Heinrichs Names U.S. Roster for Five-Game European Tour; USA Embarks on Challenging Trip to Germany and Norway
CHICAGO (Friday, July 7, 2000) - U.S. Women's National Team head coach April Heinrichs has named 20 players for the 20-day European tour which will take the American women to Germany and Norway on perhaps the most challenging road trip in its history outside of a world championship event
July 7, 2000
Three 1999 Women's World Cup starters return to the roster as goalkeeper Briana Scurry, defender Carla Overbeck and midfielder Michelle Akers have sufficiently recovered from injuries to re-join the squad. Scurry, who has recovered from severe shin splints, will likely see playing time (and earn her 100th cap) while Overbeck (knee surgery) and Akers (shoulder surgery) will use the trip as a testing ground with the hopes of seeing game action during the latter part of the tour. The remaining 17 players were all part of the Women's Gold Cup-winning roster. Mia Hamm, currently at 199 games, will likely join Kristine Lilly as the only two members of international soccer's 200-cap club.
The defending Women's World Cup and Olympic champs will travel to Germany on July 12 to compete in a tournament that is part of wide-ranging celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the German Soccer Federation (DFB).
The competition also features two of the USA's Olympic first-round opponents in China and Norway, as well as host Germany, making for perhaps the finest four-team women's tournament since the 1993 U.S. Women's Cup which included those same four teams and was won by the USA. The USA and Norway both own Women's World Cup titles, Germany is the two-time defending European champion and China was the runner-up at the '96 Olympics and '99 Women's World Cup, meaning that four of the world's finest women's soccer nations will clash for pre-Olympic bragging rights.
The six-game DFB 100th Anniversary Tournament will be played in doubleheaders on three dates in three German cities, all no more than 100 miles from Hannover in the northern part of the country. The USA will open the tournament against Norway on July 16 in Osnabrück. The Americans face China in Gottingen on July 19 and finish the tournament with Germany on July 22 in Braunschweig in a match that will be televised live nationally throughout Germany and on pay-per-view back to the USA. The tournament winner will be determined on total points.
The USA will then travel to Norway for two matches, including a "Midnight Sun" game on July 27 in Tromsø, located in the far northern part of the country just below the 70th parallel. The North Pole is at 90 degrees latitude. The match is set to kickoff at 10:30 p.m. local time, and due almost around-the-clock daylight during that time of the year, stadium lights will not be needed. It will be the northernmost match ever played by the U.S. Women's National Team. Tromsø, which lies about 115 miles north of the Arctic Circle, also holds the distinction of owning the world's northernmost 18-hole golf course, university and brewery. The July 30 match will be played in the capital of Oslo at Norway's national stadium and also televised live on Pay-Per-View back to the USA. Large crowds are expected for both clashes.
Although the USA and Norway have played 25 times, in an ironic twist to the long-time rivalry between the two women's soccer powers, not one of those matches has occurred in Norway. The Scandinavians will finally get a shot at the USA on its home soil, but they have done well enough outside the country, holding a 13-11-1 record while remaining the only team in the world with a winning all-time record against the U.S. women. Of those 25 meetings, 13 took place in the USA, five were in Portugal, three were in China, two were in Canada and one match each took place in Cyprus and Sweden.
In another bizarre scheduling twist, the three matches in Europe against Norway will make for six matches so far in 2000 between the two teams. When the USA and Norway meet in first round play at the Olympics, it will make an amazing seven matches between the two teams this year, by far the most games ever played by the U.S. women against one country in a calendar year.
The USA lost its most recent meeting with China, 1-0, at in the Pacific Cup in Australia, but still holds an 11-6-6 all-time record against them. The last five meetings have produced three wins for China, two wins for the USA and one draw. That draw being the Women's World Cup Final, which officially counts as a tie in the all-time records after the two teams battled to a 0-0 deadlock through 120 minutes, before the USA nailed all five of its penalty kicks and forever etched its place in American sporting history.
The USA holds an all-time record of 9-3-1 against Germany, but the historic clash between the two teams in their 1999 Women's World Cup quarterfinal was perhaps the most emotional of the tournament. The game saw the USA come back from one-goal deficits on two occasions including a Brandi Chastain score early in the second half that atoned for an own-goal mishap just minutes into the match. A header goal by Joy Fawcett off a corner kick by Shannon MacMillan provided the winning margin and the USA, along with millions of fans, breathed a sigh of relief as the Americans advanced to the semifinals.
The inclusion of a women's tournament among the celebrations for the tradition-steeped 100th anniversary of the German Soccer Federation is an indication of the growth of the women's game in Europe as well as the impact of the 1999 Women's World Cup on the global game. In addition, the entire Germany trip is sure to be surrounded by the excitement of Germany's winning the right to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The USA last played in Germany in June of 1998, splitting games with the Germans with a 3-1 loss in Duisburg before gaining revenge with a 3-0 win in Salzgitter. The U.S. women have played 47 matches in Europe since the inception of the program in 1985, going 29-14-4. The 14 defeats represent a full 40 percent of the total losses suffered in the history of the women's national team program.
| Date | Opponent | Location | Kickoff / TV |
| July 16 | Norway | Piepenbrockstadion (Osnabruck, Germany) | 2:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) / See below |
| July 19 | China | Jahnstadion (Gottingen, Germany) | 4 p.m. (10 a.m. ET) / See below |
| July 22 | Germany | Stadtirches stadion - "Eintacht-Stadion" (Braunschweig, Germany) | 5:45 p.m. (11:45 a.m.) / See below |
| Date | Opponent | Location | Kickoff / TV |
| July 27 | Norway | Alfheim Stadium (Tromsø, Norway) | 10:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET) / -- |
| July 30 | Norway | Ullevall Stadium (Oslo, Norway) | 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) / See below |
TV Broadcast Schedule | |||
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Norway vs United States: China vs United States: Germany vs United States: Norway vs United States: | |||
| United States Women's National Team Roster Friendly vs. Italy, July 7 | |||||||
| No. | Name | Pos. | Ht. | Birthdate | Hometown | College/Club | Caps/Goals |
| 1 | Scurry, Briana | GK | 5'8" | 9/07/71 | Dayton, Minn. | UMass | 99/0 |
| 2 | Fair, Lorrie | M | 5'3" | 8/05/78 | Los Altos, Calif. | North Carolina | 69/7 |
| 3 | Pearce, Christie | D | 5'6" | 6/24/75 | Point Pleasant, N.J. | Monmouth | 70/4 |
| 4 | Overbeck, Carla | D | 5'7" | 5/09/68 | Chapel Hill, N.C. | North Carolina | 162/7 |
| 5 | Serlenga, Nikki | M | 5'5" | 6/20/78 | San Diego, Calif. | Santa Clara | 14/5 |
| 6 | Chastain, Brandi | D | 5'7" | 7/21/68 | San Jose, Calif. | Santa Clara | 124/23 |
| 7 | Whalen, Sara | M | 5'5" | 4/28/76 | Greenlawn, N.Y. | UConn | 56/6 |
| 8 | MacMillan, Shannon | M | 5'5" | 10/07/74 | Escondido, Calif. | Portland | 107/31 |
| 9 | Hamm, Mia | F | 5'5" | 3/17/72 | Chapel Hill, N.C. | North Carolina | 199/121 |
| 10 | Akers, Michelle | M | 5'10" | 2/01/66 | Orlando, Fla. | Central Florida | 147/104 |
| 11 | Foudy, Julie | M | 5'6" | 1/23/71 | Mission Viejo, Calif. | Stanford | 182/34 |
| 12 | Parlow, Cindy | F | 5'11" | 5/08/78 | Memphis, Tenn. | North Carolina | 83/40 |
| 13 | Lilly, Kristine | M | 5'4" | 7/22/71 | Wilton, Conn. | North Carolina | 208/84 |
| 14 | Fawcett, Joy | D | 5'6" | 2/08/68 | Huntington Beach, Calif. | UC Berkeley | 169/22 |
| 16 | Milbrett, Tiffeny | F | 5'2" | 10/23/72 | Portland, Ore. | Portland | 147/76 |
| 19 | Slaton, Danielle | D | 5'6" | 6/10/80 | San Jose, Calif. | Santa Clara | 17/1 |
| 20 | Sobrero, Kate | D | 5'7" | 8/23/76 | Bloomfield Hills, Mich. | Notre Dame | 48/0 |
| 22 | Welsh, Christie | F | 5'10" | 2/27/81 | Massapequa Park, N.Y. | Penn State | 14/11 |
| 23 | Bush, Susan | F | 5'4" | 11/10/80 | Houston, Texas | North Carolina | 9/2 |
| 26 | Mullinix, Siri | GK | 5'8" | 5/22/78 | Greensboro, N.C. | North Carolina | 15/0 |
