2004 Olympics: Soccer

Germans blanked Americans in 2003 World Cup semifinal; winner plays Sweden or Brazil

09:51 PM CDT on Sunday, August 22, 2004

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

ATHENS, Greece – It's "same time, next year" as the U.S. women's soccer team faces Germany tonight in the semifinals on the island of Crete.

In 2003, Germany beat the United States, 3-0, in the semifinals of the fourth Women's World Cup. Germany went on to beat Norway in the final and is the top-ranked team in the world.

The United States is ranked second and is the only team to reach the semifinals of all four Women's World Cups and all three Olympics.

Germany boasts the tallest women's team in the world, led by last year's FIFA player of the year, 5-10 forward Birgit Prinz. She has scored 77 goals in 119 appearances for the national team.

"We need to stay as compact as possible as a defensive group and make sure we don't get spread out," U.S. midfielder Julie Foudy told reporters after the Americans' 2-1 victory over Japan in the quarterfinals Friday.

Tonight's other semifinal will match third-ranked Sweden against sixth-ranked Brazil in the city of Patras, a few hours west of Athens. The gold- and bronze-medal games will be played Thursday night in Athens.

Former Texas resident Mia Hamm is one of a handful of U.S. veterans who played on the two previous Olympic teams, which both reached the final. The Americans beat China, 2-1, in 1996 and lost to Norway in 2000, 3-2 in overtime.

Hamm told reporters that she doesn't want the team's younger players to use the veterans as motivation for winning.

"I don't want them to feel that they have pressure on them to do it for us," she said. "Let's do it for each other because we feel that's our potential. Let's go out and perform well and leave everything on the field."

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com

United States vs. Germany, women's soccer semifinal, Pankritio Stadium, Heraklio, Greece, 10 a.m. (MSNBC)