SOCCER / FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP : U.S. Team Opens Against ‘Dangerous’ China
“The Chinese, without question, are capable of winning any game they play, against any opponent. They’re good.”
The words are those of Tony DiCicco, coach of the defending world champion U.S. women’s national soccer team.
Tonight, in the coastal town of Gavle, the Americans will open defense of their title against the Chinese, and no one considers it a mere formality.
“They’re a dangerous team,” U.S. striker Michelle Akers said. “Extremely fast, quick, skillful. They play so well as a team, just flowing. The only thing they lack is the ability to score goals. They can do everything else, but they have trouble scoring.”
And then Akers, the top goal scorer in the first FIFA Women’s World Championship in China in 1991, offered a somewhat startling prediction: “I think if we don’t win it, they will.”
She didn’t mean tonight’s game. She meant the championship.
DiCicco is well aware that his team is starting out against a difficult foe, but savors the challenge.
“We have an incredibly tough game against China, but one way or the other, that game doesn’t determine the championship,” he said. “It is a tough way to start. You always like to have a game where you can build confidence. But, hey, we played Sweden in 1991 in the first game. They ended up bronze-medal winners, so that wasn’t an easy start, either. Hopefully, our experience will factor into it. Of course, [the Chinese are] experienced as well.”
The United States beat Sweden, 3-2, in the ’91 opener and would be more than pleased with a similar score tonight.
But German Coach Gero Bisanz warns that the Americans cannot take the game for granted, pointing out a weakness in the U.S. team.
“They have maybe some problems in defense,” he said. “They are physically fit, but they don’t read the game in the right way. We say in German, stellungspiel , to stand in the right place.
“If a team plays in a quick way, like China, with one or two touches, maybe [the Americans] could have some problems.”
If the U.S. positional sense is lacking--a debatable matter--the team has the speed and quick reactions to compensate. Captain Carla Overbeck is regarded as one of the world’s best sweepers, and marking back Joy Fawcett is unchallenged at her position.
Linda Hamilton might have lost a step or two, yet she remains one of the world’s top defenders, and Julie Foudy of Mission Viejo is rapidly developing into an accomplished defensive midfielder/playmaker.
All were starters on the 1991 team.
But Bisanz is not alone in thinking that the Chinese could prove a difficult opponent.
“I saw China in Canada last summer, and I’m impressed,” Swedish Coach Bengt Simonson said. “They have kept the better players from the 1991 team; they have good technique and are physically fit. It’s a good team.”
In 10 previous games against the Chinese, the U.S. team has won five, lost three and tied two. The most recent game, on Aug. 3 at Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., was a 1-0 U.S. victory, on a goal by Foudy.
Women’s Soccer Notes
The tournament opened Monday with an upset and a near-upset. At Helsingborg, after a bright ceremony featuring several hundred dancers and youth soccer players, what was described as “modern Swedish music” and a mercifully short speech by FIFA President Joao Havelange, Brazil stunned Sweden, 1-0, on a first-half goal by Roseli and some rugged defense. At Karlstad, Germany escaped with a 1-0 victory over Japan.
