The Torch is Passed

ATHENS, Greece –It began with a bang - a championship performance at the inaugural 1991 Women’s World Cup in China - and the energy that has defined the United States national team has somehow managed to sustain itself for nearly a decade and a half.

It was an amazing run but it was set to finally end at the 2004 Athens Summer Games. The XXVIII Olympiad was to be the final international stop for the heart and soul of Team USA.

Their names will become legend for all future generations of girls and young women who aspire to follow in their footsteps:

Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, and Kristine Lilly.

Criticism has been levied at Team USA coach April Heinrichs on her selections for both the 2003 Women’s World Cup and 2004 Olympic teams. Critics argued that the team was too old and could not keep up with younger legs and directed angry salvos at veteran players who refused to retire.

The truth, Heinrichs argued, was that no other country could match the veteran experience present in the team’s albeit aging legs. Youthful enthusiasm could only go so far.

Team USA’s third-place finish at the 2003 Women’s World Cup brought mixed results. The naysayers gloated while hearts sank among the team’s staunch supporters.

But the dream - and iron will - continued. On to Athens ... with essentially the same team.

The iron ladies from 1991 were going to finish their dream quest before handing the torch to a new generation.

Groans and cheers once again filled stadiums and living rooms alike.

It is difficult to walk away from something good, especially something that one has molded out of essentially nothing to stand as a shining example of perfection.

Team USA started with gold and finished with nothing less.

The past 13 years have seen a phenomenal for the growth of women’s soccer in this country. The 1991 and 1995 Women’s World Cups, though held on foreign soil, helped build a national image for the United States. That image exploded into vibrant colors or red, white and blue - and corporate sponsorship - following gold medal-winning performances at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 1999 Women’s World Cup. From that success a professional league - the Women’s United Soccer Association - was born and received its official launch with a league-wide training camp in March 2001 at the ARCO Olympic Training Center (Chula Vista, Calif.).

But after Head Coach Tony DiCicco stepped down, a slow decline ensued. First, the heavily-favored team earned only a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Then, a shocking semifinal loss left them scratching for bronze at the 2003 Women’s World Cup, won by Germany. For a period, the only women's championship was held by the young ones -- the inaugural Under 19 Women's World Championship in 2002, a team which produced Olympic goalscorers Lindsay Tarpley and Heather O'Reilly.

Having bequeathed the future of the team into such capable hands (or feet), Hamm will leave the sport as the world’s most prolific international scorer with more than 150 goals in more than 260 games. Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett will finish their careers with their second Olympic gold medals. Kristine Lilly will remain -- iron woman with more than 275 appearances in her 16-year international career. And Brandi Chastain will stay, to the relief of fans and marketers alike.

Others have already departed. Michelle Akers retired prior to the 2000 Olympics. Tiffany Milbrett retired after three Women’s World Cups and two Olympics. Among the notables who failed to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team were goalkeeper Siri Mullinix (2000 Olympics and 2003 WWC) and forward Shannon MacMillan (2000 Olympcs, 1999 and 2003 WWC).

It’s been a voyage filled with blood, sweat and tears, with ecstasy and celebration ... and well worth every second of it.

For Team USA’s “golden era” girls, thanks for the memories.

Fourteen of the 18 players named to the 2004 Athens Games roster were on Team USA’s 2003 Women’s World Cup Team, but only half -nine players - have participated in an Olympics in either 1996, 2000 or both.

Seven of the players earned a spot on their third Olympic Team: goalkeeper Briana Scurry, defenders Joy Fawcett and Brandi Chastain, midfielders Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly and forwards Mia Hamm and Cindy Parlow. All seven played a part in the USA’s 1996 gold medal victory in the first Olympic women’s soccer competition at the Atlanta Games.

Parlow remains the youngest U.S. women’s soccer Olympian, winning a gold medal in 1996 at the age of 18. This time around, the youngest player chosen to the Olympic roster is 19-year-old forward Heather O’Reilly, who was on track for a spot on the 2003 Women’s World Cup team before breaking her leg in a exhibition match three months prior to the tournament.

O’Reilly is joined on the Olympic roster by 20-year-old midfielder Lindsay Tarpley, the USA’s second leading scorer in 2004 with seven goals. In 2002, O’Reilly and Tarpley helped the U.S. Under-19 Women’s national team win the FIFA Under-19 Women’s World championship in Canada, as they formed two-thirds of a devastating front line that roared through the competition, scoring a combined 10 goals between them. Tarpley scored the “golden goal” that defeated the hosts 1-0 in the title game in front of almost 50,000 fans in Edmonton.

Besides O’Reilly and Tarpley, two other players were named to their first roster for a world championship event: defender Heather Mitts and goalkeeper Kristin Luckenbill, a Dartmouth graduate who is the only player from the Ivy League ever to earn a cap for the United States. Midfielder Angela Hucles, who was named to her first Olympic team, was a member of the 2003 Women’s World Cup Team, but did not see any action in the tournament.

The U.S. roster features a wide age range from 36-year-old Fawcett to O’Reilly, with an average age of 27.4. The most capped player on the roster is Lilly at 273 games- the most caps of any player in international soccer history. The least capped player on the roster is Luckenbill - the 2002 WUSA Goalkeeper of the Year - who has played just three matches, all in 2004.

While the U.S. team features a dynamic mixture of veterans and young talent, the squad will be a highly experienced one with the average caps per player on the 2004 Olympic team at an amazing 104.

Wambach was asked whether the younger players on the team felt any pressure to give the veteran players a winning send-off. “For us it's not pressure. We use a different term: an added sense of responsibility. We're using what they've taught us. You can't express in words what they've taught us,” she said.

“We've seen how the veterans handle pressure. They've taught us a great deal about how to focus on what's happening on the field,” said midfielder Shannon Boxx, whose sister won a gold medal in softball in 1996.

O'Reilly, meanwhile, carries fond memories of the 1999 Women's World Cup.

“I attended the opening game in New Jersey. I was 14 at the time, and I was like all my 14-year-old teammates, with my face painted and everything. I think I might have been more excited about seeing N-Sync during the pre-game ceremonies than I was about what was happening on the field. But that day definitely was a turning point for me in that I saw the game and knew that this was something that I'd like to do.”