U.S. Women Return for One That Has Gotten Away

To reach one of the more bizarre sights in this port city, it is necessary to ignore the storks that peer down suspiciously from the bell towers of the Igreja do Carmo, the ancient Carmelite church that dominates the square in front of it.

Instead, make your way through the church doors and past all the ornate gilt work and seek out an old man who, for 120 escudos (about 65 cents), will allow you into an exterior courtyard behind the church.

There, enclosed by tall, whitewashed walls and shaded by a huge date palm and several loquat trees, is the Capela d’Ossos, the Chapel of Bones.

Nothing can prepare you for a structure built entirely of human bones, especially one embedded with hundreds of skulls. The walls, the ceilings, even the altar of the chapel are composed of the remains of monks who once were buried in a nearby cemetery. They were rudely unearthed by a 19th-century bishop who evidently saw nothing macabre about using them as building materials.

The Algarve is that kind of place. The soil of Portugal’s south coast is steeped in history, but whether or not the U.S. women’s national team, which is staying a few miles down the road, can add to that is problematic. So far, they have failed.

The Moors gave the area its name, calling it Al Gharb, the West. But for Coach Tony DiCicco’s team, this has always been where U.S. fortunes have gone south.

The U.S. women have won a world championship. They have won an Olympic gold medal. They have won the Goodwill Games title. They have won the U.S. Cup five times. They have won 85% of all the games they have played.

But they have never won the Algarve Cup.

“It’s a great tournament,” said DiCicco, trying to explain why. “Six of the eight teams in this year’s tournament [which begins today] will be in this summer’s World Cup.

“You’ll have the 1996 Olympic gold-medal, silver-medal and bronze-medal teams. You’ll have the 1995 World Cup gold-medal and bronze-medal teams. It’s an outstanding tournament.

“But it comes at a time when we’re generally not at peak performance. The college season ends in December, we kind of get our team for the year together in January and the next time we get together is just before the Algarve. Now, that’s not making excuses. Certainly, the Nordic teams, for example, don’t have the luxury of being outdoors a lot at this time of the year.

“So I don’t think any of the teams play great soccer [in the weeklong tournament], but it’s a chance to see these other teams and it’s a chance to leap ahead.

“Last year, we got beaten and it was a bitter disappointment because we were playing so very well and then our mentality did not show up in the game against Norway and they hammered us.

“But we learned from that event and we were able to take a couple of giant steps. The rest of the year, I felt we played some outstanding soccer [going 22-1-2, with that Norway game the only blemish]. So it’s a great event to test yourself, get some good competition and we’ll have a chance to scout five teams that will be in the World Cup.

“It’s probably the best competition outside the Olympics and the World Cup.”

In four trips here, the U.S. has managed only a second-, a third- and two fourth-place finishes. And in each of the four tournaments, 1995 world champion Norway has been the stumbling block.

Last year’s 4-1 loss to the Norwegians in Lagos, Nigeria, was the most humiliating of all. It marked the first time the U.S. had lost a game by three goals and only the second time in 13 years that it had given up four goals.

“I think we were flat and our mentality was lacking,” said midfielder Michelle Akers. “Playing against teams like that, you can’t afford not to show up mentally because you’ll get hammered, and that’s exactly what happened.

“So I think this tournament for us will be a good test as well as a good challenge.”

The tournament opens today, with the U.S. playing Sweden in Silves. It then plays Finland on Tuesday in Quarteira and Norway on Thursday in Albufeira. Depending on those results, the Americans close the tournament on Saturday, probably either in the championship game at Loule or the third-place game at Quarteira.

The eight-team event also features Australia, China, Denmark and Portugal. A U.S.-China final, which would be a replay of the ’96 Olympic championship game, is possible but not necessarily expected.

“We’re going to try to win it,” DiCicco said. “We want to take it seriously. We want to test ourselves against the best. At the same time, we want to peak in June. But, sure, we’re going to play to win. We may test a few players, which means we might make some substitutions which we might not make the same way in the World Cup. But we’re going to try to win it.”

Of course, longtime nemesis Norway stands in the way and the Algarve coast is littered with the bones of U.S. teams that have come to grieve here.

They just haven’t built a chapel out of them yet.

QUICK PASSES

The U.S. under-21 and under-18 women’s national teams also are in Europe and both won in a unique doubleheader Tuesday. Mary Francis Monroe, Aly Wagner and Beth Keller scored as the under-21s beat Germany, 3-2, in Ebersberg, near Munich. The under-18s also defeated Germany, 1-0, on a goal by Riverside’s Veronica Zepeda. . . . With fewer than 100 days before the Women’s World Cup, June 19-July 10, ticket sales have surpassed the 260,000 mark. “We believe we will be between 400,000 and 500,000 for the tournament,” Marla Messing, president of the organizing committee, said Thursday. . . . Akers recovered quicker than expected from a broken cheekbone suffered Feb. 14 and made the U.S. roster but will get only limited playing time here. Forward Cindy Parlow is day to day because of a pulled hamstring. . . . Mia Hamm, who has scored 104 goals, needs four more to break the world record of 107 held by Elisabetta Vignotto of Italy. Hamm scored three goals in last year’s tournament.

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Try Again

How the United States’ women have fared in the Algarve Cup:

* 1993: U.S. 2, Denmark 0; Norway 1, U.S. 0; Germany 1, U.S. 0. Finish: fourth.

* 1994: U.S. 5, Portugal 0; U.S. 1, Sweden 0; Norway 1, U.S. 0. Finish: second.

* 1995: U.S. 2, Finland 0; U.S. 2, Portugal 0; Denmark 2, U.S. 0; U.S. 3, Norway 3 (Norway won on penalties, 4-2). Finish: fourth.

* 1996: Did not compete.

* 1997: Did not compete.

* 1998: U.S. 2, Finland 0; U.S. 4, China 1; Norway 4, U.S. 1; U.S. 3, Sweden 1. Finish: third.