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Year in review U.S. women mine silver as an era ends
By Scott French, Soccer America A year in transition nearly ended in Olympic gold for the U.S. women, who now look to the WUSA to overcome challenges. The women's game has started to step out of the dark ages. An era in which the American juggernaut could dominate all its foes is over. The differences between the U.S. women's team that charmed America in 1999 and the squad that settled for silver 14 months later at the Sydney Olympics were indeed profound. This was a transition year for the program, and hardly the last. A new coach brought in a new system and switched some personnel, and seven grueling months of preparations -- 30 games, with five tournament titles -- created a squad that at its best could make a case as the finest the United States has fielded. Its worst was something else. Both sides were presented in Australia, where the Americans offered alternately brilliant and abysmal displays en route to a scintillating final captured in overtime by Norway. When it was done, talk centered on whether it was the end of an era. Already gone was Michelle Akers, the final straw a shoulder injury that forced her international retirement just before the Olympic Games. Captain Carla Overbeck would be gone once the fall's friendlies were played out. "It's possibly the last time this group is together," Julie Foudy surmised after the medal ceremony. "I think that's what's so hard." Actually, most of the familiar faces aren't going anywhere. Akers and Overbeck, perhaps, but almost everyone else -- Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Joy Fawcett, Tiffeny Milbrett, Brandi Chastain, Foudy -- is expected to soldier on. It won't be the same.
The model that worked for Anson Dorrance and Tony DiCicco, whose enormously successful U.S. squads were more akin to club sides than to any traditional notion of what is a national team, is losing its validity. THE GOLDEN AGE. The birth of the WUSA, along with several internal factors, is making certain of that. No longer will the U.S. women be, as they have the past decade or so, a longstanding, mostly self-contained outfit spending months together at a time. The group preparing for Sydney was the last U.S. women's team, barring the WUSA's failure, in residency. The character of the team is bound to change, but there are pluses to that, not the least of which is this: The women's game demands it. The golden age, in which the Americans ran roughshod over everybody except Norway and China, appears to be over. That was one of the themes presented during the Olympic tournament, in which they survived tellingly difficult encounters with Nigeria and Brazil. With a little more fortune, the Americans might have had their fourth title in five major world tournaments dating to 1991, but their failure at the finish was merely a footnote to the real tale. LEAVING THE DARK AGES. Women's soccer is in transition from one era to the next, leaving a dark age (for everybody except the United States, China and the northern Europeans) for a modern world in which the sport, all involved hope, has a role to play. Last year's Women's World Cup, and its overwhelming acceptance by the American public, was the hinge; the WUSA, if it is everything its creators promise, could prod things far along. It promises great benefits for the U.S. women, especially in terms of player development. The WUSA will broaden April Heinrichs' player pool, as Major League Soccer's arrival aided the U.S. men. "The difficult things will be cohesiveness and camaraderie and the subtleties of our play," said Heinrichs, a former U.S. captain who took charge of the national team last January. "We're much like a club team right now, and in the future we're going to be a bit more like an all-star team." More like every other national team, or nearly every national team. Three years of WUSA competition -- keeping in mind that several pivotal U.S. players are nearing or past 30 -- and no telling which Americans will defend the WWC title in 2003. It's easier to guess what they'll face. Nigeria and Brazil, the teams that have made the greatest strides in recent years, provided a likely glimpse of the future in their Olympic battles with the United States. Although in control of the group clash with Nigeria from the start, the U.S. squad struggled with the Super Falcons' athleticism and physical play. The Nigerians were often brutal tacklers, willing to go through a plant foot to get to the ball, and the Yanks found themselves pulling back in confrontations. A more savvy squad might have accomplished what the Nigerians couldn't. BETTER BRAZILIANS. The Brazilians were the better side in the semifinal, disrupting the Americans with numbers in midfield and a willingness to get down and dirty. The U.S. goal, by Hamm, stood only because a foul committed by Milbrett wasn't called, and the Yanks' time-wasting tactics in the closing minutes -- an ugly if effective display -- earned the ire of an unimpressed Canberra crowd. The Americans played much better in its two matches against Norway and against China, superior foes who played without the venom displayed by the Nigerians and Brazilians. Up-and-coming nations will certainly take notice. "My biggest fear is negative soccer ... I just hope and pray that doesn't happen," said Heinrichs. "We can't sit back idling and make it a wish. We have to put some things in place that help control that." She has some ideas on how to do so, and there are certain things she'd like to incorporate into the U.S. game. "There's no way you can go through a tournament like this, see the quality of soccer and the various styles, and not want to have a piece of Germany's game in your game," Heinrichs said. "And I'm eager to see what the WUSA will do for our level overall." Scott French is a senior editor at Soccer America magazine.
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