Sports
Pusan American girls defeat Seoul American for first time
Stars and Stripes
March 28, 2004
Junior Brieanna Carroll of the Pusan American Panthers dribbles the ball during Friday's Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference girls soccer match with Seoul American at Camp Hialeah, Pusan, South Korea. Carroll scored the game's only goal as the Panthers beat the Falcons 1-0 for the first time in school history. (Hannah Lee / Special to Stars and Stripes)
(The following correction to this story appeared in he April 31 edition: "Sunday’s editions of Stars and Stripes incorrectly reported Pusan American’s girls soccer team game results. The Panthers defeated the Falcons 2-0 in the second week of the 2003 season.")
CAMP HIALEAH, South Korea — Brieanna Carroll helped the Pusan American Panthers achieve a major breakthrough on Friday.
The junior striker scored in the 42nd minute of a 1-0 victory as the Panthers defeated the Seoul American Falcons for the first time in their eight-season history.
“Amazing. It’s crazy,” said Carroll, who leads Pusan with 12 goals.
Beating Seoul was something Carroll said she “thought was possible” at the start of this season, “but I didn’t see it happening. I wasn’t thinking about how it would feel, but now, it’s ‘oh my goodness,’ I can’t believe this is happening.”
Seoul American, which had an 18-4 advantage in shots, controlled much of the game and guarded Carroll tightly.
“But she broke away from the defense that one time, and that’s all it took,” Falcons coach Lori Cannon said.
Carroll gathered a loose ball at the top of the 18-yard box and tapped it with her left foot over the outstretched arms of Seoul American goalkeeper Emily Bond.
“It was one of those goals you wish you could have back,” Cannon said, tipping her hat to Carroll. “Brie is their offense and their defense.”
Carroll said the next 38 minutes seemed like 38 hours, as the Panthers did everything they could to keep the Falcons’ potent scoring tandem of Amy Bakameyer (12 goals) and Monika Padua (9) under wraps.
“They’re a really good team,” Carroll said. “They have a really good defense, they pass the ball well and they work so well as a team. We knew they had a lot of shooters, so we just made them keep passing instead of shooting, pressure them so their shots were off.”
Friday’s victory huddle was subdued, Carroll said.
“There was a sense of relief after it was over,” she said. “It wasn’t a sense of us being queens of the world, but we won. It was a hard game. It could have gone either way.”
Cannon is looking for the Falcons to win the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference season-ending tournament April 23-24 at Seoul Foreign.
“We’re counting on it,” she said. “They’re (Pusan) a good team. There’s no doubt, there’s talent there. But they’re definitely beatable.”