The U.S. women left Portugal with a fourth-place finish at the Algarve Cup.
They hadn’t lost in almost a year.
But that changed for the defending World Champion U.S. women’s national team when it lost two of four games in Portugal at the Algarve Cup, an annual tournament featuring some of the top teams in Europe.
A loss in the third-place game will actually go down as a tie, but it still left the U.S. — one of the favorites to win the World Cup in Sweden this summer —
as the fourth-best team in Portugal.
The U.S. was coming off a tough five weeks of training, including some games and scrimmages, but didn’t use that as an excuse.
“It was a good reminder of what losing feels like,” said striker Michelle Akers, “and that is not a place I want to be in the future.”
Early on, things went according to form, as the U.S. defeated two teams that didn’t qualify for the World Cup, first Finland 2-0 — with goals from Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm — and then host Portugal 3-0.
In the second, coach Tony DiCicco started some of his reserves, including goalkeeper Saskia Webber and forward Tiffeny Milbrett, who, along with Lilly and Carin Gabarra, scored for the U.S. Defender Thori Staples, coming off an ankle injury, also started.
“I was just very, very excited, because I never score with my head,” said the 5-2 Milbrett, who nodded in a ball from sweeper Carla Overbeck in the 49th minute.
But then came the U.S. team’s third game in four days against Denmark, a familiar foe that will be in the same group as the U.S. next June.
After earlier blasting the Danes 7-0 in a friendly in Florida and then beating them 2-0 in a scrimmage, DiCicco was still convinced that they would be a tough challenge. He was right, as his squad lost to a more defensive Denmark 2-0 March 17, marking DiCicco’s first loss as head coach.
The loss cost the U.S. a chance to play in the final of the Algarve Cup against Sweden, which beat Denmark 3-2 after extra time. Instead, the U.S. got the third-place game and Norway, which handed the U.S. its last loss (before Denmark) at last year’s Algarve Cup.
But the U.S. couldn’t even console itself there, losing 4-2 on penalties after tying 3-3 in regulation. The U.S. played well but just couldn’t put the Norwegians away after getting leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, the last coming when Lilly scored her third goal of the tournament (to lead the U.S.) in the 56th minute.
As in the Denmark game, the U.S. gave up a late penalty, which Merete Mykleburst converted in the 88th minute to send the game to extra time. The U.S. gave up another penalty in the 51st minute, which Anne Andersen netted to knot the score at 2-2.
Both penalties were drawn when Norway took advantage of one of Hege Risse’s talents:
the dive, something not as of yet in the U.S. arsenal.
“Our girls, when they go down and take a dive, it looks like the worst acting job in the world, or they don’t go down,” said DiCicco. “It’s part of the sophistication you get when you’re playing at a high level.”
The good news for DiCicco is this tournament was that Akers started and played the whole 90 minutes in two of the games, getting a goal and an assist against Norway. A healthy Akers, who has been battling Epstein-Barr syndrome, could be the difference between winning another championship this summer or losing out again to one of the European powers.
“It just proves to us to win in Europe is going to be difficult,” DiCicco said of the Algarve Cup. “It isn’t a surprise that the teams that took first, second and third in that tournament were all Scandinavian.”
by Soccer America Associate Editor Dean Caparaz