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Closer Look Victrorine penalty gives U.S. victory in Olympic quarters
By Michael Lewis, CNNSI.com ADELAIDE, Australia -- For someone who was a last-minute replacement on the Olympic team and made his debut as a late substitute in the United States' fourth game of the Summer Games, midfielder Sasha Victorine suddenly found himself thrust into the spotlight on Saturday night. Not only did the Los Angeles Galaxy rookie attempt one of the penalty kicks against Japan that helped boost the U.S. into the semifinals of the men's soccer tournament, Victorine wound up taking the deciding kick. "Peter [Vagenas] wanted to take it first to get it started," Victorine said. "Clive [Charles, the coach] kind of put us around, and I wound up as No. 5. I said, 'Wait a second, why am suddenly becoming someone important?' But that was great." With the tiebreaker deadlocked at 4-4 and a chance to win the game with his kick, Victorine took the long walk from the center circle toward the goal at the north end of Hindmarsh Stadium. He was to face goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki, whose yellow and black jersey had been splattered from a bloody nose after a collision with teammate Yuji Nakazawa in the 76th minute. "The first thing I was thinking was that I wanted to make sure I was going to hit the ball solid," Victorine said. "I wanted to put some pace on it, keep it on frame and have a shot to go in. If he can get to it, the best to him. "It's one of those things that you try to stay as focused as possible and kill all the noise. The pressure, you kind of let it go. You take a few deep breaths. It's what you've been practicing for your whole life." And how focused was Victorine? "I didn't hear anything," he said. "I heard the whistle and that was about it." Victorine fired his shot toward the right corner. Narazaki got his hands on it, but the ball deflected into the inside netting. "I shot it, and all of a sudden the ball was by him," he said. "It was instantaneous. You always do a double-take to make sure it hit the net and went in. It was something that won't hit me for a couple of days, not until I get home to see my parents, family or girlfriend. It's something that will last forever." Victorine, 22, said he and his teammates weren't nervous before the kicks. "It was one of those games they tell you about when you're going through the processing at the Olympic center: 'This is where dreams come true and this is something that you will be thinking about for the rest of your life,'" he said. "We got together before PKs and said, 'Hey, relax, live this up. You're never going to have to this opportunity again. No matter what happens, we've done great.' "We felt good going in to take our kicks." Now the U.S. has a date with Spain in a semifinal in Sydney on Tuesday. A win would propel the Americans into the gold medal match. "I would like to say, yeah, but you never know," Victorine said. "With something like that, you're going to need luck and you're going to have to be playing well. Our team is trying to take it one game at a time. We're trying to get that shot to get that gold medal. "I think the team would be happy to get any medal." Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News. His third book, Soccer For Dummies, was published this spring.
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