SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D9
Mystics’ lead, which ballooned to
22 in the third quarter.
“I don’t think any team has
three bigs that can play in differ-
ent spots,” Meesseman said. “The
way we’ve used it in the past three
games, it works really well, and
it’s fun to play, too, because it
doesn’t happen a lot for me on
other teams [I play on]. I’m just
curious how many more things
we can do with this.”
[email protected]about it. She’s got to be more
aggressive about it.”
Meesseman scored just two
points in the second half to end
with a team-high 25 points and
10 rebounds. Delle Donne and
Sanders each added 16 points.
Powers scored 12 off the bench.
Rookie of the year candidate
Arike Ogunbowale had a game-
high 30 points on 21 shot at-
tempts for Dallas, but otherwise
the Wings could hardly dent thein all kinds of places: She got the
ball in the post; she got it on pick
and pops; she got threes. I
couldn’t b elieve she passed up the
three in front of their bench in the
fourth quarter,” Thibault said.
“A nd that’s the type of thing we’re
talking to her about. We’ve got to
be as aggressive in the second half
as in the first half, but we just
were able to get her — when she
had a mismatch we found her. We
just have to be more consistentlessly double-teamed, making 10
of the 13 shots. No other Mystics
player scored in double figures for
the half, and Delle Donne went
into the locker room frustrated,
having shot 1 for 7 for just four
points.
Nonetheless, Washington’s
chemistry was on display. The
Mystics posted 13 assists on
19 field goals at halftime as they
built an 18-point lead.
“We got [Meesseman] the ballwe’ve been fighting for all year.
Our players still want to come out
and play Sunday and win that
game on Sunday, but it’s nice to
have that pressure off, too. We’ve
played with the pressure for two
straight months, and we stood up
to it pretty well.”
The Mystics already were in a
good mood long before they
learned of their playoff fate,
thanks in large part to Emma
Meesseman. The 6-foot-4 Belgian
forward dominated the first half.
Meesseman scored from nearly
every spot on the court, lunging
backward to sink a three-pointer
from the top of the key on one
play, t hen sprinting around traffic
to get open under the basket and
take a cutting pass across the lane
from Elena Delle Donne for a
layup on the next. Meesseman
scored 23 points in the first half,
providing more than enough
cushion for Washington to stay
ahead during what was a tightly
contested second half.
She also notched her
2,000th career point.
“We were just moving the ball a
lot and using mismatches, so I
just took my shot,” Meesseman
said. “We were playing fast.”
More than anything, Meesse-
man’s first-half tear was more a
testament to the work that Wash-
ington has put into its big lineup,
which features center LaTo ya
Sanders, Delle Donne and Mees-
seman. The Mystics started that
group again against the Wings
even though Aerial Powers played
Friday after recovering from her
left glute injury.
Powers had been starting in
injured guard Kristi To liver’s
place — Toliver missed her 10th
straight game with a right knee
bruise but is still expected to be
back for the playoffs — but
against Dallas, Thibault opted for
his three bigs alongside Ariel At-
kins and Natasha Cloud. Dallas
(10-22), which has been eliminat-
ed from playoff contention,
couldn’t contend with their size.
Meesseman shined in the first
half w hile D elle D onne was r elent-MYSTICS FROM D1friendlies, which, while fun on
paper, are inconsequential.
Friday’s meeting was driven
almost exclusively by revenue
goals; U.S. organizers did not
care what the audience margins
were, as long as it produced a
sizable profit margin. The teams
will meet twice on the official
path to the 2022 World Cup, a
competition that, because of
format changes for the top teams
in the region, will begin earlier
than usual (about a year from
now). Berhalter does not have a
lot of time to get it right.
In the middling Concacaf
region, where Costa Rica is the
only other consistent threat, the
United States and Mexico need
one another. A good U.S. test
bolsters Mexico’s pride and
global standing, while the rigors
of playing Mexico, particularly at
altitude at Estadio Azteca in
World Cup qualifying, helps
strengthen American resolve.
“Love, hate, passion” i s how
ex-U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard
described the rivalry Friday.
In his U.S. playing career
(1994-2006), Berhalter was
involved in several memorable
battles with El Tri, usually when
both sides were in top form.
Given the current rebuilding
efforts, good performances
against the Concacaf king,
whether in a friendly or official
competition, are a path toward
redemption.
“We love to play against
Mexico,” he said, “and we think
it’s going to make us better.”
[email protected]The tempo of the game is up. The
tackles are a little bit harder.
These are special games.”
They are not as special as they
once were because the teams
play one another sometimes
multiple times per year. Friday’s
game was the second in two
months, and they have collided
16 times in 10 years. Six of the
past 12 meetings have come inwhere we are battling for
supremacy in Concacaf,” U.S.
Coach Gregg Berhalter said on
the eve of the 70th meeting.
“Right now, Mexico is slightly
ahead of us, having beaten us in
the last game and performed
well over the last few years.
“But when we play them, you
see the intensity takes a different
level. Everything is up a level:punching-bag Portugal.
On a rainy Friday here at
MetLife Stadium, the men’s team
lost to nemesis Mexico, 3-0, in a
friendly before 47,960. Most
were there for El Tri, which,
because of the expat fan base and
the money that comes with it,
plays most games north of the
border.
Whether the U.S. men are
good or bad, crowds for matches
against Mexico here are always
pro-Mexican (except when the
U.S. Soccer Federation assigns
World Cup qualifiers to small
stadiums where it can presell
tickets to hardcore U.S. fans).
The teams clashed this
summer in the Concacaf Gold
Cup final in Chicago: the
audience breakdown was at least
75-25 in Mexico’s favor. This has
been the reality forever.
What heartened the U.S. team
over two decades was its success
against Mexico. Entering Friday,
the Americans held a 14-8-6
record in the series since 2000
and beat El Tri in the 2002 World
Cup round of 16.
The past two years, though,
the programs have taken
divergent paths. Mexico
qualified for the World Cup, as it
has every quadrennial since it
sat out the 1994 tournament.
With its failure in Trinidad and
To bago on the last day of
qualifying, the U.S. team’s streak
of appearances ended at seven,
one of the longest in the sport.
Nonetheless, the rivalry
endures.
“We are both in a positioneast
rutherford,
n.j. — For two
months now,
American soccer
has celebrated its
irrepressible women’s program:
world champions, trendsetters,
political activists, rock stars.
But as the euphoria from the
Women’s World Cup begins to
subside — the final two stops on
the victory tour are in early
October — and attention turns to
a discrimination lawsuit and the
Olympics, the men’s team is
attempting to ease back into
relevance.
You remember the men, right?
Two years ago, the implausible
failure to qualify for the 2018
World Cup was an embarrassing
regression that prompted soul-
searching and introspection
from the grass-root ranks to the
pro divisions.
It is a little unfair to compare
the men and women. The level
and depth of competition in
international men’s soccer is far
more substantial than the
women’s game, which, despite
breakthroughs this summer, is in
its infancy on most of the planet.
At the moment, one U.S.
national team is on the ultimate
high and one is at a dreary low.
That said, you cannot ignore
the current popularity gap: Jill
Ellis’s magnificent 23 played
before almost 50,000 in
Philadelphia last week, a record
for a U.S. women’s friendly.
Almost everyone in attendance
backed the Americans againstMore online
For game summaries, video recaps
and photo galleries for matchups
throughout the region, visit the
High School Sports section at
WashingtonPost.com.
For video highlights of the
weekend’s top plays, along with
score updates and links to the
Post’s latest high school sports
content, follow us on Twitter
@WashPostHS.
To learn how to submit scores and
stats to appear in the newspaper
and online, email us at
[email protected].
BY JAKE LOURIMNot since 2016 had the Flint
Hill football team been in the
kind of trouble it was in Fairfax
City on Friday, on a night when it
would eventually win, 28-6.
Late in the first half, pesky Paul
VI led 6-0, but the circumstances
— Flint Hill had just three first
downs and no answer for the
Panthers’ triple-option offense —
were worse for the Huskies.
In the previous two seasons,
Flint Hill won 22 straight times,
by an average of 33.4 points, by as
many as 55 and never by fewer
than 12. Two came against this
same Paul VI program, 45-14 last
season and 35-13 the year before.
But with just over two minutes
left in the first half and a chance
to use the rest of the clock, Paul VI
was driving at the Flint Hill 30-
yard line and up by a touchdown
when it completed a slant pass.
That’s where the momentum
swung. The ball popped loose
when the receiver was inside the
20, and Flint Hill recovered the
fumble. On third and 17 of the
ensuing possession, Justice Elli-
son broke free on a screen pass for
a 50-yard touchdown. “I believe
that we will win!” the visiting
students chanted, and their
school did. Dicey as it was early
on, Flint Hill never trailed again.
And so the celebration pro-
ceeded as usual, the Flint Hill
players gathering to chant “23!
23!” after going through the
handshake line. Zachary Garcia
held the game ball and hoisted it
skyward, yelling, “23-0, baby!”
The streak continued, but this
is a new era at Flint Hill, a
23rd win led by a coach who was
not a part of the first 22. When
To m Verbanic retired after a sec-
ond straight state championship
last fall, the school hired Jason
Thomas from Burr and Burton
Academy (N.H.) to replace him.
“I don’t look at [the streak],
because it has nothing to do with
me and it doesn’t have anything
to do with us going forward,”
Thomas said. “It’s great to build
off that tradition, and it’s great
that they understand how to win.
But the biggest t hing for this team
going forward is they have to
understand how to handle adver-
sity.”
The Huskies emerged from the
second half and kept their offense
running through Ellison, who
beat the defense for a 32-yard
wheel route. Then Flint Hill
caught Paul VI off guard with an
onside kick and recovered it. This
time it was a backbreaking 12-
play, 50-yard drive that chewed
up 5:19 and again ended in an
Ellison touchdown.
Excluding a Paul VI kneel-
down to end the first half, Flint
Hill ran 22 consecutive plays and
scored three touchdowns in nine
minutes. Thus began a quest for a
third straight title, and even after
the past two, Ellison said he is
“absolutely unsatisfied.”
[email protected]
PRIVATE SCHOOL
NONLEAGUE FOOTBALL
Huskies
find a way
to extend
streak to 23
FLINT HILL 28,
PAUL VI 6As U.S. rebuilds, rivalry with Mexico remains special to both sides
On
Soccer
STEVEN GOFFMystics clinch the top seed in the WNBA playo≠s
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Mystics forward Emma Meesseman goes up for two of her team-high 2 5 points Friday against the Wings. Meesseman added 10 rebounds.BY TIM REYNOLDSPoland had not been to the
World Cup in 52 years.
Welcome back, indeed.
Poland — ranked 25th in the
world entering this tournament
— clinched a spot in next week’s
quarterfinals. Poland beat Russia,
79-74, in a second-round opener
Friday in Foshan, China, a few
hours before Argentina topped
Venezuela.
Those results mean Poland
(4-0) and Argentina (4-0) are
guaranteed spots in the round of
eight. Adam Waczynski scored18 points and Mateusz Ponitka
added 14 f or Poland, which hadn’t
been in the World Cup since 1967.
“It’s a great feeling, but we don’t
want to stop,” Poland guard Lu-
kasz Koszarek said. “We know i t’ll
be more difficult and more diffi-
cult, but we don’t want to stop.”
Also clinching quarterfinal
berths Friday: Serbia, which
rolled past Puerto Rico, and
Spain, which rallied past Italy.
Mikhail Kulagin scored a game-
high 21 for Russia (2-2), which was
eliminated from quarterfinal con-
tention. The Russians play their
second-round finale Sunday
against Venezuela.
Poland shot only 36 percent but
went 35 for 38 from the foul line.
“I think it means everything,”
Poland Coach Mike Ta ylor said. “Ithink the country can take self-
confidence from the performance
of these players. We can compete.
We can do it.”
Poland led by one with 2:20 left
when Ponitka drove the lane,
stumbled to the floor under the
basket a nd somehow fired t he ball
out to Aaron Cel in the left corner
as he fell. Cel hit a three-pointer
off the improbable assist, putting
Poland up 72-68, and it kept the
lead the rest of the way.
“This is the competitive will,
the heart, the toughness of our
team — to find a way and keep
competing,” T aylor said.
Russia led 40-29 late in the h alf,
but Ponitka made a 30-footer to
beat the buzzer to end the second
quarter and cut Poland’s d eficit to
six going into the break. The Rus-sian lead was still seven l ate in the
third, but Poland ended the game
on a 29-17 run.
l ARGENTINA 8 7, VEN-
EZUELA 67: G abriel Deck scored
25 points, Luis Scola added 15 and
Argentina is back in the World
Cup quarterfinals after missing
out in 2014.
Argentina shot 53 percent and
held Venezuela to 39 percent
shooting. Michael Carrera led
Venezuela with 19 points.
l SERBIA 90, PUERTO RICO
47: In Wuhan, S erbia had no trou-
ble with Puerto Rico on the way to
remaining unbeaten.
Nemanja Bjelica scored
18 points, Boban Marjanovic add-
ed 16 and Nikola Jokic had 14 for
Serbia (4-0), which shot 56 per-
cent. David Huertas scored 11 forPuerto Rico, which was held to
27 percent shooting.
“Not a lot to tell,” Serbia Coach
Sasha Djordjevic said.
Serbia is shooting 61 percent
through four games at the World
Cup.
l SPAIN 67, ITALY 60: Ricky
Rubio scored four of his 15 points
in a 10-0 r un down the stretch that
put his team ahead for good, Juan
Hernangomez finished with
16 points and Spain rallied past
Italy to lock up a quarterfinal spot
in Wuhan.
Marc Gasol’s only field goal of
the game capped the r un with 1:07
left for Spain (4-0). The win also
clinched a quarterfinal spot for
Serbia (4-0), which will f ace Spain
on Sunday.
— Associated PressFIBA WORLD CUP ROUNDUPUpstart Poland improves to 4-0, clinches spot in round of eight
POLAND 79,
RUSSIA 74NICK WASS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter said when his
squad plays Mexico, “you see the intensity takes a different level.”S0402 1x2.75“Artsy vibe”
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