After Akers’ Kick Comes a Kiss

After Michelle Akers scored the game-clinching penalty kick against Brazil, she ran over to the U.S. bench, wrapped her arms around Dainis Kalnins and kissed him on the forehead.

Why?

Because Kalnins, the American team’s equipment manager, is the one who stands in the nets after every U.S. practice, playing goalkeeper as Akers fires penalty shot after penalty shot at--and usually past--him.

“She probably takes like 10 to 15 [penalty kicks] at the end of each practice and all the hard work paid off,” said Kalnins, from Des Moines, Iowa. “She was just kind of saying thank you.

“It surprised me, but it felt so good. It was the warmest thing I’ve felt in a long, long time.”

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Mia Hamm might be the world’s all-time leading goal scorer with 111 goals, but don’t ask her to take penalty kicks.

“I’ve gotten better at them, but I think Mish [Akers] and Brandi [Chastain] are two of our best PK takers,” she said. “Penalty kicks are all about technique, but it’s more about confidence.

“You have this one opportunity to put your team ahead or tie. You have to be completely focused and completely confident. I’m still not at that level with my penalty kicks.”

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One of the many dignitaries seated among the FIFA officials was Franz Beckenbauer, Germany’s former World Cup-winning captain and coach.

Asked whether Germany could stage as successful a Women’s World Cup, with crowds as large as Sunday’s 73,123, “Der Kaiser” said no.

“Maybe 10,000 or 15,000,” he said. “But this big? No.”

Australia is the early front-runner to stage the 2003 Women’s World Championship, but Germany also is a possible future candidate.

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Alan Rothenberg, during whose term as U.S. Soccer’s president the 1994 World Cup was successfully staged, said that FIFA has been equally impressed by this tournament.

“They love coming to the United States,” he said. “They know what kind of job we can do. But they have to move these things [world championships] around from a geopolitical standpoint. So it’s very difficult for us to predict when we’ll get it back.

“We want the men’s World Cup back in 2010. Realistically, I don’t see how we have a prayer before 2014.

“But from the women’s standpoint, we’ve raised the bar quite a bit, so we’ll wait and see. In some ways, I can envision them coming back with the Women’s World Cup sooner than the men’s.”