Generation Next Looks Strong for U.S. Women

Somewhere around 1:30 p.m. last Wednesday, an extraordinary event took place at North Field on the UCLA campus. Few were there to record it, yet it marked a watershed moment in U.S. women’s soccer history.

The United States sent a team into a game without--for the time being--a single world champion in the lineup. That had never happened before. Not in 13 years. Not in 185 games.

Ever since its first game--against Italy in Jesolo, Italy, on Aug. 18, 1985--the U.S. had always had at least one member of its 1991 world championship-winning team in every lineup.

But on Dec. 16, 1998, that remarkable streak came to an end. Coach Tony DiCicco decided that for this one game, a closed-door match against Ukraine that nevertheless counts as a full international, he would send the next generation out to test its mettle.

As a result, there was the never-before-seen sight of Brandi Chastain and Joy Fawcett and Julie Foudy and Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly and Carla Overbeck--world champions and Olympic gold medalists each and every one--watching from the sideline.

Also consigned to the role of spectators were fellow gold medalists Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett, Briana Scurry and Tisha Venturini.

It was a calculated gamble by DiCicco, who chose to not only end the 185-game streak and Lilly’s record of 63 consecutive games played, but also put in jeopardy the U.S. team’s 42-game unbeaten mark at home.

After all, how would a starting lineup that included 16-year-old Aleisha Cramer from Lakewood, Colo., and 18-year-old Susan Bush from Houston and 18-year-old Aly Wagner from San Jose and 22-year-old Samantha Baggett from Daytona Beach, Fla., fare against the Europeans?

Not one of them had played a single minute for the national team. In fact, excluding 1996 Olympic alternates Amanda Cromwell (51 games) and goalkeeper Saskia Webber (20), the other nine starters had a combined 19 games between them.

To put that in better perspective, Lilly, watching from the bench, has a world-record 162 national team appearances.

The afternoon did not begin well for the Ukrainian team, which lost to Germany in a playoff for a place in next summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in the United States. The team’s bus driver--presumably from Los Angeles and not Kiev--managed to get lost in Westwood, causing a delay in the start. But it got better.

Ukraine, verbally lambasted throughout the game by its coach, Serguei Katchkarov, took the lead in the 17th minute and the Americans still trailed as the end of the first half approached. But DiCicco appeared unconcerned, even more so after forward Natalie Neaton had headed in a goal off a right-wing cross from Baggett in the 40th minute to tie it up.

One minute before the goal, DiCicco had sent midfielder Ann Cook, 24, from Springfield, Mo., into the game, and in the second half he gave four more players their national team debut, sending in forwards Veronica Zepeda, 16, from Jurupa Valley High in Mira Loma; Shauna Rohbock, 21, from Orem, Utah, and Sheri Bueter, 23, from Cincinnati and defender Heather Aldama, 20, from Redlands.

The game-winning goal came in the 69th minute when midfielder Justi Baumgardt, 23, from Federal Way, Wash., fired in a 26-yard shot that secured the U.S. its record-tying 21st victory of the year. The team is 21-1-2 in 1998 going into its finale today against Ukraine in Fresno (1 p.m., ESPN).

There will not be nine players making their U.S. debut at Bulldog Stadium on the Fresno State campus. DiCicco will field his gold-medal lineup. Which means the best part of Ukraine’s short U.S. trip might have been strolling beneath the Christmas lights on the Santa Monica mall on Wednesday evening. It certainly won’t be this afternoon.

Meanwhile, for the 5-foot-10 Cramer, a high school junior, the future looks bright. In years to come, she stands to inherit Michelle Akers’ role. It also looks bright for Bush, whose fluid, confident play and the fact that she is headed for the University of North Carolina make her potentially the next Mia Hamm. It’s bright, too, for the quicksilver Zepeda, for the dependable Baggett and the rest of the new generation.

The kids never put a foot wrong.

“There’s a lot of talent coming up,” said Cromwell, 28. “A lot of these youngsters are very sophisticated with the ball, they have good skill. Really what they need is some experience and more tactical awareness.

“You could see some of their inexperience in the game today when we played a European team that’s good at bunkering. They [Ukraine] were very organized defensively, and so we had problems getting around them, getting in line, finding people’s feet. It was a little slow at first, the rhythm wasn’t so good, but then I think they got a little more used to each other.

“Eventually it worked out, and for some of these girls the future after 2000 looks great. The U.S. has a whole new crop [of talent] after the Mias and Michelles and Julies all retire.”

DiCicco and his assistants Lauren Gregg and Jay Hoffman have a good eye for that talent, which is one reason why midfielder Michelle French, 21, of Kent, Wash., is one of 23 players invited into residency camp in Florida in January to begin preparation for the June 19-July 10 World Cup.

Against Ukraine, in only her second appearance for the U.S., she was often the best player in a lineup that featured more than a few impressive newcomers.

SOCCER OR SOX?

Standing on the sideline at UCLA, watching the USA-Ukraine game and chatting with several veteran players was Nomar Garciaparra of the Boston Red Sox.

The 25-year-old shortstop might easily have ended up in Major League Soccer rather than major league baseball. But MLS could never have matched his five-year, $22.25 million contract.

“I grew up playing soccer since I was 5,” he said. “I played soccer and baseball until my senior year in high school and then I had to make a decision [on] what was I going to continue [playing]. I could have gone to college and played soccer, but I said, no, I’m just going to stick with baseball.

“People say, ‘What made you choose?’ and I say, ‘Well, in baseball we get to run 90 feet and call a time out. In soccer, I didn’t like running 90 minutes.’ That’s a big difference.”

But Garciaparra stays very much in touch with soccer.

“This year when the World Cup was on, I was the only guy in the clubhouse who turned that on,” he said. “Every game I was going to miss I’d record so I could watch it later. I didn’t want to hear any scores until I got home.

“I love it. My ideal day is playing a baseball game during the day and at night going home to watch the [English] Premier League or the Italian Serie A. I love watching that. It’s a lot of fun.”

Garciaparra is just as big a fan of the women’s game.

“Our women are the best in the world,” he said. “It just shows what tremendous athletes we’ve got here. That really is a big accomplishment. I enjoy watching them. They’re tremendous.”

190,000 AND COUNTING

The trophy that U.S. captain April Heinrichs held aloft in China in 1991 and that Norway’s captain Gro Espeseth proudly displayed in Sweden in 1995 will not be the one presented at the Rose Bowl on July 10.

Marla Messing, president of Women’s World Cup Organizing Committee, revealed that FIFA has designed a new trophy for the event and that it will be unveiled at the World Cup Draw in San Jose on Feb. 14.

The Draw, which will divide the 16 teams into four groups for first-round play--with the U.S., China, Norway and Germany being the seeded teams--will take place at halftime of a match between the U.S. and a World All-Star team composed of players from the other 15 competing countries.