By Paul
Martinez
WSPW Staff Writer
Against a background of scoring fireworks
provided by youngsters Aly Wagner, Abby Wambach and Shannon Boxx, Fab Five
members Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy played their final games and, together with
Joy Fawcett, retired from international soccer.
15,547 fans were on hand to see their final
game and farewell at the Home Depot Center in Carson Wednesday, which they
won 5-0 against Mexico. Post-game, Hamm tried to thank the fans with a victory
lap, but the fans' view was continually obscured by hulking TV cameramen
and their assistants, who captured her for a TV interview before she had
made it halfway around.
With 158 goals, she retires as the leading
scorer of all time, man or woman -- but how long she holds that title remains
to be seen, as Abby Wambach quietly set the record of most goals in a season
(32) during the game.
The match was the last in the post-Athens
Fan Celebration Tour, in which the US went 9-1. Hamm nearly scored just minutes
into the contest with a crossbar shot. Not long after, she dribbled near
the box, attracting out Mexican goalkeeper Pamela Tajonar, and passed
off to Aly Wagner who scored easily.
Hamm also assisted the second goal. Abby
Wambach was able to easily head her perfectly fed corner kick. Wambach and
Wagner each scored once more and Shannon Boxx chipped in a fifth goal.
With the retirements, Brandi Chastain and
Kristine Lilly remain the last vestiges of the 1991 team that has made women's
sports history. However, it remains possible that all five members will play
in the WUSA league, if it is restarted in 2005.
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