Dominating Win for U.S. Women
The United States all but mathematically secured its place in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup by shutting out Trinidad and Tobago, 3-0, at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium on Tuesday night.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Mexico got back into the hunt for a place in the final four with a 5-1 victory over Panama.
The Americans out-shot the islanders, 30-1, but only Cindy Parlow in the 19th minute, Brandi Chastain in the 54th and Tiffeny Milbrett in the 62nd beat Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Lisa Jo Ramkissoon.
Most shots flew high and wide, with a Cat Reddick drive from distance that hit the crossbar and another effort by Shannon MacMillan that glanced off the right post being the closest anyone else came to scoring.
“I hate to say it, but when you are a weak country in terms of women’s soccer as Trinidad and Tobago is, a 3-0 defeat to the United States is indeed a victory for us,” said Trinidad and Tobago Coach Jamaal Shabazz.
The game, played before a crowd of 4,210, was marred by an injury to Mia Hamm shortly before halftime when she collided with Ramkissoon while both were going for the ball. Hamm was writhing in pain for some time, clutching her right ankle. She later limped off the field and was taken to a hospital for X-rays.
National Call
U.S. men’s Coach Bruce Arena called 23 players into camp Tuesday, including the Galaxy’s Danny Califf and Sasha Victorine, to prepare for the national team’s first game since the World Cup -- against El Salvador in Washington on Nov. 17.
All 23 players are from Major League Soccer teams and 11 have never represented the U.S. before at the full international level, although several have played for the U.S. under-20 national team or the U.S. Olympic team.
Only four World Cup players -- DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Pablo Mastroeni and Clint Mathis -- were called up to begin training in Washington on Nov. 10.
None of the 16 U.S. national players based in Europe were on the roster, although two of the players who were chosen, goalkeeper Tim Howard and former UCLA defender Carlos Bocanegra, are training with Feyenoord in the Netherlands.
The average age of the roster is just under 24, and Arena clearly is looking at players who will be at their peak in 2006, when the World Cup is held in Germany.
“The challenge of building a team capable of qualifying for the World Cup begins again,” he said. “There are a lot of talented young players with great potential in MLS, and over the course of the next two years we plan to provide them with quality international experience in order to evaluate who can compete at the international level.”
The roster:
Goalkeepers: Adin Brown, Howard and Nick Rimando.
Defenders: Wade Barrett, Bocanegra, Califf, Brian Dunseth, Chad McCarty, Eddie Robinson and Ryan Suarez.
Midfielders: Beasley, Leo Cullen, Daniel Hernandez, Chris Klein, Kyle Marino, Mastroeni, Ben Olsen, Eric Quill and Victorine.
Forwards: Jeff Cunningham, Donovan, Mathis and Taylor Twellman.
Champions League
Former champion Juventus and last season’s runner-up, Bayer Leverkusen, each earned shutout victories and became the fourth and fifth teams to advance to the final 16 of the European Champions League, but another former winner, Bayern Munich, crashed out of the competition.
Juventus was outplayed for large stretches of its match in Turin by Feyenoord, but came away with a 2-0 victory on goals in each half by forward Marco Di Vaio.
Bayer Leverkusen, which had been embarrassed, 6-2, by Olympiakos in Greece earlier in the tournament, gained revenge at home with a 2-0 victory in Germany that not only clinched its place in the next round but eliminated the Greek team with a 14th-minute goal from Brazilian forward Juan and a last-minute penalty kick goal by Bernd Schneider.
Four-time champion Bayern Munich, needing to beat Deportivo La Coruna in Spain or be eliminated, fell, 2-1, in heavy rain. Victor gave Deportivo the lead 10 minutes into the second half, but Paraguayan forward Roque Santa Cruz tied it up in the 77th minute. Dutch striker Roy Makaay then volleyed in the winner in the final minute to end German hopes.
In another Champions League game, Galatasary was upset, 2-1, by Lokomotiv Moscow in Istanbul, where a minute’s silence was observed before the kickoff for those killed last week when Russian security forces stormed a Moscow theater being held by Chechen rebels. Also, goals by Gary Speed and Alan Shearer earned Newcastle United a 2-1 home victory over Dynamo Kiev and kept alive its slender hopes of reaching the final 16.
Galaxy Plays On
Less than three weeks after winning its first Major League Soccer title, the Galaxy will hit the road for an exhibition in Texas against two-time Mexican league champion Santos Laguna on Nov. 6.
The Galaxy’s second meeting with Santos Laguna will be the second game of a doubleheader at University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium. Aguila of El Salvador plays Olimpia of Honduras in the opener.
The Galaxy beat Santos Laguna, 4-1, in the first round of the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup on July 30, 1997.
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Staff writer Paul Gutierrez contributed to this report.
