U.S. Women Anxious To Defend Soccer Title Top Teams Converge On Sweden For Fifa World Championships

The United States comes in as world champion, anxious to retain its title.

Germany comes in as European champion, anxious to avenge a 5-2 semifinal loss to the Americans in China four years ago.

Norway comes in as the runner-up from 1991, anxious to make up for the last-minute lapse that allowed the world championship to escape.

Sweden comes in as the host nation, third behind the United States and Norway in ‘91, anxious to win in front of its own fans.

Then there are China and Denmark, both wanting to win but equally anxious to make sure they qualify for the Olympic Games at Atlanta next summer.

Welcome to the second FIFA Women’s World Championship of soccer, in which anxiety abounds. The 12-nation tournament, which kicks off today with Sweden playing Brazil at Helsingborg and Germany facing Japan at Karlstad, brings together 240 of the finest women’s soccer players.

Not all that long ago, it would have been difficult to make such a statement.

It has only been in the past quarter-century that women’s soccer has come into its own and only in the past half-dozen or so years that it has begun gathering momentum and gaining public acceptance.

In Stockholm on Saturday, Joao Havelange, FIFA’s Brazilian president, and Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, FIFA’s Swiss general secretary, took note of that fact and talked optimistically about increasing the world championship finals to 16 nations in 1999, when Australia, Chile and the United States have applied to stage the tournament.

They pointed out - without anything substantive to back up the claim - that more than 30 million girls and women in 101 countries play soccer and that the women’s game is drawing increasing interest from the media and the fans. More than 700 electronic and print journalists from 20 countries are covering this championship.

It is unlikely that the women’s championship will ever rival the World Cup in popularity, especially given the resistance to women’s sports in the Arab world and in much of Central and South America. However, a successful tournament in Sweden will do much to boost women’s soccer to a higher level.

So, too, will next year’s Olympic Games, when women’s soccer will be a medal sport. The top seven finishers in Sweden, plus the United States as host nation, will qualify for the Atlanta tournament.

With two prizes at stake, a world championship and a trip to the Olympics, the pressure to succeed is high, and so is the anxiety level, especially among the coaches.

Nowhere is this more evident than with U.S. coach Tony DiCicco, who helped his team win the championship as an assistant coach on the 1991 team, and now must defend the title as head coach.

“There are two sides to it,” he said Sunday in Gavle, where the U.S. squad was training for its opening match against China Tuesday. “There is incredible excitement to be working with this team and to have the prospect of winning another world championship.

“On the other hand, knowing that you’re expected to win and that anything less will be considered a failure - and knowing that you’re responsible for it - that’s kind of a terrifying feeling.

“But I love the challenge of it. I’m real pleased (with) where we are right now. I’m happy. I think the team is ready to play.”

As defending champion, the United States is the favorite. It caught the rest of the world by surprise in 1991 but will not be able to do so this year. The gaps among the world’s top teams have closed.

“I think all the teams this time will be even better prepared and have better skills,” said Gunilla Paijkull, Sweden’s coach in 1991 and now a member of FIFA’s Tecnical Committee. “Now, we know what it is like to be in a world championship. Last time, we didn’t know anything.

“I think the matches will be more even. Last time, you could almost know beforehand which team was going to win. This time, it’s almost impossible.”

Sweden, playing at home, is the second favorite behind the United States, closely followed by Germany, Norway, China and Denmark.

Bengt Simonson, Sweden’s current coach, summed up the feeling among the top teams by saying: “I think we have as good a team as in 1991, but the problem is that our opponents are better, too.”

After China Tuesday, the U.S. team will play Denmark Thursday at Gavle and Australia on Saturday at Helsingborg.

DiCicco believes it could have been worse. “There are a lot of good teams out there,” he said. “When you look at the draw, we could have had Germany and China in our group.”