U.S. Struggles Defensively but Still Wins Final Tuneup
Ready or not, the world awaits.
The United States on Sunday completed its preparation for the third FIFA Women’s World Cup by defeating Canada, 4-2, in front of a Civic Stadium crowd of 23,325.
From here on out, there are no more friendly games, no more minor tournaments. From here on out, everything counts.
Six games stand between the Americans and a world championship. The first is June 19, when Denmark will be the opponent at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Then comes Nigeria in Chicago, followed by North Korea in Boston.
After that, it gets tough.
Chances are, the U.S. will play South American champion Brazil or European champion Germany in the quarterfinals. And the Brazilians on Sunday showed just how impressive they are by adding a 3-1 victory over Australia to their 4-2 victory over Canada on Thursday.
Brazil’s Pretinha scored four goals in those two games, but she was not the one who concerned U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco Sunday afternoon. Charmaine Hooper was. The Canadian midfielder twice found ways to penetrate the U.S. defense.
Hooper’s first goal came in the seventh minute when she sent a powerful header flying past U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry off a cross from Jenette Haas.
“No one was marking her,” Scurry said. “She had pretty much a free header. I was dead in the water.”
Stunned by the early goal, the U.S. responded by attacking even more vigorously and tied the score within four minutes. Not surprisingly, it was Mia Hamm who scored, taking a pass from Tiffeny Milbrett and slotting a 19-yard shot just inside the left post for her 109th international goal.
“That gave us our edge back and got the crowd back into it,” Hamm said.
Six minutes later, the U.S. took the lead. The move started with a pass from defender Carla Overbeck to forward Cindy Parlow, who fed the ball to Hamm. She took it into the penalty area, then cut it back sharply to Milbrett.
The Portland-born forward crashed a low shot into the back of the Canadian net to make it 2-1 after only 17 minutes.
But Hooper, who had scored twice for the FIFA World All-Stars in their 2-1 victory over the U.S. in February, wasn’t done yet. In the 44th minute, she beat Overbeck to the ball in front of the U.S. net and squeezed a shot between Scurry and the right post to again tie the score.
“The ball was played in and Charmaine picked it up before Carla did,” Scurry said. “She spun around and hit it as she was falling and it went in at the near post. Any other day, it probably would have been Carla’s ball.”
DiCicco was not thrilled at seeing his team give up two goals in one half.
“Our marking wasn’t good enough,” he said. “Our heading and getting to the ball weren’t good enough.”
Hooper, a striker whose athleticism forces Canada to play her in midfield where she can have an impact on both offense and defense, said she thinks the Americans’ defense might be their weak point.
“They’ve been so strong offensively and probably haven’t been under pressure so much defensively so their defense is probably a little suspect,” she said.
DiCicco said it had as much to do with Hooper’s skill as his team’s defensive shortcomings.
“Charmaine is a world-class player,” he said. “She has to be accounted for on the field. You can’t let her run free and get herself in goal-scoring places because she’s going to make you pay for it.”
Kristine Lilly restored the U.S. lead, slamming a shot off the crossbar and into the net in the final seconds of the first half. Parlow added the fourth goal off a Shannon MacMillan cross in the 83rd minute.
