The U.S. Women's soccer team defeated China last night
2-0 to win the Goodwill Games' Gold Medal in front of 11,307
at Mitchel Athletic Field, the largest attendance of any
Goodwill event so far. The game was a rematch of the '96
Olympic final, also won by the U.S. team (U.S. Soccer).
HAMM-IN IT UP! NEWSDAY's Joe Gergen writes after the
women's win, "If the United States is ever to embrace soccer
with the passion that pulses through the rest of the world,
perhaps the women will have to lead the way. It's not just
that American females have been so much more successful than
their masculine counterparts. They put on a show." Noting
Mia Hamm's five goals in the past two games, Gergen writes,
"The women's team also has a superstar, something the men
clearly lack" (NEWSDAY, 7/28). In NJ, Pat Borzi writes, "In
case anyone still wants to debate the identity of the game's
best player and its best team heading into next year's
Women's World Cup, Hamm and her teammates offered 90 minutes
of clarification in this rematch of the Olympic final"
(STAR-LEDGER, 7/28). In N.Y., Harvey Araton writes on Julie
Foudy under the header, "A Pioneer In Her Sport And Beyond."
Araton adds that Hamm, Foudy, Michelle Akers and Christine
Lilly have "made a world power out of a country whose men
made it a soccer laughingstock" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/28).
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH KARCH: Sunday's men's beach
volleyball gold medal match in Central Park was the first
sellout of the Goodwill Games (N.Y. TIMES, 7/27).
