My Medal Moment: Greg Ryan
8/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer, Features, Olympics
The players came in for training camp in January and then we left immediately for China to play in a tournament to prepare us for qualification. Then we got a short time off before going to Costa Rica for qualification. We were on the road a lot; I think we had five days off over the first three months of the year. It was very taxing on the players, but I think it was good preparation for the qualifiers.
The only thing you want to do is finish in the top two in qualification because that is who goes to the Olympics. Everything we did was geared towards the top opponents, Mexico and Canada. We prepared for the other games as well, but we were really preparing for that semifinal round. We were fortunate that we drew Costa Rica (in the semifinals), which proved to be a pretty easy match for us, and ended up winning the qualification against Mexico in the finals. In terms of strategy at that level, we know these teams so well that we know how to prepare for each of them. We know their style, their tactics and their players. Part of my job was to travel around the world, which I had done the previous year as well in the 2003 World Cup, watching the top national teams. I was in Asia, Europe and South America watching the teams so I could come back and provide the scouting information to the head coach.
This was a very veteran team. It was a team with players like Christine Lilly and Mia Hamm who were in their fifth or sixth world championship and third or fourth Olympics. As a result, they really didn't get fired up until right before the Olympics. Conversely, the young ones were excited right off the bat. But I think the old ones knew how to maintain and then turn it on when they needed to and in the end they did. It was challenging. Being a veteran team, it's not new or fun, it is what they've always done and it's work. Getting fit is very difficult and was challenging for that group of players. For the veterans, it was a difficult year, but once they got there, they knew what to do.
I knew that we had to win the Olympics for our head coach (April Heinrichs) to stay on. This was her third world championship and, to me, my whole focus was on doing whatever I could do to help her and the team win the gold medal. So all of the amenities, where you stayed, the nice hotels, being in Athens in the Olympics, I paid no attention to them, I just focused on my job. I would go out and scout other teams and come back and present it to the head coach on how I thought we should play. We would discuss it and she would decide exactly how she wanted to play and then I would present to the team the scouting report and the approach. I was constantly traveling away to watch a game, back to be with the team, away to watch another game, back to be with the team. So my Olympic experience was non-stop work, video analysis, live scouting, constant meetings and training with the team.
The game against Greece was fairly easy, we won 3-0, and then in the Brazil game, even though we won 2-0, they completely outplayed us. In the first half, they had several chances they should have finished and in the end we were fortunate to get a couple of goals against the run of play to win that game. I think the players knew that we were going to get to the second round (out of pool play) but I don't think we played a decent game until we got to the semifinals.
Next was a 1-1 tie with Australia. We gave up a very poor goal, we didn't have very good chemistry on the field in terms of our play, and I was worried. I went to the head coach and said, "Hey, we've got problems."
She said that these guys will turn it on once we get to the medal round. I said, "Okay, you know your team," and she was right.
After a win over Japan, we faced Germany and played the best game we had played all year. Certainly, this was our best performance in that Olympics, but I don't think we've ever played better against Germany than in that game. It ended up going to overtime, but it shouldn't have gotten that far. The U.S. completely dominated the stats; it was a game I thought we were going to win 4-0.
When you are in a semifinal or final, your players are focused, and because they were veterans you didn't have to worry about them being too nervous. With that team, we knew they were going to come to play. Julie Foudy was playing on a really bad injury that she sustained in the semifinal game with Germany. I didn't think she was going to play because she wasn't walking two days earlier. She came out and just played her heart out. Everybody gave it their best shot. I think Brazil outplayed the U.S. badly in the final, the chances that they created were better and the amount of chances were greater. They hit the crossbar, they hit the post twice, and (goalkeeper) Brianna Scurry made three world-class saves and their goalie didn't make any saves of note. But soccer is one of those games where even if you are getting outplayed, you've got a shot, and we were fortunate to get an overtime goal on a corner kick from Abby Wambach.
After the game, everyone was elated to win gold especially in that game where it didn't seem like we had the juice to win it. It was just a fantastic experience. More than anything, my happiness was for our head coach, April Heinrichs. She was a former national team player, assistant coach with the national team, became the first female coach of the national team and had been under a lot of pressure with everybody knowing that if she didn't win this one that she was done. She was so happy and it gave her the credibility that she is a great coach. I was thrilled for her and thrilled for the players. My work was over, so I was happy about that, and I looked forward to a chance to get a little bit more rest.
There was a team party in Athens that night, it was brief and the parents were there. I flew home the next day. A lot of the players stayed but I was ready to get home.
I do not have a gold medal. In the Olympics, only the athletes AND horses receive medals. In the equestrian events, the horses get medals. Coaches don't get medals but horses do, so some horse has my medal up in his stall while he is eating his oats.
