, Wilmington's Byron Carmichael, Indiana's Ricky Francis and Boston's Stacey Stocco as Players of the Week.

The El Paso Patriots maintained their stand as the second place team in the Central Division of the A-League Friday night with a 3-1 win over Team Calgary on a two-goal performance from Player of the Week Omar Mora.

Mora, who seemed to finally be getting into form in his fifth match after a long season with Mexican First Division-A side CD Zacatepéc, proved to be a constant thorn in the side of the Calgary defense; and Laurenco Andrade, who was also the leading scorer for First Division-A Cobras de Ciudád Juárez, played unselfishly, pushing beautiful lead passes in for Mora's finishing touch.

In the 20th minute, Andrade dropped a beautiful lead ball from midfield up front for a hard-charging Mora, who ripped a far-post shot past Calgary goalkeeper David Wiebenga into the right upper 90 for Mora's first goal of the season. Just 16 minutes later the tandem hooked up again, displaying deft one-touch moves against a frozen Calgary defense. Once again, it was Andrade's pass on a quick give-and-go that set up Mora from eight yards out, shooting a slow-moving but accurate ball past Wiebenga, who had come off his line to challenge Mora as he charged into the box.

The USL Pro Select League's Wilmington Hammerheads, in the midst of a seven-game unbeaten run, may have finally found the final piece of the puzzle to take them back to the league final in Player of the Week Byron Carmichael after losing last year's leading scorer Anthony Maher to the A-League.

The new addition from the A-League's Cincinnati Riverhawks struck for two goals and two assists in the club's win over Reading Friday. He opened the scoring with an unassisted tally in the 15th minute. In the 25th, he set up Jeff Johnson and scored his second of the night four minutes later for a commanding 3-0 lead. Up 3-1 at halftime, Carmichael added one more assist just a minute into the second frame by setting up Ryan Miller for the first of his two goals on the night.

Carmichael has eight points through four games with the club and also helped the team upset the Atlanta Silverbacks in the Third Round of the US Open Cup two nights earlier with the equalizer in a 2-1 win to become the only third division team to advance to the Fourth Round where they will face the Dallas Burn of MLS. In 11 games with Cincinnati this year, Carmichael registered just four goals and two assists.

The Indiana Invaders needed three wins in the final week of play in the PDL to advance to the playoffs for the first time since their inaugural 1998 campaign. With the assistance of Player of the Week Ricky Francis and Francis Wakhisi, they did just that.

Indiana opened the week Tuesday against Columbus and earned a 2-1 decision over the visiting Shooting Stars. Francis provided the first score of the match in the 35th minute on an assist from John Stephens. A minute before the break, Francis would turn provider, setting up Brian Murphy for what proved to be the game-winner.

Friday night, Indiana picked up a 3-1 win over the Toledo Slayers in their final home game but headed to Toledo for their finale Sunday tied with the Fort Wayne Fever, who held the tiebreaker advantage and would play Saturday night. The Fever would fall 4-0 to Mid Michigan, opening the door for Indiana. Francis helped propel the club to a 4-0 win by setting up Wakhisi in the 20th minute and scoring himself on an assist from Wakhisi in the final minute of the first half.

Francis finished the week with two goals and two assists while Wakhisi tallied four goals and an assist in the two Toledo matches.

The Boston Renegades continued to show their dominance with a 5-2 win over the third place Toronto Inferno behind a five-point night from midfielder and W-League Player of the Week Stacey Stocco.

Level at 1-1, Stocco found Katie McGregor for the go-ahead goal in the 32nd minute. After a Carrie Kveton goal made it 3-1, Toronto's Kim Warner scored her second of the night to pull the visitors back within one. Stocco would add two goals seven minutes apart to ensure the win, tallying in the 61st and 68th minutes.

Stocco now has seven goals and five assists on the season and is second on the team in points with 19, trailing Kveton, who has 26 on 12 goals and two assists.