Pivotal games still ahead for soccer, basketball teams

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- They've been so good, for so long.
And it could all come to an end at the Olympics on Thursday.
That's definitely true for U.S. soccer stars Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett and Kristine Lilly, who are playing in the finals.
But it also might be the last hurrah for the U.S. men's basketball team, even though they'll only be playing in the quarterfinals.
The underachieving Americans face unbeaten and extremely impressive Spain. Lose and the United States' streak of three straight golds since turning to NBA players would be over with a thud, as would the nation's history of winning a medal in every Olympics they've entered.
Thanks to fortuitous scheduling, fans back home can catch both games live Thursday -- the basketball game at 7:30 a.m. EDT on the USA network, then the soccer at 2 p.m. on NBC.
About the time the soccer match ends, the men's 200-meter race will be run. But you'll have to wait until NBC's prime-time show to see if 100 champion Justin Gatlin of the United States can become the first sprinter to win them both since Carl Lewis in 1984.
Home stretch
The abundance of marquee events, and their juicy subplots, is a sign the Olympics are heading into the home stretch. Further proof: Everything NBC shows during its nearly nine hours of daytime, prime-time and late-night coverage will be a final or semifinal.
Cable channel-surfers will be able to catch all the men's basketball quarterfinals. They're all good matchups, too, especially the Greeks against Argentina playing a late-night game (locally) that could feature an atmosphere ripe for an upset.
The Americans have been up and down all tournament. They should be on an upswing, considering they're coming off their easiest win and their first day off.
Rough stretch
They'll need the rest if they're going to medal because the quarters, semis and finals will be played on consecutive nights and there are no Angolas left in the field.
"I think guys are ready," said co-captain Allen Iverson. "We have to be."
If they lose to Spain, the NBAers would have one game left -- for seventh-place. A win would send them into a semifinal against the Greece-Argentina winner and would go a long way toward restoring the credibility this group has coughed up.
It won't be easy, though.
U.S. coach Larry Brown calls the Spaniards "the best team I've seen thus far," noting that they've been together a long time -- which is important in international play -- and that they knocked off the American team at the 2002 world championships in Indianapolis. It helps that his players already respect their best player, Pau Gasol, a star on the Memphis Grizzlies.
"If our best team shows up," said LeBron James, "we can win the gold."
Winning a gold medal wasn't even a consideration for Hamm, Foudy, Chastain, Fawcett and Lilly when they joined the national team in the late 1980s. After all, women's soccer didn't even become an Olympic sport until 1996.
Made sport popular
It's fair to say it wouldn't have happened if not for those five Americans. They popularized the game at home and internationally, inspiring other nations to build teams that could match them.
Norway did in the 2000 Olympics and Germany came to the United States and beat the home team to win last year's World Cup championship. Now, with the team's veterans insisting this will be their last major international competition, the Americans have made it to the finals again. They play Brazil, a team they beat 2-0 last week.
"They've paved the road for everybody to follow them," coach April Heinrichs, their former teammate, said before Athens. "Without Foudy, Hamm, Lilly, Fawcett, Chastain, it just wouldn't have happened this way."
Heinrichs ignored the going-away-gift theme all tournament -- until her pep talk before the Americans played Germany in a semifinal Monday night.
"We owe it to them," she said.
In a finish that couldn't have been scripted better, the winning goal was scored -- in overtime, no less -- by the team's youngest player, 19-year-old Heather O'Reilly. And it came on assist from Hamm.
While that was a nice start, the generations haven't turned over yet. There's still one game left.