SOCCER : U.S. Women Get Going Again in Rout of Ireland
A mere 55 days after winning the world championship, Julie Foudy, Carla Overbeck and the rest of the U.S. women’s national team are off and running on their latest quest for gold and glory.
On Saturday afternoon, Coach Tony DiCicco’s side played Ireland at Foxboro (Mass.) Stadium in its first match on the road to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The result, not surprisingly, was a 5-0 victory for the U.S. in front of a crowd of 30,564. Tiffeny Milbrett scored twice and Foudy, Joy Fawcett and Kristine Lilly each got one goal.
The Irish, fielding a young and inexperienced team, were no match for the Americans, who picked up where they had left off in the World Cup. Milbrett’s two goals brought her international total to 64, and Lilly’s was her 77th.
With Briana Scurry absent because of a schedule conflict, Saskia Webber and Tracy Ducar shared the shutout, each playing a half. The U.S. has not given up a goal in 345 minutes, the last time being against Germany in the World Cup quarterfinals.
“While we might not have had as much to leave on the field as we did in the World Cup, everything we had, we gave,” DiCicco said. “It showed the pride these players have and their professionalism every time they step on the field.”
Next on the agenda is a game against 1999 Women’s World Cup bronze medalist Brazil in Denver on Sept. 26. The game, to be broadcast live on ESPN, originally was scheduled to be part of a doubleheader with the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl, but details could not be agreed on and it was switched to Colorado.
After that, Mia Hamm, Cindy Parlow and company will be out to win their fifth Nike U.S. Women’s Cup in a row. The U.S. is unbeaten in the annual, four-nation tournament, and this year’s opponents will be South Korea, Finland and Brazil.
The Americans play the South Koreans in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 3; the Finns, featuring outstanding midfielder Anne Makinen of Notre Dame, on Oct. 7 in Kansas City, Mo.; and the Brazilians on Oct. 10 in Louisville, Ky.
Two matches against Brazil within a two-week span offer a stiff test for the U.S., which shut out the South American champion, 2-0, in the semifinals of the World Cup on July 4.
“We knew we would have to get through Brazil to win the Women’s World Cup, and we think the 2000 Olympics will be no different,” said DiCicco, who needs only one more victory to reach 100.
The U.S. had been expected to start introducing new faces to the team right away, but the 17 players called on by DiCicco for Saturday’s game were all from the World Cup roster. The only three missing were Michelle Akers, who has not yet decided whether she will retire, Scurry and defender Lorrie Fair, who is back in school at North Carolina.
HEAPS AND THE REGGAE BOYZ
A year ago, Jay Heaps was playing basketball for Duke. On Wednesday, he might be playing soccer for the U.S.
Heaps, a 23-year-old defender for the Miami Fusion, is one of 19 players called on by Coach Bruce Arena for a game against Jamaica in Kingston.
For Arena, the experimentation goes on. He is 7-3-2 since taking over from Steve Sampson as U.S. national team coach, with victories over such powers as Germany (twice) and Argentina to his credit, as well as a bronze medal in the FIFA Confederations Cup in Mexico.
So far, Arena has brought 58 players into one camp or another as he reshapes the U.S. team for its run at the 2002 World Cup. He has given 36 of them playing time, including first caps to Imad Baba, Leo Cullen, Tom Presthus and Matt McKeon.
There is a good chance several others could make their international debuts Wednesday.
In addition to Heaps, players on the U.S. roster who have never donned a national team jersey are goalkeeper Kevin Hartman (Galaxy); forward Josh Wolff (Chicago Fire); midfielders Chris Albright (D.C. United), Henry Gutierrez (Miami Fusion) and Billy Walsh (New York/New Jersey MetroStars); and defenders Chad McCarty (Tampa Bay Mutiny) and Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96).
Cherundolo, a former University of Portland star now playing in Germany, is the only non-MLS player on the U.S. roster.
The U.S. tied its most recent two games against Jamaica, both in World Cup ’98 qualifying. The “Reggae Boyz” were 3-5-3 this year, going into a game against Canada in Toronto on Thursday.
MLS CONTRACTS
It might be a positive sign for the future or just so much public relations smoke. Only time will tell.
Last week, Major League Soccer made a big deal about signing Dallas Burn forward Jason Kreis to a new contract that will keep him in the league through the 2001 season, with options beyond that.
Kreis, who is tied for the MLS scoring lead with 14 goals and 12 assists in 26 games and who was called up to the national team for the Jamaica game, had said his “lifelong ambition” was to play overseas.
Now, MLS has offered him enough to change his mind.
“We need to do that because we are in an international marketplace,” said Ivan Gazidis, MLS executive vice president. “Players such as Jason are attracting interest from other places around the world and we need to be competitive with that.”
Kreis’ contract, details of which were not revealed, is largely incentive-based, something Gazidis said will become more common.
“I doubt that it ever was enough for us to say to these young players, ‘Make the commitment to MLS, make the commitment to soccer in the States and that is a reward in itself,’ ” Gazidis said. “We need to make a financial environment for our players to thrive . . . on this side of the Atlantic.”
The big test, of course, will come when European clubs start waving large stacks of money in front of Columbus Crew forward Stern John, who already is being scouted by English teams.
If MLS really wants to be taken seriously, one of these days it is going to have to match those offers and stop being a league that can have all its brightest feathers plucked at will.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP
Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, FIFA’s president, and the entire FIFA executive committee will meet in Las Vegas later this month during the CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament.
Blatter hopes to use the occasion to announce how he has persuaded Asian countries not to boycott the 2002 World Cup, which they are threatening to do unless Asia is awarded a fifth berth in the tournament, to be held in Japan and South Korea.
Meanwhile, qualifying for the Sept. 28-Oct. 3 Champions Cup was completed in Central America, with Olimpia (Honduras), Alajuela (Costa Rica) and Saprissa (Costa Rica) earning places in the eight-team event.
Already qualified were D.C. United (USA), Toluca (Mexico), Chicago Fire (USA), Necaxa (Mexico) and Joe Public (Trinidad & Tobago).
The tournament will consist of four doubleheaders at Sam Boyd Stadium, scheduled for Sept. 28 (6 and 8 p.m.) and 29 (6 and 8 p.m.), and Oct. 1 (6 and 8 p.m.) and 3 (2 and 4 p.m.).
The winner will advance to the inaugural FIFA World Club Championship in Brazil in January.
QUICK PASSES
Soccer America magazine’s preseason All-Americans include UCLA defender Carlos Bocanegra and midfielders Sasha Victorine and Pete Vagenas, as well as Cal State Fullerton forward Colby Jackson. . . . The Tampa Bay Mutiny will play Puerto Rico’s national team Sept. 22 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. . . . The U.S. Under-17 national team that will play its Jamaican counterpart Wednesday in Kingston features five Californians, including forward Landon Donovan of Redlands and midfielder Bryan Jackson of La Canada. . . . Portland will become home to an A-League team starting in the 2001 season, with Civic Stadium being used as its home base. . . . Goals by Kerry Gragg and Jennifer Tietjen earned the W-League all-star team a 2-1 victory over University of Connecticut. . . . FIFA has given approval for the United States, along with Brazil, Egypt, Italy and Malaysia, to experiment with using two referees simultaneously on the field in domestic competition.
