Enrique, I think you are right that Scurry seemed to be treated oddly, not only by the press but by her fellow team-mates; she seemed to stand somewhat to one side in their scrums. And Rakesh is right about the general bias against goalies -- Tafferal single-handedly got Brazil into the finals with a brilliant finish against Holland, but his day in the sun was brief. OTOH (a) he had a day in the sun, and (b) Americans tend to pay more attention to goalies than any other nation in the world, IMHO. Perhaps because it's the one position where we are almost world class sometimes.
But all that aside, the big story of the final shot, and the game, is that Scurry cheated. Or, since this is a team sport, we cheated. The Chinese have been playing the tapes over and over on TV claiming that Scurry moved off her line, and in today's LA Times there is a still photograph that makes it incontestable: it shows her over a yard off her line -- i.e., 3 or four feet *toward the ball* -- when the Chinese shooter was still a yard from the ball. It was a blatant violation of the rules. Furthermore, Scurry admits it. She said "Everybody does it. It's only a violation when you get caught." And she said she jumped as far forward as she could on the early ones to see how much the ref would give her. Perhaps she suspected that in this context the ref would give her a lot? The bottom line, however, was that it wasn't the bending of a rule, it was the breaking of a rule. It was probably more a subtle interaction of cynicism and intimitation than an actual plot, but in the end the game was fixed in our favor.
So we blatantly broke the rules, the commentators overlooked it like it never happened, we and are still boasting about how good we are. And the Chinese are sure it was all a conspiracy. It's kindof like the bombing of their embassy.
And while we're on the subject, I think the American player woman that headed out the Chinese shot out "on the line" was actually inside the goal. It was China 1:0 in my book.
By the way Enrique, I think your description of Hamm's series was right on the mark. But once again, this is the American sports announcing for you: annoint a hero and tell the story of his/her struggle. And if it's a flop, pretend it's not. Reggie Miller had a dreadful series against the Knicks -- the real story would have been how he was the chief choke on a team of chokers -- but they kept repeating their Reggie the Knick killer shtick as if repeating it would make it true. Maybe they're right. People still believe it. And it sure seems to sell sneakers.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com