Mike Koreen (Toronto Sun): Hooper bemoans one that got away
by DJT

Sunday, July 1, 2001

Hooper bemoans one that got away

By MIKE KOREEN -- Toronto Sun

While Canadian national women's soccer team coach Even Pellerud stressed the positives, star forward Charmaine Hooper lamented the missed opportunities.

Hooper wasn't all smiles, despite a 2-2 tie with the favoured United States in an exhibition game last night before a sellout crowd of 9,023 at Varsity Stadium.

"I felt we could have won," said Hooper, who played her team-leading 78th game. "I thought we had more chances than they did, but the shots went just wide or off the post."

One near miss stood out. In the 63rd minute, Hooper put a free kick from just outside the penalty area off the right post.

"That was just heartbreaking," Hooper said. "I'm going to be replaying that one over and over in my head."

The tie extended Canada's unbeaten streak to four games -- two wins and two ties --against the World Cup champions.

It also ended Canada's five-game overall losing streak.

"2-2 is a very good result, but more importantly it was a very good performance," Pellerud said.

Unfortunately, the action was difficult to see near the end of the game as the lights on the aging stadium's west side went out.

After the game, the big concern in the Canadian dressing room was the status of captain Amy Walsh, who was carried off on a stretcher after she twisted her right ankle in the eighth minute. Walsh was examined late last night.

"I think it's serious," said Pellerud, whose team will play the U.S. again Tuesday in Blaine, Minn. "I suspect a fracture."

Hooper scored her team-leading 48th goal to open the scoring in the 14th minute, but the U.S. tied it 14 minutes later with a controversial goal.

After a Canadian foul, U.S. star Mia Hamm took her free kick about 10 feet ahead of the spot where referee Sonia Denoncourt, a Montreal native, wanted the kick to take place. Hamm got the ball to Shannon MacMillan, whose shot from just outside the penalty area took a short hop and went in off the fingertips of goalie Taryn Swiatek.

Swiatek, replacing the injured Karina LeBlanc (ankle), also looked weak in the 57th minute when Tiffeny Milbrett's long shot went in over her head. But Christine Sinclair knotted it 2-2 in the 58th minute by kicking a bouncing ball into the top right corner of the net guarded by Jamie Pagliarulo.

Hooper and teammate Sharolta Nonen have been asked to report to Philadelphia today to play for their Atlanta club team in the Women's United Soccer Association.

None of the Americans, who left right after the game instead of speaking with media, have been asked to report to their clubs.

Meanwhile, in an under-19 women's game yesterday afternoon at Varsity, Mary Boland scored in the 47th minute to give the U.S. a 1-0 win over Canada.

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