Carin Gabarra To Help Announce 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 Draw

7/17/2003 - Women's Soccer
Carin Gabarra To Help Announce 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 Draw

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy women's soccer coach and "Golden Ball" winner at the 1991 World Championship Carin Gabarra will participate in today's announcement of the Final Draw for the FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003. Gabarra will be joined by former Olympic teammate Michelle Akers, as well as Lynn Morgan, the President/CEO of the Women's United Soccer Association, for the announcement Thursday at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Live coverage of the draw will begin at 2 p.m. (ET) on ESPNews.

Gabarra, who will begin her 11th year coaching at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., this fall, has accumulated a lengthy list of accomplishments over the years, including being the first U.S. player to be named MVP of the Women's World Cup. She was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y, Oct. 28, 2000, as just the second woman player to be annointed into the Hall. The 1996 Olympic Games gold-medal winner was awarded the National Soccer Medal of Honor in 2001.

With Japan's 2-0 win over Mexico to advance in a two-game playoff series last weekend, all 16 spots for USA 2003 have been filled. The Final Draw will place these 16 qualified teams into four groups (A, B, C and D) of four teams and decide all the match-ups for the 32-game tournament. As the tournament host and defending Women's World Cup champion, the USA has already been slotted as team A1.

The U.S. will play its group play games at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Sept. 25 and Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 28. Potential match-ups for the quarterfinals will also be revealed with the draw. Teams advancing from the USA's Group A will face Group B opponents for two quarterfinal matches in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on Oct. 1.

The FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 will mark the third time in 10 years that the U.S. Soccer Federation has hosted a FIFA World Cup event. In 1994, the World Cup was introduced to the American public for the first time, resulting in the highest attended event in FIFA history, and in 1999 the Women's World Cup was the most successful women's sporting event ever. This year's event was originally scheduled to be played in China, but was relocated to the U.S. by FIFA on May 3, 2003, because of the threat of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

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