May 5, 2001 – Boston Breakers’ home-opener, largest stand-alone crowd for women’s club game

Spectators for the Boston Breakers’ home-opener at Nickerson Field included Mayor Menino, the Boston Red Sox’ Nomar Garciaparra and Lou Merloni, former New England Patriot John Hannah, plus Olympian Joan Benoit Samuelson. Homare Sawa scored past Tracy Ducar (Lawrence/North Andover) in the 62^nd minute for the Atlanta Beat, which would go on to play in the WUSA final before a 21,078 crowd at Foxboro Stadium Aug. 25, 2001. The Breakers finished in sixth place in their first two seasons, then won the 2003 regular-season title under coach Pia Sundhage before the league folded.

The Breakers held a name-the-team contest before the ’01 season. The moniker was contested by Paolo Doino, who owned the Miami Breakers’ team in the PDL, but the name was allowed to stand. The Breakers went on to lead the league in average attendance in 2002 and ’03, also featuring the WUSA coach of the year (Sundhage) and MVP (Maren Meinert), plus U.S. Women’s National Team star Kristine Lilly.

Breakers 0:1 Atlanta Beat at Nickerson Field (Att.: 11,714)
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