Americans Clinch U.S. Women’s Cup

Encouraged by Coach Tony DiCicco to pay more attention to her movement away from the ball, Mia Hamm broke free to lead the United States to the U.S. Women’s Cup soccer title Sunday with a 4-2 victory over Brazil.

In the 60th minute, Hamm took a left-footed cross from Kristine Lilly and scored with a left-footed shot from about 15 yards out. The goal was her second of the game, the record 114th of her international career and gave the U.S. a 3-2 lead before a crowd of 35,211. “She just started the play and disappeared on her defender, showed up in front of the goal and it was in the back of the net,” DiCicco said.

Lilly added a penalty-kick goal in the 88th minute after Cindy Parlow was taken down by Brazil’s Deva inside the penalty area. It was the second goal of the game and fourth of the tournament for Lilly, picked as the most valuable player.

The U.S. rallied from a 2-1 deficit to sweep the three-game, round-robin tournament with South Korea, Brazil and Finland.