Dec. 9, 2001

BY SCOTT FRENCH, Senior Editor
Soccer America

DALLAS, Texas -- Santa Clara's 3-2 victories over Virginia and Florida in its past two NCAA playoff matches aren't the least bit indicative of its mastery of the opponent. They were woefully one-sided clashes -- would-be routs consisting largely of one Bronco attack after another -- that quickly turned into fierce battles for survival.

It's a road that won't serve Coach Jerry Smith and his squad well Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. CST, ESPN) when they meet 17-time national champion North Carolina in the NCAA Women's College Cup soccer final at Southern Methodist University's Ford Stadium.

The Tar Heels, 24-0 and ranked No. 1 since preseason, aren't likely to become fodder for Aly Wagner and Co.'s dazzling possession game, and the second-ranked Broncos (22-2) can't afford to surrender any advantage they acquire.

Carolina, playing in its 20th national championship game since 1981, is the unfathomable dynasty, and history suggests that Santa Clara, notorious underachievers who had lost seven successive semifinal matches before Friday's overtime triumph over Florida, will need plenty of luck to overcame the Tar Heels. Smith isn't buying it.

"It's remarkable [North Carolina] has done what they've done," Smith says, "but this is a new year, and this is maybe the year of us having breakthroughs, getting over hurdles. ... And now we're playing in a championship game, and I think our team is prepared and ready for it, and I don't think what's gone on in prior years will have any impact on the [final]."

He should hope so: Santa Clara has lost "every which way" possible in the semifinals, Smith reasons, and nearly found another on Friday. A 2-0 advantage dissolved in the final seven minutes of regulation against Florida, and Veronica Zepeda's strike off the underside of the crossbar was required for the overtime victory.

Six days earlier, the Broncos were cruising with a 3-0 lead over a shotless Virginia after an hour, then gave up two goals in 77 minutes. They panicked, they admitted afterwards, but their survival was telling. Past Santa Clara teams, notably the sensational '99 squad that entered the College Cup with a 23-0 record and promptly lost to Notre Dame, wilted under similar pressure, this group has the grit to pull through.

"The real Achilles' heel of past Santa Clara University teams is not being able to grind it out," Smith admits. "If we weren't totally dominating an opponent, and things weren't going our way, it was going to be tough for us. This team has a different character."

Whether it has enough character to beat Carolina on college women's soccer's biggest stage may be determined by how well it endures periods of Tar Heel success.

"I think [North Carolina] is going to get a goal," Smith says. :I've always said: In these kind of games, if you want to win, you've got to score two goals. ... Now there's been some 1-0 games, but we have a great attacking team and they have a great attacking team, and both teams are very good defensively. I have a theory that a great attack will beat a great defense -- so there are going to be goals.

"How you deal with that situation is critical. If there's something that we can really improve upon, it's what happens after our opponent scores. ... That'll be something we think about and talk about, and we we'll be better prepared to deal with that when Carolina scores a goal tomorrow against us. ... We have to deal with that a little bit better than we did in the last two games."

The teams match up well in terms of talent, although North Carolina possesses better depth -- especially up front -- and Santa Clara has key players, including Zepeda, Wagner, midfielder Devvyn Hawkins and goalkeeper Alyssa Sobolik, performing with injury.

North Carolina hadn't been at its best in weeks before arriving in Dallas, but it offered an impressive performance in the first hour of a 2-1 victory over Portland in Friday's semifinal. Anne Remy finished off a fine sequence for one goal and used a nifty backheel to set up another, Jena Kluegel was unstoppable on the left, and strong team defense quieted star Pilot striker Christine Sinclair and produced clear midfield dominance.

Portland rallied for one goal and had chances for a second, missing out on a chance at overtime when referee Msail Tsapos failed to award a deserved penalty kick in the 89th minute.

"If the referee says it's not a penalty, it's not a penalty," Portland coach Clive Charles said afterward. "We're not going to grouse about it."

Neither was Carolina coach Anson Dorrance, who said he hadn't gotten a good view of the incident -- in which goalkeeper Jenni Branam pulled Pilot midfielder Betsy Barr from behind near the goalmouth -- but likened it to the "bullets" the Tar Heels have dodged throughout the playoffs. They needed an 82nd-minute goal to complete a second-half comeback against Rutgers in the third round, then needed an 80th-minute goal, off Alyssa Ramsey's rear end, to dispose of Penn State in the semifinals.

The Tar Heels define grit, define survival -- en route to the 2000 championship, they overcame nine deficits and needed two late goals in both the semifinals and final.

"That," Dorrance says, "was harrowing."

The battle could come down to several matchups -- Wagner vs. Maggie Tomecka and Jordan Walker, Ramsey and Remy vs. Danielle Slaton and Anna Kraus, Kluegel vs. Jessica Ballweg -- and, well, luck.

"There's always a little bit of luck [aiding] the winner," Dorrance says. "Also, the absence of bad luck. Those things will come into play in this environment.

"It also comes down to which personalities take over. They have personalities who can take over, we do, and that's pretty much what these kinds of games come down to."