Mostly they couldn't hit a lick, especially stars like Lisa Fernandez and Dot Richardson, oldies but goodies from Atlanta. Desperation set in. The players had a cleansing ceremony after the loss to Australia. With that gone, everything got better really fast. So fast that on a rainy Tuesday night, the Americans ended up wrapped in US flags acting for all the world like they're the best in the world, which they are, having defeated Japan, 2-1, in the finals.
Gold medals are a beautiful thing.
They match red, white, and blue. The US battled back from three early losses to win a gold medal. The other teams seemed energized by the early US losses. The final against Japan was not a perfectly clean win for the US, but that's not noted on the medals. The Japanese failed to score in the top of the eighth.