Victory of the Women's Football Teams of the USA and Brazil in the World Cup - 2003-09-22

On Sunday, the U.S. women's national soccer team defeated Sweden 3-1 in their first match of the Women's World Cup held in the United States this year. The game took place at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Mia Hamm, the shining star of the U.S. team, assisted in all three of her team's goals, marking a strong start to their title defense after winning the World Cup four years ago. The American players scored twice from corner kicks taken by Hamm, with Cindy Parlow scoring with a header in the 35th minute and Shannon Boxx also scoring with a header in the 77th minute. Hamm had set up the first goal for the Americans, which was initiated by a brilliant play from Abby Wambach, who bulldozed through the Swedish defense on the right flank and passed the ball to Hamm in the penalty area. Hamm then cleverly assisted Christiane Lilly, who scored with a powerful left-footed shot from 15 meters, marking her 92nd goal in the national team jersey. Sweden, ranked 5th in the world by FIFA, managed to score their only goal in the 58th minute when Hanna Ljungberg sent a long cross from the left flank, and Victoria Svensson headed the ball over the hands of U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry into the net. Approximately 35,000 fans attended the match, with hundreds of young girls painting their faces red, white, and blue and wearing U.S. team jerseys. In the second match of the day at RFK Stadium, Brazil faced South Korea from Group B, winning decisively with a score of 3-0. Four teams from Group D played on Sunday in Los Angeles, where Russia defeated Australia 2-1, and China edged Ghana 1-0. On the first day of the tournament in Group A, North Korea beat Nigeria 3-0 in Philadelphia, while Norway overcame France from Group B 2-0 in the same city. Group C matches were held in Columbus, where Germany defeated Canada 4-1 and Japan surprisingly crushed Argentina 6-0.