USL announces Week 7 honors
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues announced today the Teams of the Week for Week 7 of the season, honoring Portland’s Alan Gordon, Northern Virginia’s Matt Osborne, Cocoa’s Tony Amato and Rochester’s Nina Scalzo as the Players of the Week for the A-League, Pro Soccer League, Premier Development League and W-League.
For the second straight week, Alan Gordon was the hero for the Portland Timbers, who are off to their best start in franchise history at 5-0-0 and one of two unbeaten in the A-League (Montreal 5-0-1).
Facing a 2-0 deficit at the half, Gordon charged the Timbers' attack in the 65th minute, taking a cross from Shawn Saunders and heading it into the left side of the net to slice the lead in half for the home side.
Gordon scored the equalizer in the 85th, heading in another ball, this time from Jake Sagare, for his second goal of the match.
Five minutes into overtime, Gordon beat his defender, took a leading pass from Scott Benedetti and found the back of the net for the golden goal and the 3-2 win.
The hat-trick gave Gordon the Player of the Week honor for a second consecutive week with five goals in his last two games and six on the year.
The winless Northern Virginia Royals picked up their first win of the year by downing the Long Island Rough Riders on the road 3-2 with rookie Matt Osborne playing a part in all three strikes.
Northern Virginia took an early lead, scoring a goal in the third minute of play. Said Nabih played a ball behind the Rough Riders defense to a streaking Osborne, who headed the ball past goalkeeper Dan Sirota.
The Royals would tally again in the 10th minute to take a 2-0A lead. This time Osborne created the goal, playing a nice through ball to Matt O'Connor. O'Connor took the pass from Osborne and dribbled around Sirota to score into an empty net.
After two Derrick Etienne strikes tied the match, the Royals, down a man, would score the game-winning goal off a counter-attack in the 76th minute. O'Connor played a cross to Osborne who blasted a right-footed shot from in close past Sirota for his second goal of the night.
Osborne, a year after finishing playing for George Washington University, now has four goals and an assist on the season for the Royals.
The Cocoa Expos were nearly knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday by the winless Palm Beach Pumas, but came away 3-2 victors on a hat-trick from midfielder Tony Amato.
Amato opened the scoring in the match in the 28th minute but saw Palm Beach come back to take the lead in the 62nd minute on a pair of goals three minutes apart. With time winding down, Amato struck again in the 82nd minute to send the match to overtime, where he scored the game-winner on a penalty kick in the 100th minute.
Amato’s hat-trick put him in the team lead for points with 13 (six goals), ahead of Kris Glasser (10 points) and Bryce Wegerle (8 points). In his first year with the club last year, Amato registered just two goals in six matches.
The Rochester Ravens ended a 45-game winless streak (0-44-1) Sunday that stretched back to July 23, 2000 – a 5-0 win over the Cleveland Eclipse – with a 3-2 overtime victory over the visiting South Jersey Banshees. Nina Scalzo played a part in all three goals of the monumental win with a goal and two assists.
Trailing 1-0 in the second half, Scalzo found Leah Vieira to level the score in the 59th minute and then connected with Kristina Cristofori in the 71st for the lead.
South Jersey’s Rebecca Mouw, however, tallied her second of the game in the 83rd minute to send the match to overtime where the pivotal strike would come.
Five minutes into the second overtime stanza, Scalzo found the back of the net on an unassisted tally to end three-plus years of frustration for a franchise that was a participant in the 1997 championship tournament.
USL Teams of the Week
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