With its opening match of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics just two months away, the United States women's soccer team is finally finding a groove under first-year coach April Heinrichs.
The Americans are on a 10-game undefeated roll in which they have outscored the competition 47-4. Granted, the competition has varied from traditionally tough Brazil to a pushover Trinidad and Tobago national team, but Team USA is gaining momentum as it rolls toward defending the gold-medal it won at the inaugural women's Olympic tournament four years ago in Atlanta.
More important than momentum is the acclimation and appreciation that the U.S. players are experiencing under Heinrichs, herself a former national-team star and World Cup veteran. Heinrichs took over as national-team coach in January following the resignation of five-year coach Tony DiCicco; she had been a coach or coordinator with USA Soccer for nearly five years and had been a collegiate head coach at Virginia, Maryland and Princeton before that.
"We're all very excited about her," said defender Kate Sobrero. "She's open and honest, and you know where you stand with her. It's a nice change. Change is good."
Forward Tiffeny Milbrett was a little more blunt. "I think you need a kick in the butt," she said. "I think you need new blood."
Added defender Brandi Chastain: "Any time there's change, it can be a little scary. It can be a little unnerving. You always hope that the change isn't you."
No, the change wasn't Chastain or many of the household names — the starters — on the women's national team. But five players from the '99 World Cup squad were excused earlier this year.
"She wants people to make a difference," Chastain said. "It gives young players a change to play with the team and a chance to play with the best players in the world. . . ."It hasn't changed our competitive spirit or our team chemistry. I think it has brought us together and made us rely even more on each other."
Some of Heinrichs' changes are already apparent with the women's national team. "There's no training or practice the day before a game," Chastain said. "That's going to give us a chance to recover, especially in a tournament like the Olympics."
"As for style changes, "I think that it's more of an evolution, more of an ebb and flow," she added. "We're attempting to be more dynamic, more free-flowing."
With Heinrichs at the helm, Team USA has compiled an 18-3-3 record during 2000. The Americans started the year by winning the Australia Cup, followed by losses to Norway in a pair of games in Florida. The United States rebounded by sweeping the Algarve Cup title in Portugal, capping the four-game tournament with a 1-0 win over Norway in the final. After a win and a tie against Iceland in a pair of contests in North Carolina, the U.S. women downed Mexico and Canada to win the U.S. Women's Cup in Portland, Ore.
The United States started the summer at the Pacific Cup in Australia. Following an opening-game loss to China, the team reeled off four straight victories to claim the tournament championship. And earlier this month, the U.S. women went undefeated in six games as hosts of the CONCACAF tournament against Western Hemisphere competition, avenging a 0-0 tie against Brazil in preliminary play with a solid 1-0 triumph over the Brazilians in the tournament finals.
Since then, Americans tacked on a triumph over Italy and have departed for an upcoming five-match series in Germany and Norway that concludes the pre-Olympic competition. And leading the national squad is an ex-player-turned-coach who can empathize with her team.
Labeled one of the pioneers of the U.S. women's national team, Heinrichs is remembered as one of the most tenacious and competitive players ever on the national team. She captained the American squad that won the inaugural women's World Cup in 1991 and scored 38 goals in her 47 games with the national team.
"April has walked in the shoes of a World Cup champion," said Chastain, a former teammate of Heinrichs' on the 1991 World Cup squad. "She has been a team captain, she knows what it takes."
DiCicco resigned last November after a storied coaching career with the national team, with his five-year record of 103-8-8 including the 1999 World Cup championship and the 1996 Olympic gold medal. "The only thing Tony could do was go down," Chastain said. "He developed a wonderful soccer team."
But as DiCicco knew and Heinrichs is quickly finding out, a coach can only do so much, and it's the players on the field who ultimately perform.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com