U.S. Survives a Test of Time
President Clinton unknowingly came within scant minutes Thursday night of ending the United States’ dream of winning the Women’s World Cup.
The president, accompanied by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, visited the U.S. locker room immediately after the American team had scored an emotional, come-from-behind victory over Germany, winning the quarterfinal match, 3-2, in front of 54,642 fans at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium.
But the first family’s visit necessitated exceptionally stringent security arrangements, and tight-lipped, close-cropped Secret Service personnel denied almost everyone freedom of movement below the stadium.
That caused U.S. forward Cindy Parlow and backup goalkeeper Tracy Ducar to be late for their appointment in postgame doping control. Players, selected at random, have to be drug-tested within a set period of time after games.
Fortunately, officials from FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, understood the reason behind the tardiness and turned a blind eye to the rule book, which calls for a team to forfeit the game if its players miss or arrive late at doping control.
U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco certainly wasn’t about to argue that the president’s unexpected visit had caused a problem, despite the muted but intense argument outside the U.S. locker room between Secret Service agents and those trying to get Parlow and Ducar out the room and off for testing.
“The game was incredibly exciting and to have the president come down and honor this team just was so fitting,” DiCicco said, “because I think America tonight saw why it is so attracted to this team.
“They just played on pure guts. They refused to be beaten. The Germans are an outstanding team. The game could have gone either way. It just came down to the women on this team just having to win.”
The victory advanced the U.S. to Sunday’s semifinal against Brazil at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. China plays world champion Norway in the other semifinal at Foxboro, Mass.
It was a deserved victory, but the match was so hard and so close-fought that it was not until referee Martha Toro Pardo of Colombia blew the final whistle that U.S. fans could breathe easy.
The U.S. fell behind, tied the score, fell behind again, tied it again and finally won it. It made for heart-stopping drama on a sultry evening.
The match started in disastrous fashion for the U.S. when defender Brandi Chastain accidentally steered the ball into her own net in the fifth minute.
German midfielder Maren Meinert played the ball deep into the U.S. half and Chastain gathered it under pressure from German forward Birgit Prinz and passed back to Briana Scurry without glancing up to see where the U.S. goalkeeper was.
Scurry had come out to collect the ball and Chastain’s back pass rolled into the empty net as the crowd groaned in disbelief.
“Those two have played together for a number of years now and it’s just the tension of the game,” DiCicco said. “All of a sudden they read something differently, and I felt so badly for them.”
It took the Americans 11 minutes to tie it up, and Meinert was involved.
A fierce shot by Michelle Akers was partially blocked by Meinert, but the ball squirted through to Tiffeny Milbrett, who found herself with only goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg to beat.
The former University of Portland standout made no mistake, firing the ball into the lower left corner of the net from about 10 yards for her third goal of the World Cup.
With the U.S. defense looking decidedly nervous, Germany grabbed the lead in the final minute of the first half.
Sandra Simsek collected the ball to the right of the U.S. net and passed inside to Bettina Wiegmann, who controlled the ball, turned and fired an 18-yard shot that flew straight and true past the diving Scurry.
DiCicco had encouraging words for his players at halftime.
“I just said, ‘We’re not playing up to our level and we can’t win if we play this way,’ ” he said. “ ‘Now it’s your choice on whether you want to go home after this game or you want to go out and play a smarter game, play with more heart, more intensity. We’re OK if we go out and play that way. We can get it done.’
“I just told them, ‘Lift your heads up. This is not over.’ ”
The Americans took heed, tying the score in the 50th minute.
A corner kick by Mia Hamm was chested down by German defender Steffi Jones, but the ball fell to Chastain, who hooked a shot into the roof of the net from close range.
At 2-2 with 40 minutes to play, the game was poised to go either way.
It fell the Americans’ way in the 65th minute when DiCicco sent Shannon MacMillan into the game in place of Julie Foudy. Within seconds, the U.S. had taken the lead.
MacMillan sent a corner kick to the near post, where a glancing header by U.S. defender Joy Fawcett flashed into the German net and brought the fans to their feet, not to mention the first family up in the VIP suite.
“I was just very happy to get my head on it,” Fawcett said. “In previous games we’ve run the same play over and over and I’ve missed it plenty of times.”
The U.S. survived the final 25 minutes and, by the final whistle, chants of “USA, USA” were ringing through the stadium.
“They played on guts today,” DiCicco said of his players. “We weren’t very, very good today, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder.”
THURSDAY
UNITED STATES: 3
GERMANY: 2
*
BRAZIL (OT): 4
NIGERIA: 3
****
SUNDAY’S SEMIFINALS
UNITED STATES vs. BRAZIL, Palo Alto; 1:30 p.m., ESPN
CHINA vs. NORWAY, Foxboro, Mass., 4:30 p.m., ESPN
