4NT: USA/China [R]

LWare14 · Jan 26, 2003

Here is the first report I have seen.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...n_po/as_spt_soc_women_s_soccer_four_nations_1

Lauren

seahawkdad · Jan 26, 2003

another link

Here's a link I found on Google that reports the result of the Germany/Norway game: http://foxsports.lycos.com/content/view?contentId=874700

No US/China yet at that site (7:26 am EST).

I use Google News search. It's at http://www.google.com. A very useful way of finding the latest news on just about any topic.

sokrandlaw5 · Jan 26, 2003

I was in communication with my source about the game and the US did indeed lose 2-0. I also found out why April shuffled her line. At least five players were on IVs before gametime: Millie, Mac, Sobs, Hucles, and Ally. Some were worse off than others. Hucles, for example, played a full 90 and in three different positions because of the lineup and subs. Millie came in during the second half feeling a little better. Ally didn't come in until late in the second half.

Given the conditions reported (an icy rain) and the high pressure of the Chinese players, along with the physical problems from the "bug" Joy reported on her web site (half the team now has it), I would say that the results are not all that surprising.

jd6885 · Jan 26, 2003

It's a chinese conspiracy I tell you!!!!! They had poison in those cheese burgers from the HardRock Cafe they went to!! lol

AndyMead · Jan 26, 2003

US Soccer Press Release
U.S. WOMEN FALL TO CHINA, 2-0, IN FRONT OF 40,000 FANS
China Gets First Half Goals from Fan Yunjie and Sun Wen;
USA Will Face Germany in Shangahi To Finish Four Nations Tournament

WUHAN, China (January 26, 2003) - The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team ran into
a confident and inspired China team on a frigid afternoon at the spectacular Wuhan
Sports Center Stadium, falling 2-0 in front of 40,000 satisfied fans at this ultra-modern
venue which will host eight matches of the 2003 Women's World Cup.

The USA sits in second place in the Four Nations Tournament and is still in good
position to win the competition. The USA needs a win over Germany combined with a
tie or loss by China against Norway in the last set of matches on Jan. 29 at Hongkou
Stadium in Shanghai. China, which finished fourth in this tournament last year, can
clinch the title with a win over Norway.

The U.S. will find temperatures perhaps 50 degrees warmer come September should
they be drawn into matches in Wuhan, as the thermometer plunged to the high 30s and
the nasty conditions were compounded by a steady wind and rain during the entire
second half.

It was the third largest crowd ever to watch the U.S. women outside of the United States
and the vocal fans cheered every positive touch by their team while jeering the U.S.
attacks. China, playing a 4-4-2 formation with Bai Jie high at forward and Sun Wen
withdrawn, dominated possession for much of the match, enjoying a vast majority of the
ball, while starting the same 11 that played against Germany in their first game of the
Four Nations. U.S. head coach April Heinrichs made four changes to her lineup from
the Norway match, a shuffle in part necessitated by the large number of U.S. players
who fell ill during the last few days.

The Americans actually coped quite well with the adverse conditions, and quieted the
huge crowd for long portions of the match with some tough defending. China did prove
difficult to dispossess anywhere on the field, and dazzled at times with their passing
and individual skill, but still, it took one set piece and one moment of brilliance from Sun
to undue the U.S., which got great composure in the back from Brandi Chastain and
captain Joy Fawcett.

China opened the scoring in the 19th minute off a corner kick from the left side as
defender Fan Yunjie got a head on Zhao Lihong's cross seven yards from the goal and
lobbed a header over U.S. goalkeeper LeKeysia Beene, who was just a few steps off
her line. Fan almost got another one in the 45th minute, but sent her header high as
two U.S. players crashed into her.

Shannon MacMillan came close to tying the game a minute after Fan's goal, but her
long free kick was tipped over the crossbar by Chinese goalkeeper Zhao Yan. China
made it 2-0 in the 36th minute on a brilliant, bending 28-yard strike by Sun that stuck
into the upper left corner, much to the delight of the Chinese fans.

Heinrichs made three substitutions at halftime, sending on Under-19 World
Championship stars Heather O'Reilly and Lindsay Tarpley, and defender Christie
Pearce, who was solid in her first appearance for the national team since July 3, 2001,
after recovering from ACL surgery.

China almost scored a third just three minutes into the second half, but Beene made a
great save, sliding to block Zhao's one-on-one opportunity. Sun latched onto the
rebound and shot at the open net from 25 yards out, but the retreating Pearce headed
the ball off the goal line. It would be China's only dangerous chances of the second
half.

The 18-year-old O'Reilly gave the USA an immediate spark, earning a corner kick right
off the opening whistle and then minutes later drew a foul deep in the left corner in the
50th minute. Jena Kluegel's free kick fell to the 19-year-old Tarpley at the far post, but
her left-footed volley was saved well by Zhao. O'Reilly stretched the defense the entire
second half and came close to breaking in on goal several times, only to be flagged
offside. Tarpley, scorer of the winning goal in the U-19 World Championship Final, was
playing in just her second match for the full national team. She did well at right
midfield, and then up top when the USA pushed Chastain into the midfield and went
with three forwards, creating some danger down the right flank.

The USA actually had more of the match in the second half, showing some pluck in
taking the game to China, and out-shot them 6-4 after the break. Cindy Parlow sent a
header high on corner kick in 59th minute, and Aly Wagner, who entered the game in
the 66th minute, immediately got O'Reilly in behind the defense with a chipped pass in
the right side of the penalty area. The high school senior pushed through a tackle and
shot hard across the 'keeper, but Zhao smothered the shot on the ground.

In the 83rd minute, O'Reilly beat the Chinese 'keeper to a through ball 40 yards from
the goal, but Zhao got a toe on the ball to deny her a run at the open net. Amazingly,
the USA was called for just two fouls in the game, perhaps an indication of how well
China moved the ball.

In the first match of the afternoon, Norway tied Germany, 2-2, first trading header goals
from Dagny Mellgren and Martina Muller, before Anita Rapp scored in the middle of the
second half, lobbing the German goalkeeper after running onto a through ball at the
top of the penalty area to give Norway a 2-1 lead. Germany tied it late in the game
when Linda Bresonik converted a penalty kick after Kerstin Garefrekes was taken down
in the box.

All four teams will travel to Shanghai tomorrow morning in preparation for the final day
of matches on Jan. 29 at Hongkou Stadium, also a Women's World Cup venue.

U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM GAME REPORT
Participants: USA vs. China
Competition: Four Nations Women's Tournament
Venue: Wuhan Sports Center Stadium - Wuhan, China
Date: January 26, 2003; Kickoff - 3:35 p.m. local / 2:35 a.m. ET
Attendance: 40,000
Weather: Cold, rainy, windy - 38 degrees

Scoring Summary:
1 2 F
USA 0 0 0
CHN 2 0 2

CHN - Fan Yunjie (Zhao Lihong) 19th minute.
CHN - Sun Wen (Unassisted) 36.

Lineups:
USA: 24-LaKeysia Beene; 20-Thori Bryan, 14-Joy Fawcett - Capt., 6-Brandi Chastain,
17-Jenny Benson (Christie Pearce, 46); 5-Tiffany Roberts, 13-Angela Hucles, 7-Jena
Kluegel (10-Aly Wagner, 66), 2-Lorrie Fair (25-Lindsay Tarpley, 46); 12-Cindy Parlow
(16-Tiffeny Milbrett, 70), 8-Shannon MacMillan (9-Heather O'Reilly, 46).
Subs not used: 1-Briana Scurry, 11-Devvyn Hawkins, 15-Kate Sobrero, 22-Abby
Wambach.

CHN: 18-Zhao Yan - Capt.; 2-Sun Rui, 3-Li Jie, 5-Fan Yunjie (4-Gao Hongxia, 82),
16-Liu Ya Li; 6-Zhao Lihong, 7-Pu Wei, 20-Liu Ying, 27-Zhang Ouying (15-Ren Liping,
62); 9-Bai Jie (23-Han Duan, 87), 10-Sun Wen (21-Teng Wei, 70).
Subs not used: 12-Zhou Xiao Xia, 13-Meng Jun, 14-Bi Yan, 22-Han Wenxia, 25-Qu
Feifei.

Statistical Summary: USA CHN
Shots 9 8
Shots on goal 4 5
Saves 3 4
Corner Kicks 5 6
Fouls 2 8
Offside 6 1

Misconduct Summary:
CHN - Ren Liping (caution) 76th minute.

Officials:
Referee: Rebekka Kirchner (Germany)
Asst. Referee: Fu Hongjue (China)
Asst. Referee: Zhang Dongqing (China)
4th Official: Bente Skogvang (Norway)

Four Nations Tournament Standings
Team GP W L T GF GA GD PTS
China 2 1 0 1 2 0 +2 4
USA 2 1 1 0 3 3 0 3
Germany 2 0 0 2 1 1 0 2
Norway 2 0 1 1 3 5 -2 1

Jan. 23 in Yiwu
USA 3, Norway 1
China 0, Germany 0

Jan. 26 in Wuhan
Norway 2, Germany 2
China 2, USA 0

Jan. 29 in Shanghai
USA vs. Germany
China vs. Norway

U.S. WNT POST-GAME QUOTES

U.S. head coach April Heinrichs on her team's overall performance:
"Several of our players had gutsy performances, they came to play. They rose to the
occasion and led our team for the majority of the game. Each played with a big heart
and each demonstrated why they are consistently chosen as starters for our team."

Heinrichs on the conditions:
"These are some of the most difficult conditions that I've seen our women's national
team face. As many as 10 players got sick, we are playing China in China, in front of
40,000 screaming fans, the temperatures were cold, but worsened by the rain and
wind. Giving up two goals is hard to overcome, but our effort in the second half was
phenomenal. We did everything we could in that second half to get a goal and a make
it difficult for China."

Heinrichs on China:
"China looks very well prepared to have the World Cup come to their country. Sun
Wen is playing as well as I've seen her play in four years. They have speed, quickness
and athleticism to compliment their team skill, and unlike 1999, they will be supported
massively by their home crowd. In fairness, we lost on two world class goals."

Heinrichs on the next match vs. Germany:
"On the whole, I am still very pleased about this tournament and we are in a position to
win it in our last game. We have given a lot of players playing time and we have been
able to evaluate almost every player on this roster in a World Cup-like environment.
The challenge for us is to bounce back from the disappointment of losing."

Midfielder Lorrie Fair on the match:
"China's speed of play was so quick. It was really hard to win the ball back from them
when we lost it. We picked it up in the second half and got a big boost from the players
who came into the game. Hopefully, we can carry that momentum to the Germany
game."

U.S. assistant coach Bill Palladino on Sun Wen:
"Sun Wen is one of the most technically gifted players ever in the women's game. She
plays with a tremendous amount of sophistication, athleticism and heart. The Chinese
at this moment are playing as well as anyone in the world."

Defender Brandi Chastain on the match:
"The crowd lived up to its reputation, it was a World Cup like environment. We were
under a lot of pressure, but the positive was that we battled for 90 minutes and also put
pressure on China. We had a fairly young lineup out there in the second half and they
performed well."
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UP90 · Jan 26, 2003

Bless their hearts! I can't imagine doing anything well while being cold and sick, much less playing soccer.

Mike Lane · Jan 26, 2003

The weather sounds lousy. I'm not trying to make excuses... the Chinese won, but Scurry was not in goal, and "several US players were sick". We are going to have play better to come out on top... and I doubt that Norway will beat China.

lasoccervegas2002 · Jan 26, 2003

Originally posted by jd6885
It's a chinese conspiracy I tell you!!!!! They had poison in those cheese burgers from the HardRock Cafe they went to!! lol
Click to expand...

I am suspicious as 10 people sick at the same time, it looks like they put somekind of germ into their foods, its probably not that dangerous one but just make them feel uncomfortable in their stomach, because this is a very important tournament for them in order to get people attantion which will be a base for world cup success.

FearM9 · Jan 26, 2003

Originally posted by Mike Lane
The weather sounds lousy. I'm not trying to make excuses... the Chinese won, but Scurry was not in goal, and "several US players were sick". We are going to have play better to come out on top... and I doubt that Norway will beat China.
Click to expand...

Hey Dr. Lane I propose you should be the team doctor this year or are you making way too much $$$ on this small pox thing?

Woody-99 · Jan 26, 2003

Originally posted by lasoccervegas2002
I am suspicious as 10 people sick at the same time, it looks like they put somekind of germ into their foods, its probably not that dangerous one but just make them feel uncomfortable in their stomach, because this is a very important tournament for them in order to get people attantion which will be a base for world cup success.
Click to expand...

UP90 · Jan 26, 2003

I hope they find a way to solve the food/water problem by September. Being sick from "bugs" would be a lousy way to bomb out of the tournament.

FanOfFutbol · Jan 26, 2003

I think many teams travel with their own food and water in order to avoid this very kind of problem.

Often just a radical change in diet can produce symptoms very much like food poisoning or even flu. This kind of thing should be avoided, or at least limited, when professional teams are traveling to areas with very different food.

Also there are some benign bacteria that are slightly different everywhere and it can take time for the body to adapt to those.

With the lesser traveling the US has done, compared to the past therefore less exposure to other country’s cuisine, it would not be out of the question for there to be nothing "really" wrong. Rather it could be just and adapting to the local fare situation. Just as unpleasant but less threatening.

AndyMead · Jan 26, 2003

Having spent four weeks in east asia last summer, don't discount the air. About a week in to my trip, the polution caught up with me and I was real sick for about two days, but thankfully most antibiotics and the like are over the counter so I medicated myself back into health.

BB99 · Jan 27, 2003

Standings??

Four Nations Tournament Standings
Team GP W L T GF GA GD PTS
China 2 1 0 1 2 0 +2 4
USA 2 1 1 0 3 3 0 3
Germany 2 0 0 2 1 1 0 2
Norway 2 0 1 1 3 5 -2 1

Jan. 23 in Yiwu
USA 3, Norway 1
China 0, Germany 0

Jan. 26 in Wuhan
Norway 2, Germany 2
China 2, USA 0

How are they scoring the tournament points? I would expect the points to be:

China 3 pts (win, tie)
USA 2 pts (win, loss)
Germany 2 pts (tie, tie)
Norway 1 pts (loss, tie)

sokrandlaw5 · Jan 27, 2003

Re: Standings??

Originally posted by BB99
Four Nations Tournament Standings
How are they scoring the tournament points? I would expect the points to be:

China 3 pts (win, tie)
USA 2 pts (win, loss)
Germany 2 pts (tie, tie)
Norway 1 pts (loss, tie)
Click to expand...

I believe they are using three points for a win and one for a tie. Thus:
China 4pts
USA 3pts
Germany 2pts
Norway 1 pt

Tsunami · Jan 27, 2003

The Union-Tribune had an article on the game in this morning's paper, it even included a large picture that showed Sun Wen kicking the 2nd goal while 'defender' Angela Hucles is trying to stop her.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/sports/news_1s27soccer.html

lasoccervegas2002 · Jan 27, 2003

Re: Standings??

Originally posted by BB99 [/i

China 3 pts (win, tie)
USA 2 pts (win, loss)
Germany 2 pts (tie, tie)
Norway 1 pts (loss, tie) [/B]
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we don't use 2 point system anymore in soccer men or women anywhere in the world, its an old style system. instead 3 for win, 1 for the tie.

kra2800 · Jan 27, 2003

It was not just some little bug that got the players. Several of them were so sick they recieved IV's to counter act severe dehydration. It is no wonder they were not up to the Chinese.

BB99 · Jan 27, 2003

Re: Re: Standings??

Originally posted by lasoccervegas2002
we don't use 2 point system anymore in soccer men or women anywhere in the world, its an old style system. instead 3 for win, 1 for the tie.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation...helps to know the rules.

Tsunami · Jan 28, 2003

Re: Re: Standings??

Originally posted by sokrandlaw5
I believe they are using three points for a win and one for a tie. Thus:
China 4pts
USA 3pts
Germany 2pts
Norway 1 pt
Click to expand...

So, if the USA beats Germany and China either ties or loses, they would win:

USA 6 pts
China 4 or 5 pts

If the USA ties and China loses, they and Norway would all have 4 points. I wonder what tie breakers would come into play then?

FearM9 · Jan 28, 2003

Re: Re: Re: Standings??

Originally posted by Tsunami
I wonder what tie breakers would come into play then?
Click to expand...

http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=26751&itype=113&iCategoryID=0

FOUR NATIONS TOURNAMENT RULES TO KNOW
At the Four Nations Women's Tournament, the final standings of this round-robin tourney will be determined by the usual point system, three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. If two teams are tied on points, those ties will broken by 1) Goal difference, 2) Goals scored, 3) Result of matches between teams concerned, i.e. head-to-head.
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