USA in a turf war
THESSALONIKI, Greece — Abby Wambach should have been beaming Saturday night as she walked from Kaftanzoglio Stadium, her ripped jersey tucked away in an equipment bag. She had just helped the Americans win their second straight match at the Olympics, a 2-0 victory over Brazil in which she drew the penalty that set up the first goal, scored the second goal and allowed the Americans to overcome what captain Julie Foudy called the “stinkiest half of soccer we’ve played in a long time.”
In the course of it all, though, two Brazilian players went to the hospital with injuries, Brazil’s coach accused the Americans of playing “a dirty game,” and Wambach picked up her second yellow card, meaning she must sit out the Americans’ third and final match in group play, Tuesday against Australia.
Blood, guts, venom — and some soccer in between. So much to sort through, even as what should have been the thrust of the evening — that the U.S. clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, and the match with Australia will merely determine seeds — became an afterthought.
The first subplot, though, would be Brazil coach Rene Simoes. Serious soccer fans will remember Simoes as the coach of the “Reggae Boys,” Jamaica’s men’s side that made an improbable run at the 1998 World Cup. He has coached the Brazilian women for just five months, but after his team couldn’t capitalize on a brilliant first half in which it toyed with the Americans, he took issue with — and singled out Wambach for — what he considered play that was far too physical.
He particularly reacted to U.S. coach April Heinrichs’s use of the word “sophisticated” to describe Wambach’s goal, in which she spliced through two defenders by smartly touching the ball from her right foot to her left before burying it low in the near corner.
“For me, it is a dirty game,” Simoes said. “I don’t think it is a sophisticated game. I think it is a dirty game.”Brazilian forward Kelly and midfielder Elaine both were taken to the hospital with injuries. Elaine was hurt in the midsection after she collided with U.S. midfielder Lindsay Tarpley in the 73rd minute, but was later released and deemed healthy.
Kelly, a substitute, apparently was involved in a collision with an American player, continued to play, but then collapsed, frighteningly, on her own.
She was taken off on a stretcher late in the second half and was later found to have a broken right collarbone.
Replied Heinrichs to Simoes’ charges: “It’s not the case, never been the case. I think we’re one of the cleanest teams in the world.”
All fired up
Chief Olympic organizer Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki threw a party at her hillside villa Saturday after Athens’ lavish opening ceremony went off without a hitch.
The party, however, was a disaster.
Fireworks set off at the mansion caused a fire in the nearby wooded area, burning out of control for nearly an hour, police said. Sixty firefighters were called to the scene near Filothei, about two miles north of the city, and eventually put out the blaze. No one was hurt.
From bad to worse
Star sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were suspended Saturday from the Greek Olympic team for missing drug tests, but their fate was left in the hands of the International Olympic Committee.
Making the situation worse, police are now investigating a suspicious motorcycle accident that put the two in the hospital Thursday night just hours after drug testers failed to find them in the Olympic Village. The runners sustained cuts and bruises, and were to be released Monday.
That’s one powerful aftershave
Access to one of the Olympic media villages was temporarily blocked Saturday while a journalist’s bag was inspected by police.
The suitcase belonged to John Anthony, a sports anchor at Associated Press Radio.
Police brought in sniffer dogs to check the bag and questioned Anthony before deciding that a bottle of aftershave was the item that had raised the suspicions of security screeners.