EMAIL WOMENSOC@aol.com
ALGARVE CUP 99
|
EMAIL WOMENSOC@aol.com | |
ALGARVE CUP 99 | ||
Algarve Cup | |
| China - 2 | USA - 1 |
|---|---|
| Venue: Municipal Stadium - Loulé, Portugal | |
| Date: March 20, 1999 - Kickoff 4:00 p.m. Local (11:00 a.m. ET) |
Weather: Sunny -- 78 degrees F |
| Attendance: 800 | |
| USA | CHINA |
Head Coach: Tony DiCicco Scoring Yellow card |
Head Coach Ma
Yuanan Scoring Yellow cards |
Officials: Referee: Bente
Skogvang (Norway) Fourth Official: Marianne Mattsson (Sweden) |
China scored early with a high jumping Pu going above the U.S. Players to head in a curling cross from veteran Sun. The U.S. Team pressured the rest of the half and minutes from half time Milbrett drilled in a flicked on ball from Parlow to even the match.
Within minutes following the restart Hamm was taken down by China's keeper in the penalty box. The kick failed when Chastain's shot hit the top crossbar. In spite of the U.S.A. out shooting China 16-7 thoughout the game, China converted its chances when offered and Jin put the ball past Scurry on a break away counter attack.
The U.S. Team spent the last 25 minutes hammering away but a fine performance by Gao left them in second place.
Quotes
Tony DiCicco
"Cindy got some great chances," said U.S. Head Coach Tony DiCicco. "If she's totally healthy, I think she sticks one of those. In the first half, we needed to hold the ball better on the forward line, and I think in the second half we did that and got some great opportunities to score," said DiCicco. "China is not Olympic silver medalists for nothing. They have a great team, and while they didn't get a lot of opportunities, they certainly took advantage of the ones they got. Overall, it was still a very solid performance by the USA. We easily could have won the match, but we also realize we've got some work to do before we open the World Cup on June 19."Carla Overbeck
"It's definitely frustrating to not win this tournament again," said U.S. Captain Carla Overbeck, who played despite a strained neck suffered in the USA's victory over Norway in the final match of group play. "We hate to lose any match, but this is a great tournament with great teams. We have to look at the big picture, and the most important time to win is in June and July at the World Cup."Cindy Parlow
"China is a great team with skillful players who are very good on the ball," said Parlow, who played 90 minutes on the forward line, but is still not completely fit after battling a hamstring injury since the end of her college season. "It's unfortunate that we lost, but we can take a lot of positives from this tournament, go back to training camp and get better so we can win the World Cup this summer."
Algarve Cup Placement Games -- Saturday, March
20
Portugal 2, Finland 1 -- 7th Place
Australia 1, Sweden 1 (7-6 PK) -- 5th Place
Norway 2, Denmark 2 (4-1 PK) -- 3rd Place
China 2, USA 1 -- Championship
| FINAL Algarve Cup Goal Scoring Leaders | ||
| Player | Team | Goals |
| Tiffeny Milbrett | USA | 4 |
| Jin Yan | China | 3 |
| Julie Murray | Australia | 2 |
| Sun Wen | China | 2 |
| Liu Ying | China | 2 |
| Pu Wei | China | 2 |
| Lene Jensen | Denmark | 2 |
| Louise Hansen | Denmark | 1 |
| Merete Pedersen | Denmark | 1 |
| Janne Ramunssen | Denmark | 1 |
| Jeanne Axelsen | Denmark | 1 |
| Mette Jokumsen | Denmark | 1 |
| Julie Uusmalmi | Finland | 1 |
| Ann Kristin Aarones | Norway | 1 |
| Cecilie Bendiksen | Norway | 1 |
| Gro Espeseth | Norway | 1 |
| Linda Medalen | Norway | 1 |
| Anita Rapp | Norway | 1 |
| Carla Couto | Portugal | 1 |
| Maria Joao Xavier | Portugal | 1 |
| Malin Andersson | Sweden | 1 |
| Linda Fagerstrom | Sweden | 1 |
| Malin Gustafsson | Sweden | 1 |
| Brandi Chastain | USA | 1 |
| Julie Foudy | USA | 1 |
| Kristine Lilly | USA | 1 |
| Cindy Parlow | USA | 1 |
| Own Goal | Denmark | 2 |
| Own Goal | Portugal | 1 |
USA defeats Norway 2-1 to advance to Final Game of Algarve Cup against China on Saturday, March 20
Algarve Cup | |
| USA - 2 | Norway - 1 |
|---|---|
| Venue:Municipal Stadium - Albufeira, Portugal | |
| Date: March 18, 1999 - Kickoff 2:30 p.m. Local (9:30 a.m. ET) | Weather: Sunny -- 75 degrees F |
| Attendance: 300 | |
| USA | Norway |
Head Coach: Tony DiCicco Scoring |
Head Coach Per-Mathias Høgmo Scoring |
Officials: Referee:Marianne Mattsson
(Sweden) Fourth Official: Fernando Macedo (Portugal) |
Game report
Norway hit early when Aarones scored just five yards away from Scurry, whose diving save of a 20 yard screened shot from Jorgensen came off her fingertips. In less than a minute Lilly had ficked the ball over her head to Foudy whose left footed shot inside the post gave the goalkeeper no chance.
Although the U.S team had several scoring chances through out the game their winning goal came on a counter attack when after a typical 45 yard run, Hamm passed off to Milbrett making an end line run, who crossed the ball for Lilly to place in an open net.
Coach quote
"It was a match that we had to win against the best," said U.S. Head Coach Tony DiCicco. "We had more chances to score, we had better chances, and I think we deserved to win. Our defense dominated, Kate did a fantastic job on one of the best players in the world, Carla played Aarones very well, Joy had her usual awesome game and Brandi's possession and heading were a key from left back."
Comments
The U.S. Team will play China in the Final Game on Saturday March 20 at Loulè.
"The China game will an entirely different kind of match, " added DiCicco, whose team will face the skillful Chinese in a rematch of the 1996 Olympic gold medal game. "Our bench will definitely have to be a factor. It's very difficult for our starters to play back-to-back games against this level of competition. I'm sure China rested most of their starters today and we are going to look to our whole roster to win this thing."
| Results Thursday March 18, 1999 | ||||||
| Group A | ||||||
| USA | 2 | Norway | 1 | |||
| Sweden | 0 | Finland | 0 | |||
| Group B | ||||||
| Denmark | 5 | Portugal | 0 | |||
| China | 2 | Australia | 0 | |||
| First Round Final Standings | |||||||
| Group A | |||||||
| Team | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | PTS |
| USA | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Norway | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| Sweden | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Finland | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Group B | |||||||
| China | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 9 |
| Denmark | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| Australia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Portugal | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
Algarve Cup Placement Games -- Saturday, March 20
Portugal v. Finland -- 7th Place Montechoro
Australia v. Sweden -- 5th Place Loulè
Norway v. Denmark -- 3rd Place Quarteira
USA v. China -- Championship Loulè
Only
China wins big as top seeded teams struggle on first day of Cup,
with two matches resulting in draws and squeaky win for Norway.
Algarve Cup | |
| U.S. National Team-1 | Sweden National Team-1 |
|---|---|
| Venue:Francisco Viera Stadium - Silves, Portugal | |
| Date: March 14, 1999 - Kickoff 2:30 p.m. Local (9:30 a.m. ET) | Weather: Sunny, Clear -- 76 degrees F |
| Attendance: 400 | |
| USA | Sweden |
Head Coach: Tony DiCicco Scoring |
Head Coach Marika Domanski Lyfors Scoring Misconduct |
Officials: Referee: Tammy Ogden (Australia) Fourth Official: Jose Gregorio (Portugal) |
Game report
Keeper Karlsson was the key for Sweden in this match, as she has been in many of Sweden's games. Her performance against the U.S team offered further proof that she deserves the accolades and why she was named as the top EUFA goalkeeper. For Sweden this was a win, but the U.S. Players are still struggling to finish against defensive alignments.
Although Milbrett gave the U.S. An early lead the team was unable to capitalise and were caught off balance late in the game leaving an unmarked Swedish player to score easily.
Coach comments
Dicicco
"We put ourselves in a tough position to win the group right off the start," said U.S. Head Coach Tony DiCicco. "Now, we're going to need help from other teams. It might come down to goal difference, but if Norway wins big in their game against Sweden, it will make our task very difficult."Domanski Lyfors
"I'm most satisfied with the draw," said Sweden Head Coach Marika Domanski Lyfors, "My team was more consistent than in the past, better prepared and certainly more aggressive."
First day results
6th Algarve Cup International Women's Tournament
| Sunday, March 14 | ||||
| USA-1 | (Milbrett 15) | Sweden-1 | (Mostrom 76) | |
| Norway-1 | ( Pettersen 85th minute) | Finland-0 | ||
| Denmark-1 | (Hansen) | Australia -1 | (Murray) | |
| China-4 | (Yan 2, Aling 1, Ying1) | Portugal-0 | ||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Algarve Cup Placement Games -- Saturday, March 20
Match for 7th and 8th Montechoro
Match for 5th and 6th Loulè
Match for 3rd and 4th Quarteira
Championship Match Loulè
6th Algarve Cup Promises Tough Competition For U.S. National Team
6th Algarve Cup Tournament Schedule
March 14-20 1999
| Group A | Group B |
| Finland | Australia |
| Norway | China |
| Sweden | Denmark |
| USA | Portugal |
Sunday 14th
Tuesday 16th
Thursday 18th
Saturday 20th
U.S. Team
The U.S. team will depart for Portugal on March 9th. Historically the Algarve Cup has always been a difficult challenge for the U.S. National Team, and this year with six out of the eight teams taking part appearing in the World Cup later this year the competition promises to be more than interesting. With a larger prize in view this year there could be considerable tactical maneovering as coaches try to win without showing their complete box of tricks.
| BACK TO THE WSW FRONTPAGE | BACK TO TOP |