Fatigue, injury, demands on her time and difficulties in her personal life took a heavy toll on Mia Hamm during the WUSA's first season. She's rebounded with an electric performance this summer.
Mia Hamm is at her best when the complex becomes simple. When her mind is clear, her attention focused and her heart relieved of burden. When she is surrounded by teammates, coaches and friends from whom she draws strength, support and comfort.
That is when the edge returns to her game.
She can make the impractical look easy, ripping home a rising first-time shot from 25 yards, as she did against Carolina in late July. Or as when she left four Atlanta defenders and a goalkeeper grasping on a spectacular solo effort four days later.
It is then that Hamm, 30, can be herself – the slashing, menacing gamebreaker who years ago exhilarated the nation and emerged as the unlikely spokesperson for her sport.
Those days suddenly are back. The image of a forlorn player past her prime and exhausted by professional and personal difficulties, so prevalent last year as Hamm and her Washington Freedom spiraled to the depths, is past. Now the sight of her pumping her fist in celebration has become the uplifting symbol of this WUSA season.
Since her return in mid-June from surgery in February to repair an anterior lesion in her left knee, a rested and rejuvenated Hamm has put on an astonishing display reminiscent of her dominating days in the 1990s. Hamm, still strengthening the knee and working on her fitness, has become the league's one-half wonder.
She enters a match after intermission, injects it with life, then spends 45 minutes harassing the opposition and attacking from everywhere on the field. Her touch has returned, her acceleration threatens, her shot is true, and her game has matured from a defensive and playmaking perspective.
No team, after running through the summer heat for an entire half, has found an answer for her.
Hamm's stoppage-time corner kick Aug. 4 was headed home by Freedom midfielder Pu Wei, lifting Washington past Atlanta and into the WUSA playoffs. At that moment, the Freedom was 8-1-2 since Hamm's return, and she had tallied seven goals and five assists in a little more than five games' worth of action.
It was a long way from the somber summer of 2001. Hamm is enjoying every moment.
''For so much of my career,'' she said, ''I've kind of been, 'Oh, that's great. OK, what's next?' as opposed to sitting back and going, 'Gosh, you know, Mia, you've been extremely lucky to do what you do and to be on the teams you've been a part of and to have the friends you have.'
''I think as you get older, you get a little more nostalgic, and you want to enjoy the experience a bit more. Kind of like, 'Oh, come on! We just had a great game. I know we've got to play on Sunday, but can't we just hang out a little bit?' I've kind of been able to take a step back. It only took me 25 years to do it, but I'm able to do it.''
MIDDLE OF A STORM. Perspective is easier to achieve without clamor and noise. A year ago last spring, Hamm was in the middle of a storm. A lack of rest coming off successive World Cup and Olympic campaigns was just the beginning.
A shoulder injury slowed her as the demand for her time increased. Hers was the face of women's soccer and she the marketing linchpin of the new WUSA. Balancing the needs of the league, requests from media, and a voracious fan base with her corporate responsibilities and the pressure of carrying a woefully inadequate Freedom team took its toll.
''There was no real gap for her to detox and reload, and you saw the effects of that,'' said Hamm's agent, David Bober. ''We're all subject to peaks and valleys, and that's what you saw in her performance and in her personality.''
An intensely private person, Hamm saw her personal life become public fodder as media detailed her divorce and subsequent relationship with Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. She wilted under the pressure and played the worst soccer of her long career, scoring just six times in 19 games and rarely forging danger from the run of play. She was tired and, in some ways, had become victim to her own emotional complexity.
It seemed as if her time had passed.
''I think if you saw last year, you realized how hard it is to be her,'' Freedom coach Jim Gabarra said. ''How many people seek her out and how so many people ask stuff of her. I think that's a little bothersome, like she's a movie star. Combine that with the fact that Mia wasn't happy with where she was in her life and with the way she was playing, you have to give her credit for handling it as well as she did.
''I always thought [we should] just try to be patient and wait for her to get the passion back and her desire to play.''
As many criticized her performances and her discomfort with the spotlight, Hamm sought solace in those close to her, who in turn gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Hamm flourishes in a team environment in large part because she rejects the notion that she is more deserving than any other. She understands her responsibility as her sport's messenger but says she is troubled when the demands on her time conflict with the relationships and connections she craves.
She spoke of her angst when interviews and obligations during the 1999 Women's World Cup would cause her to miss the team bus.
''I knew it was a wonderful thing for the game and the team, but at the same time, there are so many things that go on on that bus ride that I'm missing, and I can't get those times back,'' she said. ''That's when I had a problem being Mia Hamm, was when I thought it was going to change or have a negative effect on the friendships that I had with people I cared about. Whether it got in the way of me and my teammates or me being able to go and do something with my family.''
INVALUABLE SUPPORT. Hamm said the support of family and friends in the past year was invaluable.
''They just cared about me, and they loved me and never once made me feel that I was alone,'' she said. ''It was a hard year, and I react the same way other people react. It affects me the same way.
''Just because I'm on a commercial doesn't mean I get over it quicker. … In terms of me, I'm just trying to every day be a better person, and sometimes I do extremely well at that and sometimes I fall flat on my face. But it doesn't mean I give up, and it doesn't mean I don't try to learn from those mistakes and move forward.''
Hamm maintained her focus during her rehabilitation from a painful injury that likely will never allow her to play without discomfort or stiffness. The support of Gabarra and her Freedom teammates, whose performances this season made it clear that Hamm didn't have to carry the team or win games on her own, also has enabled Hamm's increased level of comfort.
''It's a lot more fun when you win and the team is doing well,'' she said. ''It's a lot easier to focus, a lot easier to get out there.''
When the burdens are gone, her play is exciting, unfettered, and the possibilities are endless. There are Founders Cups and another World Cup to be won, and Hamm is hungry for both. The former will complete her resume; the latter provides opportunity for one more bus ride with the friends she has shared the past dozen years of her life.
U.S. women's national team coach April Heinrichs said she had no doubts that Hamm would reclaim her place on her squad or among the sport's elite.
''Her level of athleticism and greatness doesn't go away in a six-month period,'' Heinrichs said. ''I think the WUSA was very hard on some of our players. It's hard emotionally. You take the emotion out of Mia's game and she becomes a good player and not a great player.''
''Part of being a coach is having a finger on the pulse of not only their current performance but the possibility of their future performance. My belief in Mia hasn't changed in the two-and-a-half years I've coached or in the 15 years I've known her. When passionate and healthy, she is unequivocally someone who can break a game wide open.''
by Soccer America's Brian Straus