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goals to lead the tournament in scoring. Dorrance flew in the face of convention with his coaching style, which was vindicated by that 1991 victory. Most teams played a 4-4-2 formation, but the American team played a 3-4-3. “We were great duelers. We were gritty. We were to some extent irreverent because we didn’t worship at the altar of the 4-4-2, and we didn’t play the ball around in the back for half an hour to show we could possess it. We were different, and we scared teams because we were different,” said Dorrance. CHANGING OF

THE GUARD Dorrance continued as coach until 1994. During his eight years in the job, the team piled up a .737 winning percentage. When Dorrance stepped away, the job went to the team’s former goalkeeper coach, Tony DiCicco. Under Dorrance, the captaincy passed from Emily Pickering to Lori Henry to Carla Overbeck, who would remain as DiCicco’s captain throughout his time as head coach. DiCicco’s first major event as head coach was the 1995 Women’s World Cup, which ended in disappointing fashion with a third-place finish. He added two key players during his time running the

Coach Tony DiCicco added future team captain Christie Rampone to the USWNT in 1997. She went on to play 311 matches at center back.

team. The first was Cindy Parlow, who scored seventy-five goals in a 158-match career that began in 1996. The other was Christie Rampone, a center back who would anchor the USWNT defense for sixteen years starting in 1997.

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