Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 34

19, 1999 SPORTS D3 Decatur, Illinois Saturday, June Women's World Cup Soccer Women's 1999 World Cup Soccer Date: June 19-July 10 Qualifying teams For the first round, teams only play opponents in their own groups: Anne mm ban 1 1 on piss ner "tr" By MIKE JENSEN Knight Ridder Newspapers Mia Hamm forward United States i All-time leading international scorer United States The champions of the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991. Third Women's World Cup. Defending World Champion. No. 1 seed.

Automatically qualified for their third WWC as host country. No. 1 seed. Japan Third Women's World Cup. Finished 7th at the 1996 Olympics.

Korea DPR First Women's World Cup. Finished 2nd at the Xlth Asian Cup and the 998 Asian Games. ESS .1.. alma mater. One game, she unassumingly sat on a bag of soccer balls just beyond the team's bench.

A crowd of children still congregated behind her on the other side of a metal fence. "If the media and corporate America decided that she is to lead the troops, she'll do her part, but she didn't stay up at night plotting it," said her agent, Dave Bober. "The interesting thing about Mia, and female athletes in general: They didn't sign up for sports thinking they were going to be famous." Of course, there have been compensations. She is the first player in women's soccer with a salary of roughly $1 million a year. When Nike dedicated a building with her name on it at its Oregon headquarters earlier this month, teammates put up signs around the team hotel: The Mia Hamm Drinking Fountain.

The Mia Hamm Thermostat. They also all attended MARTINSVILLE, N.J. Mia Hamm is more than simply the face of the Women's World Cup. At 27, she is already one of the world's best-known athletes the greatest scorer ever in international soccer, man or woman. And that has helped make her a millionaire, a cult figure, and an advertising colossus with an appeal that transcends sport.

She seems to be everywhere these days. Turn on your TV and watch her in a Nike spot, sitting in a dentist's office, offering to take two fillings for the team, or in a Gatorade spot, flipping Michael Jordan over her shoulder. There is a soccer Barbie, but Mia Hamm's face is on the package. Now, America will get a chance to see Mia Hamm's game face as the Women's World Cup begins today at Giants Stadi Canada Second Women's World Cup. Finished 10th in 1995.

1998 Foxboro, Mass. Foxboro Stadium Chicago Soldier Field Pasadena, Calif. Rose Bowl New YorkNew Jersey Giants Stadium Portland, Ore. Civic Stadium San Jose, Calif. Spartan Stadium Palo Alto, Calif.

Stanford Stadium Raljon, MD. Jack Kent Cooke Stadium if i North and Central American and Caribbean body (CONCACAF) Women's Champion. Nigeria Third Women's World Cup. Won 1998 African Women's Soccer Championship. Denmark Their third straight Women's World Cup.

Went undefeated in LZH Russia First Women's World Cup. Defeated Finland in two-game playoff for final UEFA berth. The field 4 A. European Group 4 play to earn a berth in 1999 WWC. -U GOALKEEPER MS 'defenders rar'" the dedication ceremo ny.

lzj Hamm understands Germany Third Women's World Cup. Defeated Ukraine in two-game playoff MIDFIELDERS a it- ISSUES I for final European confederation (UEFA) berth to WWC99. No. 1 seed, China PR Third Women's World Cup. Won 1998 Asian Games.

No. 1 seed. Australia Second Women's World Cup. Host country and automatic FORWARDS 2 SSSZ qualifier for 2000 Olympics. If 3 Brazil Third straight Women's World Cup.

Finished 9th in both the 1995 and 1991 FIFA WWC. Mexico First Women's World Cup. Defeated Argentina in two-game 'Mia Hamm is the soccer icon, and maybe the women's sports icon, right now, yet she ties in so well to the U.S. coach Tony DiCicco um in East Rutherford, N.J., when the United States plays Denmark in front of fans. If she plays up to expectations, and leads the favored U.S.

team to victory in the final at the Rose Bowl on July 10, the game will be her coronation. Hamm has had a cult following for years now, especially among young girls. The last time she played in the Philadelphia suburbs in 1997, throngs of them showed up, all screaming her first name. They talked of having computer passwords such as Mial or MeMia. Now, people who have never watched a Ghana First Women's World Cup.

Finished second at the 1998 African the need "to help the sport grow. We all do stuff. I might be a little high-profile, but everyone has a role to play." She believes mental toughness is the reason she became a top international player. She wrote in her new book, "Go for the about going by herself every day to a park during her college days at North Carolina for "lonely sessions" of work on her skills. Spotting her in the park, her national team and North Carolina coach, Anson Dorrance, wrote her a note: "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent Women's Soccer Championships.

playoff for final WWC99 berth I' 1 I I II fie- li 1 15 wm Italy Second Women's World Cup. Finished 6th in their only WWC appearance in 1991. Sweden Third Women's World Cup. Finished 5th in 1995 and 3rd at the 1991 WWC. I f3P1? i I 11 im Hii i PUjiiii ll nti i i IHin i i jl lJ i i imi i li Lijiil ilyi i1Lj Li Source: FIFA APEd De Gasero Women will be officiating as well as playing matches over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching." Hamm arrived on the national team as a prodigy, not as a star.

At 15 years old, she was the youngest player ever on the team. But in 1991 in China, at the first Women's World Cup, she played a supporting role at outside midfielder. "Anson basically just told me, 'Don't let your girl she said. It is perhaps not a surprise for someone who so effortlessly blends grace and aggression that she is the daughter of a ballet dancer and a fighter pilot. (Her husband, too, is a Marine Corps pilot whom she met while both were students at North Carolina.) As a child, Hamm had to learn to adapt to constant change as her father rose through the military ranks to colonel.

The family lived for spells in Texas and Virginia and abroad in Italy, where her father became enamored of soccer. "Sports were a way for me to fit in when my dad was re-stationed, to find a group of friends that I had one thing in common with, before learning more about other kids," Hamm said. "I'm not a real extrovert, and I was usually in the background, so it was easier for me to communicate with people through sports, getting to know people that way." women's soccer game in their lives can be heard wondering who this Mia Hamm is. She is, first of all, a superb athlete. Teammates tell tales of her dribbling around one opponent after another like the great Maradona used to do when he played for Argentina.

Opponents dealing with her quick feet are constantly weighing whether to throw her an elbow or give her space. And when she takes a shot, she can -hange speeds as well as anyone in the game. A goalkeeper can never know exactly how a Hamm shot will arrive. In 173 international matches, she has scored 109 goals. Off the field, she is less the soccer diva than the team player.

She tries to blend in. "Mia Hamm is the soccer icon, and maybe the women's sports icon, right now, yet she ties in so well to the team," said U.S. coach Tony DiCicco. "Here's your star player tying into the team at the most basic, fundamental, humble level. As a coach, you cannot measure how valuable that is.

Mia does it. It's not something she has to work at. She really feels that she is just a member of this team." She spent last fall as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of North Carolina, her July 8, two days before the final at the Rose Bowl. On behalf of the 16 players selected, MasterCard will donate $16,000 to the SOS Children's Villages, which provide homes for disadvantaged children. MasterCard also selected all-star teams at six previous FIFA champi- onships, including the last two men's World Cups, leading to donations of more than $1 million to international charities on behalf of soccer players worldwide.

M0 SMOKING FIFA has asked coaches and officials of all 16 teams not to smoke on the bench during the matches. FIFA made the same request at the 1998 men's World Cup in France but coaches didn't complying. Daniel Passarella the coach for Argentina alid Austria's coach Herbert Prohaska could be seen lighting up during matches. "We have done all we could to try to get the coaches not to smoke, or at least not to smoke when the TV cameras are on them," federation spokesman Keith Cooper said then. "But it's the freedom of the individual." This year things will be In accordance with local anti-smoking laws, all stadiums for the Women's World Cup this year are non-smoking areas.

The Organizing Committee is working together with the US Department of Human Services and Health to support an anti-smoking campaign. CROSS-SPORT SUPPORT LPGA stars Helen Alfredsson, Beth Daniels and Meg Mallon have hired a limousine to take them from the tour event this weekend near Atlantic City, N.J., to the U.S.-Denmark, Mexico-Brazil doubleheader at Giants Stadium. The trio became friends with several U.S. players while the U.S. team trained in recent years in Orlando, the home of many LPGA players.

Mallon and Daniels recently took U.S. captain Julie Foudy (Mission Viejo), defender Brandi Chastain and forward Mia Hamm with them for a round on the LPGA International course near Daytona Beach, Fla. "We stunk," Chastain said. "They just stood around and laughed at us." Chastain had a better showing late last month on an Orlando course, shooting a 41 for nine holes. Wire Services For the first time at the Women's World Cup, all the officials will be women.

"If women are playing, women should referee them," said FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper. Canadian Sonia Denoncourt will referee the opening match between the United States and Denmark in Giants Stadium Saturday. Cooper said Denoncourt was chosen because she was "the most experienced referee in the group." There is one problem with the all-women policy: It's very difficult to get experienced female referees. "A lot of these girls are unknown quantities," he said. "We'll try the girls out and see how they go." In Thursday's tests for the referees, FIFA emphasized "the human touch" more than the laws of the game.

"We concentrated on building the confidence of referees and the assistants who have never had the experience of refer-eetag in front of huge crowds," Cooper said. The opening game is expected to fill Giants Stadium with about 80,000 people. Denoncourt proba- World Cup Notes bly has not seen a crowd like that before but refereeing an opening game for the Women's World Cup is not new to her. She called the first match in Sweden for the 1995 Women's World Cup. ALL-STAR FIRST For the first time, an all-star team will be selected at the Women's World Cup.

The MasterCard All-Star team, sanctioned by FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, will support FIFA's official charity, SOS Children's Villages. A total of 16 players will be selected by the FIFA Technical Study Group, a panel comprised of seven FIFA technical committee members. The group is coordinated by Tatjana Haenni and includes Sylvie Beliveau of Canada, Futaba Kioka of Japan, Elisabeth Loisel of France, Gunilla Paijkull of Sweden, Vera Pauw of the Netherlands, and Chief A. Onigbinde of Nigeria. Following the quarterfinals, finalists will be selected and the team will be chosen after the semifinals on July 4.

The team will be revealed in Los Angeles on 1 1 1 1 i-w lunft IT 'T 9om Midland vsfeonu Uam St Louis vs Sioux DQ 1pm Broken Bow vs i DD 3pm Peoria vsBrok 60 sQ 3pm Savannah D0 A-Mom Decatur vs Sioux CJf SQ Today is a big day for the big shots of fastpitch Softball, as all the teams jockey for position, and make a run at tomorrow's championship session. Today's action includes some of the best teams in Softball including your own Decatur Pride. So come on out to Borg-Warner Field for the Herald Review Shootout and see who the big shot really is! 1 1 1 UJUpm r- 999 DD SD SD "iS Wife SMout winners DD DD: Don Duncan DtaiHMKt SO. Stotey won 1 1.