U.S. Women Rout Scotland
Good thing it was a so-called “friendly,” or the rout might have been much bigger.
The United States used hat tricks by forwards Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach to defeat Scotland, 8-2, in a women’s game in front of 6,295 Sunday at Columbus, Ohio.
It was the 10th three-goal game for Hamm and the first for Wambach, and it was the first time two U.S. players had hat tricks in the same game since June 2, 2000. Hamm and Wambach are teammates on the Washington Freedom of the Women’s United Soccer Assn.
Cindy Parlow and Shannon MacMillan also scored for the U.S., which was tied with Scotland, 2-2, at halftime. Julie Fleeting and Debbie McWhinnie scored for Scotland.
The Americans dominated in the second half after Coach April Heinrichs made four substitutions at halftime.
Midfielder Lorrie Fair made her 100th appearance for the U.S., becoming the second youngest--behind Parlow--and 14th player to reach that milestone with the team.
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Club America Rolls
There’s no longer a first-place tie in Group 1 of the Mexican league.
Chilean national team standout Ivan Zamorano scored twice and Club America defeated Atlante, 4-1, to reach 15 points with a 5-0-0 record and move ahead of Toluca (4-1-1, 13 points) in the group.
Toluca was upset by Monterrey, 3-1, Saturday night.
Zamorano opened the scoring against Atlante in the 12th minute, controlling a shot from teammate Raul Salinas that had bounced off the post. Antonio Castro made it 2-0 with a goal 24 minutes later. Mexico national team member Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored in the 44th minute for a 3-0 lead at the half.
Zamorano got his second goal in the 64th minute. Paulo Serafin scored for Atlante.
The Chivas of Guadalajara won for the first time this season, beating Universitario de Nuevo Leon, 4-0, behind goals by Rafael Medina, Emilio Mora, David Mendoza and Omar Bravo.
Queretaro and the UNAM Pumas battled to a 1-1 tie, and Celaya used goals by Diego Cagna and Brazilian standout Claudinho to beat Pachuca, 2-0.
Mexico City’s Cruz Azul got two late goals from Sebastian Abreu to outlast an upstart Santos squad, 3-1.
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Dallas Loses Cerritos
Dallas Burn forward Ronald Cerritos is scheduled for season-ending surgery Tuesday, a significant blow to the playoff-bound Major League Soccer team.
After scoring in the 14th minute, Cerritos fractured the tibia and strained a ligament in his right knee in the second half of the Burn’s 3-1 loss to the New York-New Jersey MetroStars on Thursday at Dallas.
Cerritos was the fourth-leading scorer on the Burn with four goals and six assists for 14 points.
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Vogts Feels the Heat
Soccer scribes around the world can be downright brutal, and the ones in Scotland are having a field day with national team Coach Berti Vogts, the former Germany coach.
The latest barrage came after Scotland, coached by Vogts, was forced to rally with two second-half goals to tie lowly Faroe Islands, 2-2, in Saturday’s opening round of qualifiers for the 2004 European Championships.
At Glasgow, the Sunday Mail urged Vogts to resign after failing to beat a team ranked No. 123 in the FIFA world rankings.
“Your time’s run out Berti” was the headline on the paper’s back page.
The front-page headline in the Scottish News of the World read, “Faroes 2 Zeros 2,” and the back-page headline said, “Clueless.”
Vogts is 0-5-1 since taking over as Scotland’s coach in February. The five consecutive defeats were the longest skid in Scotland’s 130 years of international competition.
Vogts, however, has at least one supporter.
“There’s definitely a bit of the Scottish character in him,” David Taylor, chief executive of the Scottish Football Assn., told the News of the World. “When things go wrong he doubles his efforts.
“Berti is definitely the right appointment along with Rainer Bonhof [under-21 coach] to reshape Scottish football.”
