BEIJING — Two were playing on their high school teams. Four were on national youth teams. One goalie had exactly one appearance for the U.S. seniors. And if you can name the four players back starting on the U.S. women’s soccer team from the last Olympics, you’re either related or truly committed.
Women’s soccer kicks off the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday, and if you want Breakfast from Beijing, the U.S. team you’ll see play Norway at 5:45 a.m. MDT won’t be terribly recognizable. Oh, you’ll see Hope Solo in goal. It tells you something about the transition state of U.S. women’s soccer when the team’s most recognizable figure has returned from forced exile.
Gone are Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Jay Fawcett and Kristine Lilly. The Fab Five, architects of the American women’s soccer craze with the 1999 World Cup win, played their last match together when they beat Brazil for the 2004 Olympic gold.
In are Shannon Boxx, Kate Markgraf, Christie Rampone and Aly Wagner. They all started alongside the Fab Five and here step out of the huge shadows to redesign the face of U.S. women’s soccer.
“We have no stars today,” coach Pia Sundhage said, “but there will be stars tomorrow.”
Sundhage, 48, is in charge of smoothing the road ahead. U.S. Soccer hurried her in last year to repair the ill-fated campaign of Greg Ryan. She brought a new attacking style from her native Sweden and the team has responded with a 21-0-1 mark in 2008. They haven’t given up a goal in their past seven games.
But she enters an Olympics in which Brazil wants revenge for a gold-medal loss it didn’t think it deserved in Athens and with America’s best player, Abby Wambach,out with a broken leg. The spotlight is open, ladies. Someone must step into it.
“We’re on the road to getting experience,” Sundhage said from Qinhuangdao, the Yellow Sea coastal city where they’ll play Wednesday. “Tomorrow’s generation is developing with the older generation. That creates stars.”
However, will it create interest? American soccer fans respond to huge competitions they witness first hand, like the men’s and women’s World Cups in the U.S., and they respond to the Olympics. If the U.S. bombs here, no big names will emerge.
Losing Wambach was huge. With 99 goals, she’s the only American on the roster with at least 28. She scored six goals in last year’s World Cup. Her replacement had yet to be decided between Amy Rodriguez, on her first year with the national team; Lauren Cheney, the alternate who replaced Wambach on the roster; and Angela Hucles, a career reserve.
“My glass is half-full,” Sundhage said. “(Wambach) helped them so much on the road to the Olympics. She played a significant part in that. Now she’s broken her leg and we change again. We’ve talked about change from the beginning.”
Sundhage had to change a lot after Ryan. The former Colorado College coach, in one of the more disastrous coaching decisions in the history of American sport, dumped Solo for Briana Scurry before last year’s World Cup semifinal match with Brazil despite Solo pitching two straight shutouts.
What happened is as ingrained in the American women’s soccer following as Chastain’s winning penalty kick in ’99. Brazil rolled, 4-0, Solo popped off, got booted then returned to the team after Ryan got tossed. Some players gave her the cold shoulder but it’s a different vibe today.
Scurry is even back, lending support as the No. 3 goalie.
“It is yesterday’s news,” Sundhage said.
So, also, is the United States’three 1-0 wins over Brazil since then. Marta, plus starters Daniela and Cristiane, didn’t start for Brazil in the last two exhibition losses to the U.S., including one in Commerce City, and Brazil is a medal favorite. The U.S. is not.
“It’s not important,” Sundage said of beating a depleted Brazil. “First, we’re concentrating on the three games in the Olympics. Second, we played against that style.”
The U.S. shows its new style to America on Wednesday. These Olympics will determine if America has new women’s soccer stars tomorrow.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
