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Monday, August 23

Gold medal game right place for curtain call

HERAKLIO, Crete - From a U.S. perspective, things were looking bleak. No Julie Foudy, no Brandi Chastain. They were both out of the game, Foudy with a turned ankle, Chastain having been replaced after playing the first 51 minutes. Some of the youngsters were now in the game, and, with just 3 1/2 minutes remaining, Germany scored to tie it. Of all the luck. The Germans, America's arch soccer enemy, had been sleepwalking through the entire game, and then, with the seconds ticking down, a German shot caromed off the right hip of defender Joy Fawcett into the U.S. goal.

It was a devastating turn of events for the Americans. This game was in the bag, a done deal, and now the Germans had found their second wind. They were back in the game. They looked for all the world as if they could win it.

Into overtime it goes, and ringing in the ears of all the youngsters - the ones who put up the Mia Hamm posters in their rooms not that many years ago, the ones who will carry on after the superstars retire from the national team Friday - are the words of coach April Heinrichs from the locker room before the game.

``We owe it to them,'' Heinrichs said, as she and her team faced a game that could have ended their run to the Olympic gold medal. ``We ought to make a tribute to the senior players while they're still playing. The fitting way to have these senior players go out of their last world championship is with a gold medal around their necks.''

Then, lo and behold, there's Mia Hamm herself, taking the ball in deep 8 1/2 minutes into the 30-minute overtime and flicking it back to a couple of the kids who might have asked for her autograph a decade ago, who are rushing toward the German goal.

The players are perfectly positioned. They are Heather O'Reilly, 19, and Abby Wambach, 24. They know where to be at least in part because they've been watching Hamm play on television for years. They know what she's going to do now. They've seen it dozens of times.

Hamm, 32, was born three months before President Nixon signed Title IX in 1972, the law that led to the college scholarships that enabled the O'Reillys and Wambachs of the world to become a part of the U.S. national team. She has set them up beautifully. In this case, the ball goes to O'Reilly's right foot, and she flicks it into the German net. The Americans take the lead and eventually win 2-1.

The kids have given Hamm, Foudy, Chastain and Fawcett the greatest gift they could possibly get. They have given them a chance at another Olympic gold medal, Thursday, back in Athens. For women who not only have distinguished themselves on the field of play, but also off of it as the ultimate soccer-girl role models, it's the only fitting stage for their curtain call.

``This is it for some of them,'' O'Reilly said after it was all over. ``As young players, we wouldn't be happy having them go out with anything but a gold medal.''

O'Reilly had Hamm posters over her bed ``for years and years and years and years,'' she said. She went to the 1999 Women's World Cup opening game at Giants Stadium with her face painted, ``screaming (her) head off for Mia.''

Wambach was watching the 1999 World Cup final game from a bar at the University of Florida. ``We feel so privileged on this team to be playing with these women,'' she said. ``We do have a sense of responsibility for these women because they're done so much for us.''

The final days of the careers of Hamm, Foudy and Fawcett, for sure, and perhaps Chastain are finally being acknowledged publicly by Heinrichs. She surprised the players by mentioning the impending farewell in her pregame pep talk; she hadn't said a word about it before. Her timing was impeccable; the ``win-one-for-the-Gipper'' speech was tailor made for facing Germany, which had ignominiously bounced the USA out of last year's World Cup in this same spot, the semifinals, 3-0.

In hindsight, this was no place for these women to lose. The cavernous Pankritio Stadium held a smattering of fans, basically the players' friends and families. The Greeks clearly do not yet appreciate women's soccer. It was such a far cry from the 90,000 in the Rose Bowl for the famous 1999 World Cup, or the 76,000 who filled the stadium in Athens, Ga., at the 1996 Olympics.

No, they wouldn't lose here. There had to be another game for the best-known and longest-lasting U.S. national teammates in any sport.

``Passing the torch?'' Foudy said. ``It's in such great hands. They will take the torch and fly with it.''

``I think,'' said Chastain, ``that it's the perfect story.''

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