(John Glennon, The Tennessean, 07.04.04)

NASHVILLE — In its first performance in the Athens of the South, the U.S. women’s national soccer team took another positive step toward Athens, Greece.

The U.S. used a late goal by Heather Mitts to knock off Canada 1-0 in front of 9,110 spectators at the Coliseum, improving to 3-0-1 in a string of exhibition games that will lead up to the Olympics next month.

The final score was a little misleading. The U.S. dominated the majority of the match, but failed to capitalize on a number of good scoring chances.

“I thought we played extremely well, and that’s about as commanding a game and as good a result as you’re going to get,” U.S. coach April Heinrichs said. “We were ready to play and we got after Canada early. Yeah, I would have liked to finish a few more chances, but that’s not always going to happen.”

The U.S. scored the only goal it would need in the 74th minute, when Mitts posted the first goal of her international career. Mia Hamm began the play with a corner kick from the right side and Shannon Boxx headed the ball toward the goal line, where Mitts knocked home a half-volley.

“I couldn’t stop smiling after the game,” Mitts said. “First I make the Olympic team and then I get a chance to score. That’s great.”

The U.S. nearly produced a handful of other goals. Twice in the first half, Hamm was on the verge of scoring the 150th goal of her career. Canadian goalie Taryn Swiatek deflected Hamm’s short-range shot 10 minutes in, and Hamm failed to chip the ball over a charging Swiatek seven minutes later.

“I probably came as close to scoring as half the people in the stands,” Hamm said. “We’ve got to realize that in tight games, opportunities like that will be few and far between.”

Memphis native Cindy Parlow entered in the 69th minute and forced Swiatek to make two big back-to-back saves in the 85th minute.