U.S. women top Mexico before World Cup

HARRISON, N.J. -- It is the plight of women's soccer that a highly skilled team is no more guaranteed a large audience than a full afternoon of dominant play promises a surfeit of goals. This was plainly demonstrated in Sunday's U.S. national team send-off game previewing the sixth Women's World Cup tournament, to be in Germany later this month.

In a mostly empty Red Bulls Arena -- only 5,852 fans showed up -- the Americans monopolized the ball for the duration against Mexico but didn't have anything to show for it until reserve Lauren Cheney finally scored two minutes into extra time.

The eventual 1-0 exhibition victory, U.S. coach Pia Sundhage decided, made it a "perfect game" after all, "because we not only played well, with great chances, but a player coming off the bench made the difference, and that tells how important every player is on this team."

It clearly is a good team -- 9-2 this year, 64-4-5 during Sundhage's 3½ years at the helm -- a worthy heir to the Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy juggernaut that won two of the first three Women's World Cups and, during the charmed summer of 1999, packed six stadiums across the United States with crowds between 50,000 and 90,000.

Cheney, 11 years old at the time, traveled from her Indianapolis home to Chicago to be among the 65,000 to witness a U.S. victory over Nigeria during that tournament "and knew I wanted to play in the World Cup."

In front of great, roaring crowds, ideally. "Female sports, in general, struggle to get the attendance," Cheney acknowledged. "If we can get that feeling, that we are the best athletes in the world, that the U.S. can bring that every day, hopefully fans will be turned on to us, just like in '99. I hope we can be part of something like that."

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, admitting he was "disappointed" in Sunday's crowd and that "you're not going to have" the 1999 magic again, "to be on the cover of Time, Newsweek and People in the same week. But in terms of this summer, it's about winning. Can we recapture that moment? I think it's possible."

Meanwhile, Cheney did her promotional part. Subbed in for Amy Rodriguez at forward in the 61st minute, Cheney slipped a defender just outside the penalty area and whipped a shot across her body into the upper lefthand corner of the net -- moments before the final whistle.

Before that, over and over, the Americans either couldn't get the ball past Mexican keeper Ceci Santiago or couldn't find their aim, shooting a bit high, a bit wide, or -- in the case of Carli Lloyd three minutes into the second half -- just as a Mexican defender appeared to clear the shot off the goal line while Santiago lay on the ground.

In a brief postgame ceremony, Sundhage grabbed the public address microphone and, because she believes "soccer is about feelings and rhythms," and thinking of carrying Sunday's victory into the World Cup, delivered a credible Springsteen impression with the lyric:

"You can't start a fire; you can't start a fire without a spark . . . "

Only a few hundred fans remained to hear her, confirming the day was summed up by the song's title: "Dancing in the Dark."