WWC hero not as obvious as it seems
By Rob Miech
SportsLine Staff Writer
PASADENA, Calif. -- Just when China threatened to score the first goal of the last day of the Women's World Cup, a lily sprouted from the left post to surprise Fan Yunjie.
The Americans called Kristine Lilly's header in the mouth of the goal, off Yunjie's header, a simple case of being in the right place at the right time at the end of the first 15-minute extra period Saturday.
It kept the United States alive in its Final against China, and it gave the hosts a healthy dose of hope to press the Chinese in the second extra period and survive for a penalty-kick shootout.
The U.S. pulled the curtain down on China on premonitions by goalkeeper Briana Scurry and coach Tony DiCicco, which proved critical in the Americans' 5-4 edge in penalty kicks that gave them the World Cup trophy.
Before the final, Brazil beat Norway by the same penalty-kick score after those two countries played the third-place game to a scoreless, two-hour draw.
"You hate to see it come down to zero-zero, but that's the nature of the game," DiCicco said. "There will be naysayers, and that's all right. But if you can't find strength in that effort, I'm not sure you're a sports fan."
A Rose Bowl crowd of 90,185, which crushed the three-week-old record for a women's soccer match by more than 10,000, erupted after Brandi Chastain's goal on the final penalty kick. A perfect ending to an event whose snowballing popularity caught the nation, and likely other parts of the world, by surprise.
Even Marla Messing, the ever-positive president of the WWC organizing committee who helped shift these games from small-time arenas to the biggest football stadiums all over the country, was shocked.
By dusk Saturday, Messing was laughing, dancing and celebrating so much at a nearby watering hole that a colleague couldn't hear her talk on a cellular telephone.
THE ONLY CONNECTION SCURRY REQUIRED to give the hosts an edge was telepathic. As Liu Ying, third in China's five-player kicking order, strolled to the 12-yard mark, Scurry knew she'd deny Ying. Scurry did.
And Chastain finished off the Chinese with her left foot. She had missed three penalty kicks this season, so DiCicco recommended booting the ball with her left foot.
Moments before turning in his official order to referee Nicole Mouidi-Petignat, DiCicco asked Chastain if she felt confident enough to kick with her left foot. She said she was, so DiCicco slipped Chastain from No. 6 to No. 5, bumping Julie Foudy from fifth to sixth.
Chastain curled the ball into the right side of the net, winning the World Cup for the U.S. for the second time in eight years. She quickly slipped off her jersey, revealing a dark sports bra, and knelt on the ground with her fists in the air.
"Momentary insanity," Chastain said. "Nothing more, nothing less. I was very confident in my left foot, and I didn't want to look at (Chinese goalkeeper) Gao (Hong). Sometimes when you do that, she'll smile and make you feel uneasy."
THE SHINY GOLD MEDALS AND THE new $30,000 WCC trophy are all American property, though, because of Lilly, a 28-year-old midfielder from Wilton, Conn., who just happens to be the most experienced international player in soccer history -- male or female.
Lilly helped North Carolina win four NCAA titles, then she made her debut for her country, as did Mia Hamm, 12 years ago in Tianjin, China. She played in her 186th game for the U.S. on Saturday, an international record Lilly extends every time she takes the field.
That's why she was so nonchalant about her Cup-saving header.
"I wasn't," Lilly said, when someone asked her what she was thinking on the play. "I was just heading it. No thoughts. I don't know if it saved (the game). A lot of people saved it. I was there, doing my job."
Ying set the stage for Lilly's heroics by sending a corner kick from the left side into the front of the U.S. net, offering Fan Yunjie a perfect opportunity to head the ball into the goal. On such plays, Lilly stays a foot inside the near post and Tiffeny Milbrett stands a foot inside the far post, cutting down Scurry's margin for error.
Lilly didn't have to budge to bang the ball out of the danger zone.
After the game, Chastain said her and her teammates already commiserated about Lilly's excellent play, concluding it was nothing special and that DiCicco's system worked to perfection.
"She did her job," Chastain said. "Nothing more, nothing less. She was where she should have been."
Scurry couldn't dismiss it that easily.
"Kristine is a workhorse," Scurry said. "She's one of the best players in the world, and there's no one I trust more on that post than Kristine."
Lilly addressed the media while sitting on a metal chair with Joy Fawcett's young daughter, Katie, on her lap. She said she had made two similar stops in her life, once in college and the other on the national side.
"That's my spot," Lilly said. "I know that post. I was just in the right spot, and it went right to my head."
AT THE VERY LEAST, DEHYDRATION and exhaustion combined to numb U.S. midfielder Michelle Akers' head at the very end of the 90 minutes of regulation. She crumpled to the ground 20 feet from Scurry, and television replays failed to reveal the source of a possible concussion.
In any event, Akers, who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, was being treated with intravenous fluids after the game, but there were no plans to take her to a hospital.
That's when the American defense was put on red alert. Fawcett moved from the defense to the midfield to cover for Akers, Sara Whalen hopped off the bench to cover for Fawcett and China started to exploit the U.S. backfield.
"She closes up the midfield single-handedly," Scurry said. "She is unbelievable, and she's such a key. She played great defense the whole tournament."
It's no coincidence the Americans spent most of the first 15 extra minutes on their heels, backpedaling to keep up with the suddenly aggressive Chinese forwards and midfielders. The U.S. players gasped for air and water during the minute intermission, and the captains took over.
Carla Overbeck and Julie Foudy had some things to say.
"They pulled us together," Chastain said.
"We were exhausted, physically and mentally," Overbeck said. "Then we got together and rallied. We talked about not wanting our dreams to end here. We told our minds that we weren't tired, and we were going to leave all that we had out on that field."
HAMM AND COMPANY THEN turned the tables on China in the second extra period, forcing the ball into China's backfield often but just not clicking on their connections.
"In the first extra period, they dominated," DiCicco said. "In the second, we dominated."
The stalemate was settled in penalty kicks, just as it was in the men's World Cup five years ago when Brazil defeated Italy on penalty kicks 3-2, after the two sides played to a scoreless draw.
China's Xie Huilin and Qiu Haiyan, and Overbeck and Fawcett of the U.S. all hit their kicks to make it 2-2, and a funny feeling swept over Scurry as Liu Ying walked up to the chalk mark 12 yards from the middle of the goal.
"I knew that I'd get that one," Scurry said. "I can't explain what it is or how it happens. Every once in a while, I get that feeling. I got it when I saw her walking toward the ball."
YING POUNDED IT TO the right, but Scurry blocked it easily with both of her hands. She sat alone, 15 feet away from the team huddle, before the penalty kick stage had commenced, getting that glare. DiCicco, who runs goaltending camps, told Scurry to stay "positive and strong."
After denying Ying, Scurry nearly jumped out of the Rose Bowl. She triumphantly arched around the field to her left side, pumping an arm a la Tiger Woods. Lilly followed with an easy goal by the left of China goalkeeper Gao for a 3-2 lead.
Zhang Ouying pummeled the ball to the right of Scurry, who guessed correctly with a dive but couldn't get a fingertip on the well-placed ball, and then Hamm reluctantly stepped in. Difficult as it is to believe, the person with more international goals than anyone, with 111, has a confidence problem from 12 yards away.
Especially with a sellout crowd in the Rose Bowl and a global television audience holding its breath. Assistant coach Lauren Gregg said Hamm inquired about being left off the first-five list. No way, DiCicco said. And Hamm nailed it between the right post and Gao.
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| Brandi Chastain game-winning penalty kick insures Kristine Lilly's play is not in vain.(AP) |
Sun Wen equalized for China, firing a rocket by Scurry to make it 4-4 and setting up the outcome on Chastain's left foot. She had redeemed herself for scoring an own goal for Germany in the quarterfinals and obliterated the German gaffe for good.
"WE'D BEEN TALKING ABOUT HER taking penalty kicks with her left foot for a month," DiCicco said. "I asked her before I finalized the lineup if she was prepared to take it lefty, and she was. If she hadn't been, I wouldn't have changed the lineup."
The first four Americans took right-footed shots, beginning their short runs -- from Gao's angle -- from the right side of the ball. DiCicco said he would have been thrown off, too, had he been between the posts and someone was preparing to take a shot at him from the left side of the ball.
"Yeah," DiCicco said, "it would have confused me."
There's little confusion about Saturday's star. DiCicco has told Scurry that no goalkeeper can be a goat once a game hinges on penalty kicks. If you make one save, you're a hero. Make two, and they name a monument after you in your hometown.
In Wilton, Conn., they can build the Lilly Memorial with marble, alabaster or even concrete, a plain material that Kristine Lilly would probably prefer. But the head had better be golden.
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