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New and old join forces as U.S. defends title
It's been more than a year now since the U.S. women's soccer team defeated China to win the World Cup in dramatic fashion. Although this year's team has new members and a new coach, familiar names like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain remain. With their first match in the Olympics coming on September 14, the challenge is to get this new collection of stars ready to defend their Olympic gold medal, earned at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. "Even though we won in 1999, you have to continually prove yourself, to push yourself to the next level, to find the resolve inside of yourself, and as a team to go forward," Chastain says. "And that is why we train every day. That's why we want to move to Sydney and that's why we want to move to Sydney and that's why we want to show soccer on the world stage what this game is all about." On July 14-16, team USA faces a crucial test as it travels to Europe where it will compete in a round-robin tournament with Norway, host country Germany and World Cup runner-up China, which beat the U.S. earlier this year at the Pacific Cup.
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