Team’s Fate Is in Good Hands

Only 14 months ago, Briana Scurry made the most memorable save of her career, flinging herself to her left at the Rose Bowl to turn away a shot by China’s Liu Ying, earning the U.S. a world championship.

Now, she watches from the bench.

Scurry, an Olympic gold medalist in 1996 and a veteran of 103 international games, has yielded her starting position on the U.S. women’s soccer team to Siri Mullinix.

Mullinix, 22, from Greensboro, N.C., will be in the nets here Thursday night against Norway when the U.S. begins its quest for a second gold medal.

“It’s all right,” Scurry, 29, said after practice Tuesday evening. “It’s been a tough year for me. I got injured and everything and it took too long to heal, so I lost my spot. But I’m confident in my abilities and I always have been.

“So I’m hoping things go well and hoping that we bring [the Olympic title] home again. I’m fine.”

The switch from Scurry to Mullinix--besides the retirement of Michelle Akers--is perhaps the most dramatic change to have taken place on the U.S. team since its Women’s World Cup victory in 1999.

The rapid rise of Mullinix from No. 4 to No. 1 has left U.S. Coach April Heinrichs in an enviable position.

“What we have are two phenomenal goalkeepers, and I think we’re probably the envy of the rest of the teams in the world,” Heinrichs said earlier this year. “It’s a wonderful position to be in.

“I’ll start Siri, but if something were to happen to Siri--she’s still a young goalkeeper--I have great confidence that Bri will be there when her country needs her.”

Mullinix, a University of North Carolina graduate, might be young, but she has plenty of experience. She started playing soccer at 5 and has been a goalkeeper from the start.

“I’ve always had the dream of someday playing in the Olympics,” she said.

Now, she gets her chance. The U.S. plays Norway, China and Nigeria in the first round, with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals. The other four-team group features Australia, Brazil, Germany and Sweden.

The gold medalist is expected to come from the U.S. group.

“It’s an incredible bracket,” Mullinix said. “They’re all going to be very tough, very competitive games. Two great teams out there at the same time. Right now, I’m just focusing on Norway.”

Mullinix shut out the Norwegians, 1-0, in the final of the Algarve Cup in Portugal in March, as the U.S. won the tournament for the first time.

It was her first international success and one that convinced Heinrichs she had made the correct decision in cutting World Cup ’99 backups Tracy Ducar and Saskia Webber and elevating Mullinix to No. 1, ahead of the injured Scurry.

“Making her a starter is the single biggest thing I could tell her,” Heinrichs said. “I don’t need to have words for it. She knows, and these players know, that if they’re a starter they’ve earned it and they deserve it and they’re ready for it and that the coaching staff and the other players have confidence in them.

“So the single best thing anyone could do for Siri Mullinix is just to name her the starter and say, ‘Siri, we support you, we understand you’ll make mistakes; we’re all out there making mistakes, every player makes mistakes.’ It’s just a difficult environment for defenders and goalkeepers. When they make mistakes it can result in a goal.

“But in fairness, if you track every goal scored against this team in the past year, there are probably five to seven people who made mistakes prior to the ball actually crossing the line.”

David Vanole, the former UCLA and U.S. national team goalkeeper from Manhattan Beach, is the goalkeeper coach for the U.S. women’s team. He echoes Heinrichs’ view that both keepers are virtually interchangeable.

“In terms of their similarities, they’re both extremely athletic,” Vanole said. “Without question, they’re very quick-footed, they’re very good shot-stoppers, they read the game very well.

“Siri has adapted very well to the way we play, with our flat back four or flat back three [defensive line], she’s very quick in behind the defense. She makes good decisions.”

Mullinix is basically a “keeper-sweeper,” combining the roles of goalkeeper and last-line defender and often roaming out to the edge of the penalty area rather than staying on her line.

“That’s not really the way we want to term it, but she’s required to play a lot higher,” Vanole said. “She’s done very well with it.”

Carla Overbeck, the veteran defender and U.S. co-captain, believes the ability of Mullinix and Scurry to play with their feet as well as their hands helps immensely.

“As a defender, it’s great because now the goalkeepers are so far off their line that they’re cleaning balls up that are bouncing behind us,” she said. “Defenders don’t have to make that 30- or 40-yard sprint tracking the ball down.

“The defenders are very comfortable with both of them. The defense and the entire team are confident with both.”

Mullinix said she and Scurry get along well.

“Out there, there are things that I pick up from her every day just from her experience,” she said. “I think we both push each other in practice. Off the field, I get along with her just as well, if not better, than some of the other players.”

What Heinrichs especially likes about Mullinix, who also played basketball and volleyball as a youngster, is her apparent unflappability, for want of a better word.

“I think that even as a college player she was fairly composed, but there was an adjustment to the international level,” Heinrichs said.

“She continues to make great decisions and great saves for us. She gives us a presence in the back with her ability to receive and pass balls with her feet that is the cutting edge of the women’s game.

“Siri is one of the most calm, pleasant goalkeepers I’ve ever seen, and I think it’s that very calmness, that composure, that makes her so special in the goal.”

It’s all an act, Mullinix said.

“Before a game I’m always nervous, no matter who I’m playing,” she admitted. “That leads up pretty much through warm-ups. And then as soon as I get on the field and get my first touch on the ball once the game starts, then I kind of relax.”

Mullinix has played only 22 games for the national team since her debut in 1999, but her 13 shutouts this year already have broken Scurry’s single-year record.

“Right now, she’s ready for this competition, as is Bri, as is the entire team,” Vanole said.