Heather O’Reilly’s teammates keep teasing her by saying she should be playing soccer with Katie Fawcett, not Joy–and the idea isn’t so far-fetched.
After all, the 19-year-old O’Reilly is a lot closer in age to Katie, 10, than to Katie’s mother, Joy, 36.
O’Reilly, the youngest player on the U.S. women’s soccer team, has no problem with the age difference on the field. Her young legs have added critically needed speed to the veteran team, which plays Brazil for the Olympic gold medal Thursday night.
“You’ll see the generation gap when we do crosswords, and the clue will be `[Blank] Speedwagon,’ and Heather won’t know the answer,” Brandi Chastain said. “And Julie [Foudy] was like, `You don’t know who Styx are?”‘
O’Reilly said: “I won’t know those songs on the radio from the ’80s and ’70s.”
Chastain, 36, has been O’Reilly’s roommate at the Olympics. Before the U.S. team’s 2-1 semifinal victory Monday over Germany, Chastain said, they were dancing around the room like 12-year-olds.
“Singing giddy, dumb songs,” Chastain said.
Chastain was singing O’Reilly’s praises after the teenager scored the winning goal in overtime. It was her first goal in 11 national team appearances this season and first ever in a major tournament.
“Walking off the field, I thought, `This is a wonderful coming-out party for Heather O’Reilly,”‘ Chastain said. “One goal does not make a career, but this one is not a bad jumping-off place.”
O’Reilly, who played her first national team matches at 17, was on the verge of making the jump to the big time last year.
But she broke one of the bones in her lower left leg three months before the Women’s World Cup. Coach April Heinrichs kept a spot open until it became apparent O’Reilly would not recover in time.
She came back to have a spectacular freshman season at North Carolina. O’Reilly scored in all six of the Tar Heels’ NCAA playoff games as the team won the championship and finished 27-0.
The Carolina connection is one of the reasons people are inclined to look for O’Reilly to replace Mia Hamm as the star of the national team when Hamm retires from international play after Thursday’s match. Hamm also was 19 when she made her national team debut in a major tournament, the 1991 World Cup, scoring twice.
Hamm, 32, is impressed with how quickly O’Reilly has blended into a team dominated by 30-year-olds who have been playing together since 1991. One of them, Foudy, 33, injured her right foot against Germany. X-rays taken Tuesday were negative, and she is expected to be a game-time decision.
“When we are in the over-30 hour in the training room after 10, and Heather sleeps until 11 every day, that puts things into perspective,” Hamm said. “But she is as quick to make fun of me as she is of Lindsay Tarpley [who is 20], and that is what this team is about.”
O’Reilly has appeared in three of the five Olympic matches, getting her most playing time–45 minutes–against Germany because the match went into overtime.
Near the end of regulation, with the U.S. leading 1-0, O’Reilly set up Kristine Lilly, 33, for what might have been the clinching goal had Lilly’s shot not hit the crossbar.
Early in overtime, O’Reilly felt even more frustration when she found herself with the ball to the left of an open net.
Rather than put the ball on her right foot, which would have given her an even bigger empty area to aim at, she rushed a left-footed shot that hit the outside of the left post.
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Some young players would have come undone after missing such an easy chance for a probable winning goal. O’Reilly shook it off after a few seconds.
“I know she has a big heart,” Heinrichs said. “She will never quit.”
O’Reilly needed only to deflect a perfect Hamm pass for the winning goal nine minutes into the overtime. Getting into position for the deflection was the most important part of the play.
“For her to bounce back the way she did says so much about her,” Hamm said. “You’re around her five minutes, and she lights up a room.”
Maybe Chastain could sing “You Light Up My Life” the next time they dance around the room. It’s a giddy, dumb song.
But O’Reilly wouldn’t get it. It is from the ’70s.