Hucles heads to Beijing looking for another gold

By Chip Knighton

Published: August 2, 2008

The United States women’s soccer team took a hit heading into the Beijing Olympics when forward Abby Wambach, the team’s leading scorer in 2008, fractured her leg in a match against Brazil. Fortunately for the Americans, they’ve got another player who has proven herself in big moments.
Midfielder Angela Hucles, a former University of Virginia standout, scored the winning goal in the Peace Queen Cup final in South Korea in June — on a set piece that might normally have gone through Wambach.
Hucles got an opportunity on a stoppage-time free kick in the final against Canada and struck quickly, playing the ball on for forward Lauren Cheney. The pass eluded goalkeeper Erin McLeod and skidded into the goal for the winner.
“It was a set play when I took a chance,” said Hucles, who played at UVa from 1996-99. “Typically, we might look to find Abby on that as a target in the air. I played a ball on the ground looking for a different player. That was gratifying for me in a different way because I felt confident enough to take a chance at the end of the game.”
That confidence is well-earned — the goal was Hucles’ second injury-time winner in 2008. She poked in the deciding goal in a friendly against Australia in May as the U.S. earned a a5-4 win. Her last goal before that was another game-winner against Mexico in 2004.
“It’s nice to be able to translate what I’m doing into some goals in some major tournaments at crucial moments,” Hucles said. “That always helps a player’s confidence when you’re scoring.”
Good feelings are brimming for Hucles and for the Americans, who are 19-0-1 in 2008 — the only blemish was a 1-1 draw with Canada in April — after making headlines for all the wrong reasons the year before. The U.S. crashed out of the World Cup with a 4-0 semifinal loss to Brazil, but the aftermath was even worse than the defeat itself.
Then-coach Greg Ryan made a controversial decision to bench starting goalkeeper Hope Solo in favor of veteran Briana Scurry. Solo criticized the choice after the game and was not with the team for the 4-1 win over Norway in the third-place game. She has since made a difficult return to the team under new coach Pia Sundhage after sitting on the bench for several games on a post-World Cup tour.
“You just have to learn from what happens and move on,” Hucles said. “Otherwise you’ll be stuck in that moment and you won’t be successful if you’re harping on the past in a negative way.
“The World Cup was an emotional time with what happened with the players and the coach. We also suffered a pretty major loss and that hurt us, too. After taking some time away from the team, we were able to focus on the goal of playing well in this Olympics.”
Hucles, 30, was a bit player in her last Olympic go-round, playing in two games as the U.S. took gold in Athens in 2004. She is expected to fill a reserve role in Beijing, but her late-game heroics against Canada and Australia should make her a prime choice off the bench as a new generation of American stars takes over.
“I’ll probably have a larger role with the team in terms of playing on the field,” she said. “I’m older and have more experience than the last Olympics — we had [former players] Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain, who were repeat Olympians and helped guide me through the last Olympics. This time, I feel like it’s my role to do that for some of the younger players.”
One of those younger players was recent UVa graduate Becky Sauerbrunn, a defender who played with the U.S. team in the Olympic run-up but was not selected for Beijing. Both players made their mark on the UVa record book — Sauerbrunn set a record for minutes played with 2,289 in 2005, while Hucles remains the program’s all-time leading scorer with 138 goals.
Sauerbrunn and Hucles also played together for the Boston Renegades semi-pro team. Hucles, a Virginia Beach native, has been based out of Massachusetts since joining the Boston Breakers of the now-defunct Women’s United Soccer Association. She scored nearly a goal a game for the Breakers before the league suspended operations after the 2003 season.
Hucles will get a chance to resume her professional career next April with the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer season. But for now, she and her U.S. teammates are preparing to put all those bad World Cup memories to bed.
“We’re just relaxing, refreshing and gearing up,” Hucles said. “I’m at a point now where I’m getting really excited. I’m about to travel off to Beijing with my teammates. This is what we’ve been training for for the past four years.”