SportingNews.com - Soccer : United States 5, Costa Rica 0

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United States 5, Costa Rica 0
September 2, 2003

CARSON, Calif. -- U.S. women's soccer coach April Heinrichs wanted to take a look at a lot of players, and she liked what she saw.

Heinrichs made the maximum of seven substitutions in Friday night's 5-0 victory over Costa Rica, in which five different players scored.

"The most important thing is I feel confident in all 20," Heinrichs said of the players on the U.S. World Cup squad. "We've said all along that we felt this was the deepest team we've ever had.

"This team can play a lot of players and all the players are confident. We want them to be confident going into the World Cup. Tonight, we got a lot of play, everybody had a lot of touches. It was dynamic. There was never a letdown."

The U.S. players' concentration could have lapsed, since the exhibition game was such a mismatch.

The United States took 32 shots, nine on goal, and didn't allow a single shot by Costa Rica. The visitors crossed midfield only five times in the game played before a crowd of 12,349 in the new Home Depot Center stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs.

Cindy Parlow and Aly Wagner each had a goal and an assist, and Mia Hamm, Shannon Boxx and Abby Wambach also scored.

The win was the third in as many games for the U.S. women against Costa Rica. They won 8-0 in 2000 and 7-0 last November. The United States is No. 1 in the world rankings and Costa Rica No. 45.

"For us, it's a little better than a scrimmage because you can have your starting lineup," Heinrichs said. "You get to have that chemistry of having combinations of players out there. You could see the players' level of effort, intensity and focus was greater than any practice."

Costa Rica played defensively from the start, with six players usually back in the box.

"I said to them at halftime, we've seen a lot of bunkers, but we've ever seen one like we did today," Heinrichs said of the stacked defense. "We solved it in myriad ways. We demonstrated our creativity in every facet, so I was very pleased about that."

The defending champion U.S. team opens World Cup play against Sweden at RFK Stadium on Sept. 21. The Americans play their final exhibition on Sunday against Mexico in San Jose, Calif.

Against Costa Rica, Heinrichs started a group that included several players who probably will be reserves when the World Cup begins. She inserted the mainstays of the 1999 World Cup championship team -- Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly and Joy Fawcett -- to start the second half.

Another top player, Shannon MacMillan, entered the game in the 70th minute. She had knee surgery on May 20, making her questionable for the World Cup. She missed just two games, however, and entered the contest against Costa Rica to cheers from the crowd.

MacMillan said she was inspired to play after there was a tribute to the late Clive Charles before the contest. Charles, her former coach at Portland and coach of the U.S. men's Olympic team in 2000, died last week.

"When I saw the moment of silence for Clive, I knew I had to get in there," she said.

Hamm, the United States' career scoring leader, got her 141st goal in the 82nd minute to cap the U.S. scoring.

Goals by Wagner and Wambach gave the United States a 2-0 lead by halftime. Boxx, who was making her debut for the U.S. team, Parlow and Hamm added second-half goals.