August 18, 2004

U.S. Olympic Team post game comments

U.S. Head Coach April Heinrichs

I think on the whole we are dissatisfied with our own performance...We'd like to self-evaluate and ask each player to raise her level slightly. If we do that, I think we can play in the manner necessary to succeed in the knockout phase.

I thought we were commanding in the first half. We controlled the tempo of the game and we sprayed the ball around the field. We really forced Australia to chase a considerable amount. Then in the second half, we came out and were doing really well overall, and then we lost control of the game...Then it became a battle of fifty-fifty balls and that's not something you want to get into with any team, especially Australia as they are particularly strong in the air and on the ground.

One of the most difficult things is to win consistently in the game of soccer, so we are pleased to come out of the group as the number one team with seven points. Brazil struggled to beat Australia and they are a fantastic team, so you can see there is great parity. Playing in the group of four teams has proven its challenges to a certain extent,

now we look forward over the next two days to see if we can fine tune a couple things and then get into the knockout phase. I'm optimistic that in the knockout phase we will play with a little less caution, with a little more of the aggressive mentality.

Japan has proven itself a worthy opponent in every respect. The last couple times we have played them it has been close games. They are athletic, technical, efficient, tactically gifted and playing with a lot of confidence.

We had some players play outstanding soccer tonight. We had some players play outstanding the other nights and now we have to put that together from one game to the next and from the first half to the second half.

Kristine Lilly

We had a good first half, but in the second half we were a little dead and let them play too much and they stuck one in. We didn't dominate enough in the second half, but we finished with the tie, seven points and we are moving on so we are happy about that. For us, since I've been on this team, a tie has always felt like a loss. That's not on our agenda. Our agenda is to win, so when you set your goals that high, anything below that is disappointed. But now we have to step above that and we are moving onto the quarters, now it's do or die. We have to change our mindset. We are in this together and we have to put two good halves together and believe in each other and finish our chances.

Cindy Parlow

We're disappointed we got a goal scored against us, but we are excited that we won the group and we're looking forward to the quarterfinals. We had a lot of chances early and didn't put them away and that hurt us in the end.

Briana Scurry

I hoped that ball would go over, but I knew I couldn't get it. The way it was looping up, if I had tried to dive for it, I probably would have hit it in if I was able to even get a piece of it. It went right under the crossbar.

Japan is a great team. It will be a tough battle for us. We're going to have to bring our mentality and our work rate because they are a hard working team. They are fit and keep the ball on the ground and keep it moving. We'll going to have to re-group, but we'll be running on all cylinders with Abby back.

U.S. Captain Julie Foudy

I thought Mia worked her tail off tonight and Lil scored a great goal. I just wanted to whip it in there, but I would like to see the replay on that because she hit that well. She's so good at getting in at the back post like that. There was good communication, a couple of players told me I had time, so I had time to assess the situation and find her. They always give us a lift and they'll continue to do that. You always miss Abby. She's such a presence. She's running through people and working her tail off. When you have her and Mia working, you saw how Mia worked tonight, it just creates chaos. It will be good to have her back. We knew we wanted to get number one (in the group) and we knew could get through with a point. You want to beat them, but at the same time, you know you have to play again in three days. So you have to kind of balance that, especially with an extra game in the four-team group. You have to really be able to manage games, although we could have managed the game a bit better tonight by knocking in a second goal and then being able to knock the ball around a bit more. When you are in this quarterfinal phase, it's win or go home, so it's definitely a different mentality.

U.S. Olympic Team arrives in Greece

The squad arrived today and will spend a few days at the Athlete's Village. The temperature there is normal for this time of the year, low humidity and in the mid nineties Fahrenheit.

Their team media has sent the following first impressions.

U.S. captain Julie Foudy at her third Olympics.

It's awesome. The USOC did a great job of putting together the ACG for our athletes, although I lost a game of UNO there this afternoon. The Athlete's Village is great. We went to the cafeteria and there are lots of desserts, tons of chopped fruit, and more desserts. They even have ice cream to-go and I think it's open 24 hours. What more could you want? You see people everywhere walking around in their national team gear. Some of the rookies had no idea it was this big. They asked me if the Olympic experience got old. I told them it never gets old, first time or third time around.

U.S. forward Abby Wambach at her first Olympics.

It's overwhelming. It feels good to finally be here and feel what it's like. We have had so many different things and visions in our minds, but nothing compares to the reality of being here. It is thrilling to see so many different athletes and feel how much hard work everyone has put in to get here.

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