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Battling SWANZ Keep Hamm Scoreless Once More;
USA Hit NZ For Five Again
by Jeremy Ruane
Football's a funny game, isn't it? Take the case of Mia Hamm, unquestionably one of the finest footballers of either gender to grace the game.
She has played 194 games for her country, the USA, scoring 118 goals in the process - a record tally in international soccer, be it men's or women's.
Amazingly, none of those goals have come against New Zealand, who have provided the opposition to the World and Olympic champions on four occasions in the last thirteen years.
The first clash, in December 1987, saw the SWANZ record a famous 1-0 victory over the USA, who included Hamm and her 203-times-capped team-mate, Kristine Lilly, in their line-up that day.
Both were on deck when the Americans extracted revenge in 1993, to the tune of 3-0 in the Chiquita Cup, the forerunner of the annual US Women's Cup tournament. But Hamm missed the 1998 encounter between the countries, a match which the USA won 5-0.
That scoreline was repeated at the Campbelltown Sports Stadium on June 4, New Zealand's battling Pacific Cup performance in the face of the best women's side inn the world earning them a standing ovation from some, and a hearty round of applause from all at the end of their ninety minute encounter with the country which has set the standards by which all other women's soccer-playing nations are judged.
In losing 5-0 to the Americans, however, the SWANZ kept the first lady of women's soccer scoreless once again, maintaining their record as one of the few countries whose defences she has failed to breach.
It wasn't for the want of trying, however, Hamm doing everything but score in a match in which New Zealand only rarely tested the USA's defensive prowess - the triumverate of Christie Pearce, Brandi Chastain and Danielle Slaton, plus goalkeeper Siri Mullinix, dealt most capably with the SWANZ occasional attacking forays, so much so that the last-mentioned touched the ball just three times in the entire ninety minutes.
Au contraire New Zealand's goalkeeper, Yvonne Vale. Her first saves came in the sixth and tenth minutes, both thwarting Shannon MacMillan efforts, these after Rachel Oliver had cleared off the line from Chastain in the first minute, and Cindy Parlow had hit the sidenetting with a snapshot on the turn two minutes later.
Parlow was indirectly involved in the opening goal, drawing the defence as Christie Welsh stole in behind them to volley into the roof of the net in the eleventh minute, on receipt of a cross from Hamm - her one hundredth career "assist".
Vale kept Aly Wagner, Parlow and Hamm at bay in the next ten minutes, before two Chastain efforts came close to extending the USA's tally. The goalkeeper kept Parlow's fifteen yard effort out in the 27th minute, before Hamm was denied by Maia Jackman, who produced the defensive performance of her life after coming on for Oliver in the fifteenth minute, a tactical substitution made by SWANZ coach Doug Moore to counter the impact being made by the USA's "twin towers" - Parlow and Welsh - in attack.
Alongside Jackman, Melissa Ruscoe was equally outstanding, while ahead of them, Nicky Smith and Simone Ferrara, who led the team out against the country where she received her education, tirelessly chased and harried from first whistle till last, as the entire SWANZ line-up put up brave resistance against opposition from a different planet!!
More goals were inevitable, and two in four minutes confirmed the USA's on-field superiority on the scoreboard. Welsh shrugged off Jackman's challenge to steer Parlow's through ball under the advancing Vale in the 29th minute, while the supplier turned scorer four minutes later, a searing twenty-yard drive which careered across Vale and in by the far post following Wagner's orchestrations.
The scoreline remained 3-0 in the USA's favour till half-time, despite the best efforts of Sara Whalen, Welsh and MacMillan - a twenty-five yard crossbar rattler - to add to it.
Three minutes after the interval, half-time replacement Zarnia Cogle cleared off the line from Welsh, after Ruscoe had blocked Welsh's close-range effort.
After Hamm had sent a twenty-five yard drive careering a foot over the angle, the USA scored a further two goals in four minutes to extend their advantage still further.
MacMillan and Slaton combined neatly on the left in the 52nd minute, the latter's cross finding Parlow, whose initial effort was parried by Vale.
Parlow snapped up the rebound, then completed her second consecutive hat-trick - only Hamm, in the history of the US Women's Team, has done this before - four minutes later, slamming the ball into the roof of the net from four yards after Hamm had completely outfoxed Jackman with a smart turn and cheeky nutmeg near the byline.
It speaks volumes for the SWANZ that they kept the USA scoreless for the remaining thirty-four minutes of this encounter. After getting "the mother and father of all rockets" from coach Moore at half-time, they battled like trojans in the second spell, in an effort to limit their more illustrious opponents to long-range attempts on goal, Wagner and MacMillan going closest to hitting the target from distance in this time.
When the USA did get nearer the target, Vale proved unbeatable. Three times she thwarted Hamm at close range, while on the one occasion the goalkeeper was beaten by the goalscorer-par-excellence, Hamm couldn't guide her header on target from eight yards out, Welsh and Wagner having combined to open up the SWANZ on the right.
Vale's efforts also frustrated Slaton and Parlow before the final whistle, the save from the latter a superb one-handed effort at the death wich ensured the USA's margin of victory would remain at five goals.
As for Hamm, such has been her ill-luck in front of goal during this tournament that, deep down, she must be beginning to wonder where her next goal is coming from. Not that she minds, however, being very much a team player in this regard.
When she does find the target next, however, expect an avalanche of goals to emanate from her trusty Nikes. Meantime, those plans for the printing of a souvenir t-shirt to commemorate Mia Hamm's first goal against New Zealand will remain on the back shelf for some time yet!
SWANZ: Vale; Corner, Simpson (McCahill, 53), Ruscoe (booked, 10) (Robertson, 72 - debut), Oliver (Jackman, 15); Ferrara, Smith, Henderson (Cox, 80), Oostdam; Crawford, Ormond (Cogle, 46).
USA: Mullinix; Pearce, Chastain, Slaton; Whalen, Wagner, Serlenga, MacMillan; Hamm, Parlow, Welsh.
Referee: Sheena Storrie
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