China Finds Some Redemption With a Late Victory Over U.S.
There’s a saying in China: “What goes around comes around.”
It’s something likely to be repeated frequently in Guangzhou, Beijing and elsewhere today, after the Chinese women’s national soccer team on Sunday afternoon turned the tables on its U.S. counterpart.
Three days after being beaten, 2-1, by the Americans on a 90th-minute goal in Hershey, Pa., China returned the favor, defeating the U.S. by the same score on a last-minute goal in front of 23,756 at Giants Stadium.
This time it was Zhang Ouying, not Tisha Venturini, who provided the finishing touch in the game’s final moments.
Taking a through pass from teammate Bai Jie, the forward sprinted between U.S. defenders Carla Overbeck and Christie Pearce and, when challenged by goalkeeper Briana Scurry, calmly slipped the ball past her and just inside the left post.
The victory was the second by the 1996 Olympic silver medalists over the gold medalists within five weeks. China also beat the U.S. in the final of the Algarve Cup in Portugal on March 20.
On that basis alone, China will have to be considered the favorite to win the Women’s World Cup this summer.
The Chinese were the better team Sunday, but only barely. In an entertaining game well-refereed by Kari Seitz of San Francisco, China took the lead in the 14th minute when veteran striker Sun Wen collected a free kick from Liu Ailing and beat Scurry with a fine shot from about 18 yards.
The U.S. finally tied it in the 58th minute on a goal by Julie Foudy off a pass from Cindy Parlow, Foudy’s shot deflecting off a Chinese defender and looping over goalkeeper Gao Hong.
Both teams attacked throughout the match, with the Chinese creating the better scoring chances. Afterward, U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco was philosophical, explaining that the U.S. enthusiasm for attacking had left it vulnerable on defense.
“China’s very dangerous,” he said. “It’s going to come down to the wire this summer.”
Oddly enough, the Chinese did not stick around for postgame interviews. To the astonishment of U.S. officials, they were out of the Meadowlands and on their way home before anyone knew it.
China has been on the road for seven weeks, winning seven of nine games. Call that mission accomplished. The U.S., meanwhile, still is fine-tuning its team.
“Obviously, we don’t enjoy losing,” said Overbeck, the U.S. captain. “We don’t want to lose. We want to get forward and score goals and make it exciting. On that second goal, we weren’t in good shape defensively and [Zhang] is probably the fastest player on their team.
“It’s good for us. It’s great to play teams like China because that’s what’s going to prepare us for the [June 19-July 10] World Cup.”
Teammates put it differently.
“We can’t let this loss [distract us], even though it’s a frustrating one because it happened in the last minute,” said Mia Hamm. “That’s probably the hardest [to accept] because we worked hard to get back into it. We know what China’s capable of and we hope to see them again in the World Cup.”
The next time the teams could meet is on July 10 at the Rose Bowl, either in the third-place game or the championship game.
No problem, said Kristine Lilly. The U.S. will be ready.
“What happens when we lose and don’t score [the usual bushel of goals] everyone’s, like, ‘What’s wrong with the team?’ There’s nothing wrong with us,” she said. “We’re going through training. We’ve got less than two months left. I’m not worried at all. I think we’ll be ready, and when it comes down to it, there’ll be goals scored.”
