Results tagged “Mia Hamm” from 100 Percent Soccer

It's exactly half way through the inaugural season with 35 of the scheduled 70 games completed.

Player of the Week
It stands to reason that if you score the only goal in three WPS games last weekend that you'd win the Player of the Week award.

Saint Louis forward Eniola Aluko duly took the honor after scoring her third goal of the season to lead Athletica to a 1-0 road triumph over the Boston Breakers. The other two games - Washington Freedom-Chicago Red Stars and Sky Blue FC-Sol - ended in scoreless ties.

Here's the goal and game highlights:

Five different Sol players have won the award, BTW. Here's the full list:

Week 1: Aya Miyama (Los Angeles Sol)
Week 2: Marta (Los Angeles Sol)
Week 3: Kelly Smith (Boston Breakers)
Week 4: Aly Wagner (Los Angeles Sol)
Week 5: Abby Wambach (Washington Freedom)
Week 6: Sonia Bompastor (Washington Freedom)
Week 7: Lori Chalupny (Saint Louis Athletica)
Week 8: Christine Sinclair (FC Gold Pride)
Week 9: Jillian Loyden (Saint Louis Athletica)
Week 10: Shannon Boxx (Los Angeles Sol)
Week 11: Camille Abily (Los Angeles Sol)
Week 12: Eniola Aluko (Saint Louis Athletica)

Yanks Shooting Blanks
Where are the American strikers anyway? Last weekend's goal by the English international means foreign players have now scored seven more goals in WPS than U.S. players. And no American has more than two.

Top scorers:
6 Camille Abily (Sol and France)
5 Kelly Smith (Boston Breakers and England)
4 Christine Sinclair (FC Gold Pride and Canada), Marta (Sol and Brazil)
3 Eniola Aluko (St. Louis Athletica and England), Sonia Bompastor (Washington Freedom and France), Lisa De Vanna (Washington Freedom and Australia)

BTW, WPS has seen 73 goals scored since the inaugural game, an average of 2.09 goals per game.

Attendance Update
WPS officials claim the league is averaging 5,008 fans per game, not including a pair of doubleheaders with MLS teams. That's about what the league anticipated it would draw.

Miscellanea
All dads get in free Sunday at Home Depot Center when the Sol play FC Gold Pride at 3 p.m. in a game that will also be televised on Fox Soccer Channel. ... Mia Hamm and Joy Fawcett will be honored at half time as part of the WPS' 10th anniversary recognition of the U.S. Women's National Team's iconic 1999 World Cup win at the Rose Bowl. Two other members of that team who play for FC Gold Pride - Brandi Chastain and Tiffeny Milbrett - will join Fawcett (but not the shy Hamm) in signing autographs after the game. ... Expansion team Atlanta will make a "major announcement" Thursday, presumably unveiling the team name and colors.

Nomar Garciaparra and wife Mia Hamm attend the NCAA college basketball game between Louisiana Tech and UCLA in Los Angeles recently; Hamm, the reluctant celebrity who became the most prolific goal-scorer of all-time in international soccer, will be inducted into the 'Hall of Freedom' at half time of Sunday's Washington Freedom WPS game against Saint Louis Athletica.

AP Photo

By JOSEPH WHITE
AP Sports Writer

WASHINGTON -- Although she's been retired for five years, Manhattan Beach resident Mia Hamm still has those self-conscious moments when she runs into fans at the grocery store.

"Yeah, now it's a different way," she said with a big laugh. "It's, like, I want to make sure I'm putting healthy things in there for my kids, so they're not sitting there going, 'Wow, she feeds that stuff to her kids?' 'What is she thinking?'"

The reluctant celebrity who became the most prolific goal-scorer of all time in international soccer, Hamm will be back in the spotlight, at least for a little while, this weekend. She's returning to the nation's capital to be inducted into the "Hall of Freedom" at half time of the Washington Freedom's WPS game against the Saint Louis Athletica on Sunday.

Hamm played for the original version of the Freedom in the WUSA for three seasons, winning a championship in 2003 in the final game before the league folded. Although there have been far greater honors -- a pair of Olympic gold medals, two World Cup titles, induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame -- Hamm counts her years in Washington as the one time she was a real professional athlete playing in a topflight league.

"I was a professional, and a lot of us talked about that," Hamm said. "It was a dream for us. We had compensation for being on the national team, but for us this was about being a professional. It was 24/7, that's what we trained for. We were learning the game each and every day in a structured environment. It was a proud, defining moment for all of us involved."

Hamm scored 158 goals in international play before retiring at the end of 2004, when the U.S. team won gold at the Athens Olympics. She has settled down in California with her husband, Oakland A's infielder Nomar Garciaparra, and has 2-year-old twins, Ava and Grace.

"Grace probably gets more entertainment from the soccer balls than Ava does," Hamm said. "The other day I came home and they were saying 'Mommy plays soccer' and I was laughing. I was like, 'Ah, not so much any more, but thank you.'"

Although she arguably still remains the biggest name in women's soccer, Hamm always preferred the stuff of normal life to the trappings of fame.

She once said she felt as if she were letting the fans down when they saw her doing her own shopping or riding public transportation. She took the Metro every day when Garciaparra's team played a series in Washington last year.

"They would assume that I had all these personal assistants at home," Hamm said. "No, I do my own laundry. When we were in Chicago, it's like 'What are you doing riding the train?' Well, it's nifty and it drops me off right at the stadium."

"I've been given a lot of great opportunities," she said. "But just because of these experiences, it didn't make me better than anyone else. ... That's more so what I want to make sure they understand, that 'please' and 'thank you' to them goes the exact same distance as it does for me. I don't take those things for granted."

This year's launch of the WPS means a lot to Hamm.

It ends a five-year gap without a women's major soccer league in the United States, but, at age 37, it has come too late for her to contemplate coming out of retirement.

"I've been out to a couple of national team practices, bring the girls out there and say hi to some old friends," Hamm said. "And I saw those girls, especially the younger players, sprint by me, and I'm like 'There is no way I could do this.' It was a great run, but I really enjoy watching the games on TV."