Long Island Fury Having a Dream Inaugural Season

(July 1, 2006, Albertson, NY)-In the 1989 movie classic, "Field of Dreams," farmer Ray Kinsella says of the baseball players, "Where did they come from?"

"Where did we come from?" was the response from "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

That's the question on the mind of women's soccer observers as the expansion Long Island Fury are having a dream season. They are 4-0-1 in the Women's Premier Soccer League standings and are in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup. Nobody has scored on the Fury as goalkeepers Becky Wachsberger of East Meadow and Michelle Betos of Whitestone have not surrendered a goal in 540 minutes of play.

The Fury players did not walk out of the cornfields of Iowa but most were trained by head coach Paul Riley in the Long Island Junior Soccer League. Riley coached 15 Fury players on LIJSL teams named Fury, either with the clubs in Albertson or Huntington (HBC).

And four Long Island Fury players––defender Dolores Deasley, midfielders Edel Malone and Elaine O'Connor plus forward Marie Curtin––compete for the Ireland Women's National Team.

Can the Fury's dream season continue? Next up is a Thursday night, July 6 encounter against the 2-2-1 New York Athletic Club with kick-off set for 6:30 pm at Michael Tully Park in New Hyde Park.

Then there's a July 8 game in Upstate New York against the 4-2-0 Adirondack Lynx followed by away matches against the New England Mutiny (5-2-0), Massachusetts Stingers (4-1-1) and Boston Aztecs (2-1-3). There is little margin for error as all these teams are bunched with the Fury on top of the North Division standings.