A Quote by Clint Smith
When the U.S. team went on its historic run to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002, I was thirteen years old. Each game in that run - the astonishing victory against Portugal, the resilient win over Mexico, even the gutsy but unlucky effort against the Germans - propelled me to push my other athletic interests aside and focus only on soccer.
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My teammates and I are best known for our penalty kick victory against China to win the 1999 Women's World Cup. But a lot of people don't realize that when we were first playing soccer on the Women's National Team, the Women's World Cup didn't exist. In fact, Women's Soccer wasn't even in the Olympics.
The best goal I have scored for the national team would be during the 2002 World Cup against Portugal. It was my first World Cup and my first goal in the World Cup. It was like a dream, and that's why it was so memorable.
You think about past World Cups - in 2006, it was a fantastic Brazil team, but we did not do so well that year. In 2010, the same: it did not go far, either - only the quarter-finals. But in '94 and 2002, Brazil did not play the best football but won the World Cup; they found a way to win.
Like many of us in the England squad, I wasn't even born when the men's team played Cameroon in the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup, so I couldn't tell you much about that game.
It was a dream start, a perfect start for us. We had to start qualification away from home in Portugal, the group favourites - and I still think they are the group favourites. It was a historic result to win against a big team in Europe, so I am very happy for my country and for my people. They were all looking to the national team. This victory is for them and we will try to do the best that we can until the end of qualification.
Why must I run against a Negro? We have had enough of Negroes running against and fighting with each other. The better bet is that we would put a Muslim candidate in the field against a devil, somebody who is against all we stand for.
The first time I watched a World Cup game was in 2002. That was the first time Senegal had ever qualified for the World Cup, and it was great moment that I will never forget in my life. I was ten years old at the time, and that experience of watching my country in a World Cup is what inspired me to become a footballer.
When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.
I'd rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, than run a conservative race only for a win.
Pakistan are definitely our main rivals. We do respect the players but on the field, we push ourselves even harder to get that win. I am sure they do the same against us. Victory against them has a special meaning.
If the run game's not working, you'll most likely succeed in the pass game, and even if there's a game where the run game and the pass game's not working, you've got to find a way to continue to win. You can't get too caught up in one play. You can't get too caught up one quarter or one drive.
I played my first World Cup game against South Africa where I scored 97 runs before being run-out by Jonty Rhodes.
I push against the tree and run away, stumbling, the unreal night playing with me, gravity pulling from below, behind, above, making me fall. And I run through a world that is rotating, conscious of the earth's spin, of our planet twirling as it careens through nothingness, of the stars spiraling above, of the uncertainty of everything, even ground, even sky. Mumtaz never calls out, although a thousand and one voices scream in my mind, sing, whisper, taunt me with madness.
In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't convince other people to really do it. And this year, I'm not running it.
It's a big game tomorrow, obviously, quarter finals. I think that whenever you play the Russians you always get up for it, and tomorrow is going to be even that much bigger, the quarter finals.
That makes me think of the 2002 World Cup Final above all else. Nobody thought at the time that our team would get through to the Final against Brazil. We should remember that this summer.
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