HER NAME'S CHINESE CHARACTER literally means a ripe ear of rice. In Japanese, Homare also means a source of pride and is attached to products to indicate their special value.
Atlanta Beat midfielder Homare Sawa, the only Japanese player in the WUSA, is the pride of Japanese soccer. She is only 23 but has been the star of the national team for almost a decade. She played in the 1995 Women's World Cup at 16 and made up her mind about moving to the United States just after the 1999 Women's World Cup, where Japan was eliminated in the first round. She says she ''wanted to make her own life,'' not the one set out for her by her parents, and quit Teikyo University.
From a soccer point of view, the decision was easy. Sawa was 12 when she joined the Yomiuri Veleza, the Tokyo-based L-League team attached to Verdy Kawasaki, the men's J-League powerhouse, but there was no future in Japanese women's soccer. The L-League, the first major experiment in women's pro soccer, was a victim of the sagging Japanese economy, folding when sponsorship dried up.
Sawa played for the W-League's Denver Diamonds in 1999 and 2000 and joined her Diamonds coach, Tom Stone, when he was named the Beat head coach.
Sawa was a key figure in Atlanta's success in 2001 when it won the WUSA regular-season title and reached the Founders Cup final, losing to the CyberRays on penalty kicks. She set as her goal for 2002 to improve her productivity and accomplished that, more than doubling her output in goals (7 vs. 3) and assists (6 vs. 2), though the Beat's early August tailspin put its playoff berth in jeopardy.
Sawa, who scored in three straight games in mid-July, has learned how to deal with the WUSA's physical game.
''I am learning to dodge big players without making contact,'' says the 5-foot-5 Sawa.
Sawa is a Japanese soccer pioneer, much like the great Hidetoshi Nakata, the Japanese men's national team star to whom she is often compared.
''Nakata is my favorite player in Japan,'' Sawa says. ''He is also playing alone in an overseas league [Italy's Serie A] and plays the same position as me.''
While Nakata's success has drawn other Japanese men's national team players to Europe, Sawa remains the only Japanese woman in the WUSA.
She enjoys her life in Atlanta, spending her free time with her puppy. The dog's name is Cobi, named after Cobi Jones, though she admits her heartthrob is David Beckham. In that respect, the 23-year-old Sawa is like other Japanese girls.
by Soccer America 's Hijiri Kono