U.S. Women Come Up Short
LOULE, Portugal — The rivalry between the United States and China, in the headlines lately, is heating up in soccer as well.
It got hotter Saturday, when a 26-year-old woman from Shanghai named Jin Yan set off on a powerful diagonal run across the Estadio Municipal turf, outpacing several defenders and firing a shot past the onrushing goalkeeper and into the net.
The goal, which gave China a 2-1 victory over the United States in the final of the Algarve Cup, was like a blade plunged into American hearts. Five times the U.S. women’s national team has played in the tournament and five times it has been denied the championship.
And that does not set well.
If the teams meet again in the final of the third FIFA Women’s World Cup at the Rose Bowl on July 10, as is quite possible, Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck, Briana Scurry and the rest of the U.S. team will remember this afternoon, this game and this result.
“We said in the locker room, what you do is you store it,” said midfielder Julie Foudy, the U.S. co-captain. “You store it and you win in June and July. That’s when it counts.
“The key is, we’ve got to learn something from it. How do we deal with China? That’s the first time they’ve beaten us in a long time [since 1993]. So they’ve gotten better and we need to get better in the next four months.
“But it’s better to lose now than in June and July. So that’s what we come out of this with.”
The U.S. might have come out of it with a victory, but for a couple of ifs.
If Brandi Chastain had not slammed a second-half penalty kick into the crossbar after Mia Hamm had been fouled by Chinese goalkeeper Gao Hong, the U.S. might have taken a 2-1 lead and held on.
“She hit it the way she wanted, she just didn’t put it on the frame [on target],” U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco said. “When you step up and take a penalty, you’ve got to be prepared that some day you’re going to miss one because otherwise you’re always afraid that you’re going to miss it.
“Brandi has a great mentality. She’ll live with that and therefore she’ll make most of them.”
If Cindy Parlow had not been only 80% effective because of a hamstring injury, she might have beaten Gao when she found herself one-on-one against the Chinese keeper. Instead, Gao managed a superb one-handed save.
“The keeper came up big, she made a great save,” said Parlow, a 20-year-old forward from Memphis. “I was trying to go from the outside on the right to the left post [with the shot] and she made a great save. Unlucky.”
China, a 2-1 loser against the U.S. in the gold-medal game at the Atlanta Olympics, turned the tables this time around.
Fast, skillful and determined, the Chinese gave as good as they got and then some.
They took the lead in the 16th minute when midfielder Sun Wen sneaked in behind the U.S. defense on the right and crossed the ball into the goal area for forward Pu Wei to power a downward header into the U.S. net, beating goalkeeper Scurry from close range.
The U.S. tied the score seconds before halftime when a throw-in from Chastain to Parlow was headed by the forward, with the ball falling to Tiffeny Milbrett, who knocked in her tournament-high fourth goal.
The U.S. did most of the attacking in the second 45 minutes but always looked susceptible to Chinese counterattacks.
Finally, Jin’s goal in the 65th minute turned fears into reality.
“We wanted to get the monkey off our back today [by winning the tournament],” DiCicco said. “But China’s a good team, they played a good game, they did what they had to. They made their chances and we didn’t make ours.”
Foudy expressed the real U.S. disappointment.
“We even gave up golf to reach the final,” she said. “We haven’t played golf all week.”
The Cup might have been lost, but the sense of humor is intact.
In other games Saturday, Norway defeated Denmark for third place, winning 4-1 on penalty kicks after tying, 2-2, in regulation.
Australia defeated Sweden for fifth place, winning 7-6 on penalty kicks after tying, 1-1, in regulation. Portugal defeated Finland, 2-1, to take seventh place.
