April 2, 1999

Quinones, Mexico Earn Respect in 3-0 Loss to U.S.

By John Philip Wyllie

Heading into last Sunday's Rose Bowl confrontation with the United States, Mexico's Women's National Soccer Team had been crushed in its three previous U.S. match-ups by a combined score of 30-0. To say that the United States was the heavy favorite prior to this match wouldn't come close to describing pregame expectations.


Linnea Quinones at postgame interview.

Compared to Mexico's daunting task, Custer's possibilities for a victory over the Sioux at Little Bighorn were almost in the bag, the 300 Spartans by contrast, faced a cake walk in kicking some serious Persian butt at Thermopolae. Yet late in the first half, the score remained deadlocked at 0-0 until Julie Foudy was finally able to direct a crossing pass from Escondido's Shannon MacMillan past SDSU's Linnea Quinones, Mexico's starting goalkeeper.

Prior to that point, the eighteen year old Quinones, a student at Bonita Vista High just one year ago, was doing a very good impression of a wall. Having already faced eighteen shots and recorded six saves, she would go on to notch ten more.

Only a late game, two goal surge by the United States' Kristine Lilly allowed the United States to save face and walk away with the eventual 3-0 win. But despite their difficulty in scoring, the United States completely dominated the game, outshooting their southern neighbor, by a staggering 42-1.

As for Quinones, the bombardment she faced from the American players was nothing compared to what she faced afterward from both the American and Mexican Press.

Surrounded by a swarm of television microphones and flashing cameras, Quinones, with a limited command of the Spanish language, did the best she could with the questions posed by the Mexican reporters. Reverting continually to English she downplayed her amazing feat.

"I just came out confident and really wanting to play well. I wanted to show what I was made of and the team wanted to show what they were made of."

Judging from the mile wide smile beaming from the face of her coach, Leonardo Cuellar, Quinones has silenced any further discussion about the wisdom of bringing Mexican-American players on to the Mexican Women's National Team. She even drew the praise of America's Mia Hamm, regarded as the best all-around female soccer player on the planet.

In the 75th minute, Quinones stood alone as the last remaining player with a chance to stop a hard charging Hamm. Hamm, you might remember, is just four goals short of breaking the All-Time International scoring record of retired Italian Elisabetta Vignotto.

"I don't think the ball was as far out from me as I'd have liked it to be," Hamm recalled, "so I wasn't able to get a shot off. And then I tried to dribble her, but once again with the ball being underneath, I couldn't get around her. She made a tremendous save, one of the saves that defined the game she had today. I would have loved to have scored that goal, but I have to take my hat off to her, she did exceptionally well on that."

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