McNeill anchors Atlanta defense in 3-2 win over Boston in New Britain

NEW BRITAIN, August 21, 2010 – It’s been nearly seven years since Avon’s Kia McNeill set foot on the smooth grass of Willow Brook Park in New Britain as a soccer player.

Kia McNeill

The last time she played here, she was the prolific scorer and a two-time All-American selection for the Avon High girls soccer team. In the championship game with Joel Barlow, she had a goal in a 2-1 victory for a third straight Class M title.

“I remember that feeling,” McNeill said. “I was young and having fun with the game.” She wore a super woman shirt under uniform and flashed it briefly after scoring her school-record 93rd goal. “I don’t do that stuff anymore,” she said with a grin.

McNeill, 24, returned to New Britain on Saturday night as a young, second-year professional with the Atlanta Beat of the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league. Instead of scoring goals, the 5-foot-9 McNeill makes her living stopping others from scoring as a center defender for the Beat.

Atlanta kept its slim playoff hopes alive with a 3-2 win over the Boston Breakers before 4,071 fans at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium, building a 3-0 lead and holding off a furious Breaker rally.

Atlanta’s Kia McNeill (6) pushes the ball away from Boston’s Lindsay Tarpley.

McNeill has been a defender since her senior season at Boston College, where she scored 24 goals in her first three seasons. Injuries had battered the Eagles and her coach moved her to defense. But a one-game experiment turned into a permanent switch and she helped anchor the BC defense that allowed just 0.475 goals per game in 2007.

After playing a year in Sweden in their top women’s league, McNeill was the No. 9 pick in the 2009 WPS draft by St. Louis, where she anchored a defense that allowed the second fewest goals (15) and second most shutouts in the league (10). In February, she was traded to Atlanta.

Now, she is a center defender for Atlanta, playing in front of U.S. National Team goalie Hope Solo for the second year in a row. And she is the team captain.

“Before I was just a player,” McNeill said. “As a defender, you have to be a student of the game. You’re the quarterback of the team. You need to see the whole picture and its up to you to organize and communicate.”

Solo has seen McNeill’s growth the past two seasons. “Everyone thinks she is this really experienced player,” Solo said. “But she is still young and is still learning a lot. She has always had the athletic ability but now she is really implementing the tactics, taking the leadership role in the defense and organizing it.”

Solo and McNeill spent time in South Africa during the recent World Cup tournament to work on a global HIV/AIDS awareness project and host some soccer clinics for young South Africans. They also saw plenty of soccer and McNeil studied the play of the athletes, especially the defenders.

“When you say organizing the defense, most people think about communication,” Solo said. “But you have to read the game and Kia is still learning to do that.”

Solo isn’t shy with her opinions and defended McNeill earlier this year. “Just because she is stronger, faster and more physical than some of the best players in the league doesn’t mean she is (a) dirty (player),” she said in a Twitter post in April.

In the off-season, McNeill worked with current Atlanta coach James Galanis for five weeks to improve her skills, including fighting for the ball in the air.

“There are some defenders that when the ball is in the air to be won, they’ll come right through whether you are there or not,” Atlanta forward Eniola Aluko said. “That’s the kind of defender Kia is.”

Kia McNeill outleaps Atlanta teammate Stacy Bishop (4) for the ball.