It hangs over them now, the idea they could be 90 minutes from the end.
Julie Foudy felt it Friday while listening to the national anthem before the U.S. women’s soccer team played Japan in an Olympic quarterfinal, knowing the loser would be eliminated.
Foudy, the captain, was all too aware a defeat meant she never again would play for the women’s national team, with which she has won two world titles and one Olympic gold medal.
The same is true for Mia Hamm and Joy Fawcett. All three, among the best ever in the sport, are retiring from international play after this tournament.
“You know, as a player, you have to balance your emotions,” Foudy said Sunday via telephone from Crete, where Team USA meets Germany in a semifinal Monday night. “You don’t want to be hyperventilating.
“When I heard the national anthem against Japan, I had the thought this could be the last time. Then I said to myself, `Let’s not make this our last 90 minutes together.”‘
Foudy said the entire team has adopted that idea as it prepares to play Germany in a match many consider the final.
Brazil faces Sweden in the other semifinal. The final is Thursday in Athens.
Said Hamm:
“I don’t want [the younger players] to feel they have pressure on them to do it for us.”
The Germans ousted the defending champion U.S. 3-0 in the semifinals of last year’s World Cup and went on to beat Sweden in a brilliant final.
“We often talked after the Germany loss last year about, `If only I could have had another chance at it,”‘ Foudy said. “As a player, that’s the last thing you want to feel.
“We didn’t talk about it that much here because we didn’t want to look that far forward. But here we are with the second chance. There are a lot of smiles because we didn’t have to wait four years [to the next World Cup].”
This year’s German team is missing two of its leading players from the world champions. Midfielders Maren Meinert, the best player in the 2003 World Cup, and Bettina Wiegmann retired.
Meinert was the key to the German offense, creative in moving the ball forward and a dangerous scorer as well. Wiegmann was the best defensive midfielder in the World Cup.
“Those two are world-class, and not having them is a loss,” Foudy said.
“At the same time, they dismantled China 8-0.”
That was Germany’s opening Olympic match. While China no longer is the team that lost to the U.S. in the finals of the 1996 Olympics and 1999 World Cup, an 8-0 win in an elite tournament is impressive.
Birgit Prinz, the leading scorer in last year’s World Cup, is reprising that role with five Olympic goals. Four came in the rout of China.
Both Germany (3-0) and the U.S. (3-0-1) struggled to 2-1 victories in their quarterfinal matches.
The Americans were at a disadvantage in the quarterfinal because the odd format of the 10-team Olympic tournament meant it had played three first-round matches while Japan had played only two.
The U.S. had only two days’ rest compared with five for Japan, a big difference considering four mainstays of the team–Hamm, Foudy, Fawcett and Kristine Lilly–all are in their 30s.
While Germany has played one fewer match than the U.S., both come into the semifinal with two days’ rest.
“The setup is not ideal,” Foudy said.
Also not ideal is playing in a country that cares not a whit about women’s soccer. Only 1,418 spectators were at the U.S.-Japan quarterfinal in the 28,000-seat stadium at Thessaloniki, and it is unlikely there will be much of a crowd for the semifinals.
That is a far cry from the 90,000 who watched the 1999 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl or the 76,81 who saw the 1996 Olympic final in Athens … Georgia. They are the largest crowds ever to see a women’s sporting event.
“It hasn’t been a topic of discussion,” Foudy said.
“We know people are missing a good show, but they are watching [on TV] in the United States.”
