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Wednesday, October 4
U.S. doesn't medal, but has best finish ever
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- "Bam Bam" crashed the U.S. men's soccer team's hope for its first medal.
|  | | Danny Califf, right, battles with Chilean captain Ivan Zamorano Friday. |
Ivan Zamorano, the type of world-class scorer the Americans need
to develop if they are ever to threaten traditional powers, scored
both goals in the United States' 2-0 loss to Chile in Friday
night's bronze medal game.
The medal is Chile's first in the Olympics since 1988, and its
first ever in Olympic soccer.
For the Americans, the defeat ended an unexpected run that
showed they are starting to make ground, albeit slowly, on the rest
of the world.
"People who view it as just another year of the U.S. not
winning a medal should watch more soccer," coach Clive Charles
said. "Because if they maybe had seen this team play, for once
they would have given us a pack on the back instead of a kick in
the pants."
Zamorano, the 33-year-old striker from Inter Milan of Italy's
Serie A, made a penalty kick in the 70th minute and scored again in
the 84th. He is the tournament's leading scorer with six goals.
The penalty was a needless one. Defender Danny Califf tackled
substitute Sebastian Gonzalez from behind as both chased a long
ball to the left of the net. The ball was going out of bounds when
Califf clipped Gonzalez' legs.
The American players protested, but Charles said it was clearly
a penalty.
"The second half, we played the best soccer we played in this
tournament," Charles said. "And all of a sudden, we're giving
away a penalty and the whole game changed. I feel sorry for Danny.
He's played well. Maybe he should have stayed on his feet."
Zamorano easily made the spot kick, catching goalkeeper Brad
Friedel moving the wrong way.
After that, the game degenerated into a series of fouls as the
Americans grew desperate for the tying goal. Charles brought Landon
Donovan off the bench in the 82nd to provide a spark, but Zamorano
netted from 6 yards on a feed from Cladio Maldonado two minutes
later.
The U.S. team finished the tournament with a 1-2-3 record, with
a penalty kick victory over Japan officially counting as a tie. A
victory over Kuwait advanced the Americans beyond the first round
of an Olympic tournament for the first time, a byproduct of
fielding a team almost exclusively consisting of professionals.
"I think that the U.S. team has a great future," Chilean coach
Nelson Acosta said. "I think that in the past years, it has
progressed and improved a lot. It also has the means, structure and
organization to get ahead and if they work more at their football,
they will do much better."
For the most part, it was an evening of third-rate soccer for a
third-place game.
The teams were playing for a medal, but it didn't feel like it
until the second half. The Chileans blew a late lead to lose in the
semifinals to Cameroon, and their disappointment showed early in a
performance that lacked the usual South American spirit.
The U.S. team had done well to get this far, but was clearly out
of its league in a semifinal loss to Spain and would have been
thrilled with any color medal.
The combination of a good team playing down and an emerging team
playing with some motivation made the game even but uneventful
until Zamarano's late heroics.
The best U.S. scoring chance came just before Zamarano's first
goal. Brian Dunseth, the U.S. captain who had been sidelined the
entire tournament after suffering a groin injury, put a half-volley
off the crossbar after a deflected corner kick in the 66th minute.
Also, in the first minute of the second half, Conor Casey had a
17-yard drive palmed over the net by goalkeeper Nelson Tapia.
"We're not in there saying, 'Hurrah, we finished fourth.' But
there's a bigger picture," Dunseth said. "There are 13 other
teams that would have loved to finish fourth. We lost two games to
get a medal, and that's pretty disappointing."
Cameroon and Spain play Saturday for the gold medal.
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