The sea rolled up only a few feet from one end of the stadium. The sun backlit nearby mountains in an orange glow.
It was a blissful setting for a soccer match, and nothing that happened on the field in Crete could prevent Greece’s players from feeling their existence was idyllic as they helped kick off Olympic competition in their country Wednesday night.
The Greek women’s goalkeeper, Maria Giatrakis of Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., felt chills of pride when the United States scored its first goal in a 3-0 victory. No sooner had Giatrakis cleaned the ball out of her net than she heard some of the 15,747 fans chanting, “Hellas, Hellas,” which translates to “Greece, Greece.”
“I had a silly smile on my face to be in this atmosphere,” Giatrakis said.
She was one of seven U.S. citizens of Greek lineage in the starting lineup against the United States. They never had played before more than 1,000 people in Greece. They never would have been in this tournament had the home country not received an automatic spot in the 10-team field.
“In any other situation, we wouldn’t have had any business on the field with them,” Giatrakis said.
Women’s soccer barely existed in Greece two years ago. Greek soccer officials may have complete disdain for the idea of women playing the game, but they wanted U.S. players to put a respectable team on the field.
“Whether they (the Greek public) care about us or not, whether they like us or not, they saw us,” Giatrakis said.
She learned of the recruitment effort from her coach at the University of Connecticut. Walker Loseno of Seattle saw something on the Internet and, once she made the team, decided to play as Amalia Loseno, using a Greek version of her middle name. Tanya Kalyvas of New Jersey read an announcement in the Greek-American Journal.
“I can speak soccer Greek,” Kalyvas said.
The Greek-Americans needed to find ways to tell their Greek teammates the U.S. players had, in Loseno’s words, only two hands and two feet. Loseno knew she had to say something when her teammates were gaping in awe at Mia Hamm when they passed her in the local hotel where both teams were staying.
“Two days ago, talking to my teammates, they were like, `I can’t believe we’re playing against Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly and Briana Scurry,” Giatrakis said. “Then we were out shopping here, and the U.S. players were shopping, and we saw we were buying lotion, and Mia was buying lotion. They were doing the same things as us.”
There’s a new twist on an old cliche: They put on their lotion one hand at a time.
“This was a great experience for us,” said Dimitra Panteleiadou, one of the native Greek starters. “They are the women’s dream team. Everyone wants to play against them.”
The outcome never was in doubt. The U.S. outshot Greece 28-1 and scored three pretty goals.
Hamm faked a defender off her feet before making a cross-field pass that Shannon Boxx drilled past Giatrakis in the 14th minute. Abby Wambach made it 2-0 with a header off a Kate Markgraf pass in the 30th minute.
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Hamm finished the scoring by taking full advantage of two defenders’ decision to back away from her.