U.S. women beat Brazil for soccer gold

ATHENS, Greece — When the final whistle blew, an exhausted Mia Hamm was quickly swarmed by 17 thrilled teammates.

In a few minutes, the Olympic gold medal would be around her neck, too.

Hamm and the rest of the Fab Five had just enough left in their thirtysomething legs for one more title, beating Brazil 2-1 Thursday in overtime in their final tournament together.

Abby Wambach, the player who might break Hamm's records one day, scored in the 112th minute with a powerful 10-yard header off a corner kick from Kristine Lilly. It was Wambach's fourth goal of the Olympics and 18th in her last 20 games.

The game marked the final competitive appearance together for the remaining players from the first World Cup championship team in 1991. The five helped bring their sport to national prominence and captured the country's imagination by winning the World Cup in 1999, and together they have played in 1,230 international matches.

Hamm, Julie Foudy and Joy Fawcett are retiring from the national team — although they might play in some farewell exhibitions this fall — leaving Lilly and Brandi Chastain as the last of the old guard.

They'll leave happy with the final result, but they might never want to watch a replay of a game that showed they should perhaps hang it up.

Maybe they were trying too hard, but the Americans were slower, less organized, less creative and lost the chase to most of the loose balls against the young Brazilians, who hit the post twice late in regulation and weren't afraid to shove the U.S. stars around.

Hamm especially was a nonfactor, unable to find space to make the kind of runs that made her famous. She had no legs left in the overtime of the 266th game of a 17-year career that included 153 goals.

The U.S. team was rescued by Wambach, some great saves from goalkeeper Briana Scurry and a goal from Lindsay Tarpley, one of two college players on the team, in the 39th minute. Pretinha scored for Brazil in the 73rd.

After the game, the team took a victory lap, waving flags to the crowd of 10,416 at Karaiskaki Stadium.

The win helped erase the sting of the loss to Norway in the gold-medal game in Sydney four years ago and a third-place finish at last year's World Cup. In the 1990s, the United States ruled women's soccer, but the other teams have caught up over the last five years.