SPORTS
November 7, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
NWSL final featured stalwart Asian fullbacks
FLASH FULLBACK. Abby Erceg (#6, right) of
the Western New York Flash runs alongside Allie Long
(#10, left) of the Portland Thorns during a regular-
season National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
match held at Providence Park. Erceg and the Flash
defeated the Thorns in a NWSL playoff match, then
went on to win the NWSL championship by beating
the Washington Spirit. (AR Photo/Jan Landis)
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
his year’s National Women’s Soc-
cer League (NWSL) season cul-
minated in an exciting final that
featured two of its Asian stars, Abby Erceg
of the Western New York Flash and
Caprice Dydasco of the Washington Spirit.
The stalwart defense provided by these
two fullbacks anchored the rise of their
teams, which can expect Erceg and
Dydasco to provide leadership well into
the future.
The Spirit finished in second place dur-
ing the regular season, just two points be-
hind the league-leading Portland Thorns,
who won the NWSL Shield, which is
awarded to the club with the best regular-
season record. Washington featured a bal-
anced scoring attack, as Estefi Banini led
the team with five goals, and three other
players tied for second place with four.
One of those three players, Crystal
Dunn, led the Spirit in assists with five, a
year after leading the team in goals. Team
Most Valuable Player Christine Nairn was
second with three assists, and Dydasco
was third with two. Dydasco started 12
games in 2016, building off six
appearances in her rookie season.
A Hawai‘i native, Dydasco played for the
UCLA Bruins from 2011 to 2014, winning
the 2013 national championship and
amassing five goals and 23 assists in her
career. Those assists tied Dydasco for
eighth in Bruins history, and she led a
defense that tied a record in 2014, by
logging 19 shutouts in 24 games.
This season, Dydasco helped the Spirit
improve on its fourth-place finish in 2015,
when the club fell in the first round of the
playoffs. In the 2016 playoffs, Washing-
ton’s semifinal opponent was the Chicago
Red Stars, who had defeated them 3-1 in
the regular season’s final game. In the
playoffs, however, the Spirit battled
Chicago to a 1-1 draw in regulation before
T
Francisca Ordega scored the game-winner
in extra time to send Washington to the
NWSL championship match.
There, they faced the Western New York
Flash, who fell to the Portland Thorns in
the final of the NWSL’s inaugural season.
The Flash missed the playoffs in 2014 and
2015, so they overhauled their roster.
Among other moves, the team traded for
Erceg, the New Zealand National Team
captain who led Chicago to the 2015 play-
offs for the first time in franchise history.
Erceg helped improve the Flash follow-
ing the 2015 season’s seventh-place finish.
Western New York led league play in
scoring this season with 40 goals,
becoming the third team in NWSL history
to average at least two goals per game.
Despite this, the Flash nearly missed the
playoffs after struggling throughout the
month of September.
Goals from Jessica McDonald and Lynn
Williams, Western New York’s scoring
leaders, gave the Flash a decisive 4-0 win
over the Boston Breakers, stamping their
post-season ticket. Their semifinal
opponent was the first-place Portland
Thorns, who had the league’s stingiest
defense during league play (only allowing
19 goals) and best home record (8-1-1).
In a classic matchup of an irresistible
offense and an immovable defense, the
Flash’s offense prevailed. The hometown
Thorns scrapped back from a two-goal
deficit to send the match into extra time,
during which Williams scored twice in the
space of six minutes. Erceg and the Flash
defense held the Thorns to a single late
goal and advanced to the finals.
Western New York’s opponent in the
championship match, Washington, had
played the Flash twice during the regular
season. The Spirit won 3-0 in the Flash’s
home opener, while Western New York
came back from a 0-1 deficit in their second
matchup to earn a 1-1 draw. As the under-
dog, the Flash would also be without their
coach, Paul Riley, who was ejected during
the Portland playoff game and therefore
was suspended from coaching in the final.
The Flash began the match with a flurry
of failed scoring chances, but Washington
got on the board first. Fullback Megan
Oyster delivered a long ball over the West-
China’s two-child policy won’t
lead to population boom
Continued from page 3
THRILLING PLAYOFF. Alison Lee of the United States watches
her tee shot on the ninth hole during the third round of the Ladies Profes-
sional Golf Association (LPGA) KEB HanaBank Championship at Sky72
Golf Club in Incheon, South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Ciganda beats Lee in LPGA
Tour playoff in South Korea
INCHEON, South Korea (AP) — Carlota Ciganda beat
Alison Lee with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff in the
rainy Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) KEB
HanaBank Championship after each player lost big leads.
The 26-year-old Spaniard won with a six-foot putt after
Lee’s birdie chip from the rough off the back edge of the
green missed a half-inch to the right.
Ciganda overcame a five-stroke deficit to Lee on the
front nine, then blew a five-stroke lead on the final five
holes — getting into the playoff when Lee bogeyed the
par-5 18th after hitting into the water.
Ciganda played the final five holes in 4 over — making a
double bogey on 14 and bogeys on 16 and 18 — for a 2-over
70 to match Lee at 10-under 278 at Sky72 Golf Club.
Lee had a 75 after taking a three-stroke lead into the
round. The 21-year-old American is a student at UCLA.
Ciganda won her first LPGA Tour title and became the
third European winner this year, joining Sweden’s Anna
Nordqvist and Germany’s Caroline Masson. Lee is winless
in two full seasons on the tour.
They are also increasingly postponing or
foregoing marriage and childbearing, he
said.
“While no one has a crystal ball to see the
future, we have ample empirical evidence
to suggest that China’s fertility will stay
low after a small bump in the first few
years of introducing [the] one-child policy,”
Cai wrote in an e-mail.
The Lancet paper’s researchers in
Britain and China say the effects of the
new policy on China’s shrinking workforce
and aging population won’t be seen for two
decades.
They recommend that the government
increase “the exceptionally low compul-
sory retirement age” of 50 or 55 for women
and 60 for men, increasing pension
coverage, and encouraging the traditional
practice of three generations living under
the same roof.
While authorities credit the one-child
policy with preventing 400 million extra
births, many demographers argue that the
fertility rate would have fallen anyway as
China’s economy developed and education
levels rose.
Over its 36 years of existence, the policy
vastly inflated the ratio of boys to girls as
female fetuses were selectively aborted in
line with a preference for male offspring.
China is predicted to have around 30
million more men than women by the end
of the decade.
The policy also compelled many women
to have forced abortions or give up their
second children for adoption, leading to
deep emotional scarring.
ern New York defense, drawing goalkeep-
er Sabrina D’Angelo off her line. Dunn
sprinted past two Spirit defenders, beat
D’Angelo to the ball, and slotted it behind
all three players for the game’s first goal.
In a familiar trailing position, the Flash
struck back just five minutes later.
Williams took the ball down the wing,
drawing defenders, while McDonald
occupied the defenders on the opposite side
of the penalty box. This opened up the
middle for Samantha Mewis, who took the
pass from Williams, deftly switched feet,
and drove the ball past goalkeeper Kelsey
Wys to even the score.
Two minutes later, the Spirit suffered
another setback when Dydasco went down
with an injury and was replaced by Ali
Krieger. Dydasco tore a ligament in her
knee, a serious injury that requires
surgery and extensive rehabilitation in the
offseason. Despite losing Dydasco, the
Spirit defense didn’t yield another goal in
regulation, but Washington couldn’t score,
either, so the game went into extra time.
The Spirit scored in the first minute of
extra time after Krieger took the ball down
the right side of the pitch, just outside the
Western New York penalty area. A Flash
defender took her down, but not before she
delivered the ball to an unmarked Dunn,
who placed the ball into the top right
corner of the goal.
Washington locked down Western New
York for more than 30 minutes, but with
just seconds remaining in their season, the
Flash finally struck. McDonald crossed the
ball to the middle of the box, Wys leapt into
a crowd of players to make a play on the
Continued on page 13
Comedian Pikotaro
astonished by viral
success of “PPAP” song
Continued from page one
added, to laughs. “I feel all these themes
are well understood by the people who
imitate me.”
He said he came up with the song at the
house of his producer, Daimao Kosaka,
which is actually his stage name as a
comedian.
With the tune playing, he picked up a
pen to begin writing, and thought about
Kosaka, who comes from apple country. An
open can of pineapples was sitting on the
table, and “pen-pineapple-apple-pen” was
born.
Asked whether Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe has called him since his success, he
responded that he doesn’t answer num-
bers he does not recognize on his phone,
but would check his messages later to see.
He also teased the topic of his next
release: “The hint is, citrus fruits.”
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Nov. 21 to Dec. 4, 2016 edition:
Rehabilitated
orangutans freed
in Borneo as
species dwindles
Continued from page 4
an orphaned two-year-old
suffering from dehydration
and severe diarrhea in
1999, when he was rescued
from a field.
He spent several years in
forest
school
and
graduated to a halfway
house, where the apes are
less dependent on humans,
in preparation for release
into the wild, which
happened in 2014. But
injuries from fights with
another male meant he
needed another stint in
Samboja Lestari.
“We don’t have a choice,”
said Sihite. “We have to do
this to save the orangutan.”
AP writer Stephen Wright
in Jakarta, Indonesia,
contributed to this report.
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