To keep its gold-medal hopes alive, the U.S. will need forward Abby Wambach to take the motivational role once held by now-retired Michelle Akers. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

ATHENS -- Over the next three weeks, you'll hear plenty of gauzy tributes to the five U.S. women's soccer pioneers who are playing their final major tournament together at the Olympics.

Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly and Joy Fawcett: Their accolades are well-earned, their legacies secure. Among American national teams, only the 1980 Olympic hockey gold medalists can match the U.S. women's cultural and historical impact, and even that might be a stretch.

But on Wednesday, when the U.S. debuts against Greece (in a mismatch only former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne could love), we'll begin learning the answer to a more pressing question, one that has nothing to do with past achievements:

Can they still win the big one?

For the first time since 1996, the Americans enter a world championship without a current Olympic or World Cup title in their trophy case. The 3-2 loss to Norway in the 2000 Olympic gold-medal game could be explained away as an undeserved result in a classic encounter. But the 3-0 semifinal defeat to Germany in last year's World Cup -- on home soil, no less -- revealed fundamental flaws of a fallen empire.

Thoroughly dominated as the more skillful Germans exposed the Americans' "cross-and-hope-for-the-best" strategy, the U.S. seemed ripe for an overhaul -- starting at the top with fifth-year coach April Heinrichs, who's now 0-for-2 in tournaments that matter.

Instead, Heinrichs was rewarded with a contract extension, and the central figures from 2003 have all returned to give it another shot.

The 2004 Olympic tournament has some profoundly strange quirks. Defending champ Norway didn't qualify, while overmatched Greece won an automatic bid as the host. What's more, the unbalanced 10-team field means the U.S. will play three first-round games in a four-team group, while their counterparts in the other two groups (with three teams each) will play only two first-round matches.

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You heard it right: Gold-medal candidates Sweden and Germany will play one less group game than the Americans. One less game to avoid a freak injury. One less game to help preserve their legs for the medal round.

So much for keeping things equal. (For this we can thank our friends at FIFA and the IOC, who are still struggling to understand that women's soccer deserves the same respect as the men's game.)

Likewise, in a bizarre set-up reminiscent of the MLS playoffs, eight of the 10 teams will make the knockout rounds. As a result, the U.S. will likely not have a pressure-packed game until a possible semifinal showdown against Germany.

Yet the U.S. has reasons for optimism, too. The Yanks showed flashes of their old selves in a recent 3-1 win over China. The once formidable Chinese and Brazilians are rebuilding and don't figure to challenge for the gold medal. That leaves World Cup '03 finalists Sweden and Germany as the Yanks' main competition, but Swedish star forward Hanna Ljungberg isn't 100 percent after an ACL injury earlier this year -- Norway smashed the Swedes 4-0 in a friendly two weeks ago -- and Germany will be missing retired playmaker Maren Meinert.

Then again, the U.S. hasn't been the same since the retirement of the legendary Michelle Akers before the 2000 Olympics. Will this be the tournament when forward Abby Wambach takes over for Akers as the team's money player and unrepentant ass-kicker? Will the Americans rediscover their soccer skills and start scoring out of the run of play again? (In World Cup '03 the vast majority of their goals came on set pieces.) For that matter, will Heinrichs finally provide some evidence that she deserved to keep her job?

Wednesday's opener against Greece won't tell us much -- we're calling it for the U.S. by a touchdown -- but we'll find out more soon enough. Like, say, in Saturday's much-anticipated dustup with the Brazilians.

Meanwhile, on the men's side ...

The men's Olympic tournament has always been a screwy event, thanks to FIFA's refusal to allow any events to rival the World Cup. Olympic soccer is what it is: an age-group tournament (each team is allowed three players over age 23) that showcases a handful of stars who could shine at the next World Cup. To be frank, though, this year's event is only the third-most important competition of the summer (after the European Championship and Copa América).

After a surprise fourth-place finish in 2000, the U.S. failed to qualify this time around, wetting the bed in a do-or-die game against Mexico. Also absent (sigh) are Brazil and all three medalists from 2000: Cameroon, Spain and Chile.

Argentina is easily the team to beat, which brings a raft of recognizable and entertaining figures in Javier Saviola, Carlos Tevez, Roberto Ayala, Andrés D'Alessandro, Kily González and Gabriel Heinze. It's basically the same team that finished second at the Copa América, and if the albiceleste doesn't bring home its first soccer gold medal it will be considered an unqualified failure.

There's a modicum of star power on some other teams as well. Portugal brings Manchester United darling Cristiano Ronaldo along with Luis Boa Morte and Hugo Viana. Italy boasts A.C. Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo and superlative scorer Alberto Gilardino. Japan is offering the overaged midfielder Shinji Ono, while South Korea counters with World Cup vets Yoo Sang Chul and Lee Chun Soo.

Otherwise, the 16-team field is a pretty thin gruel, even for the Olympics. Perhaps the best story will be Iraq, which surprisingly qualified and debuts on Thursday against Portugal. Don't sleep on the Iraqis: this same team reached the semifinals of the recent Asian Cup, beating Saudi Arabia's senior side in the process, and an Iraqi qualification for the next World Cup is a distinct possibility.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl keeps you up to date with the world of U.S. soccer at SI.com.