Briana Scurry

Briana Scurry has been playing soccer long enough to know that anything can happen. So rather than vent her anger at being left off the U.S. roster for the Beijing Olympics, the veteran goalkeeper is going to China as an alternate, staying in peak condition and making sure she is ready if called upon. "I'm definitely disappointed," Scurry said of not making the final squad of 18. "I feel I came into this year and worked really hard and was in some of the best shape I've been in.

The last time Briana Scurry stepped onto a soccer field was the starry night of Aug. 26, 2004, at Karaiskaki Stadium in Athens, the night she won her second Olympic gold medal. Since then, nothing. After helping the U.S. reclaim the gold it had won in 1996 but lost in 2000, Scurry disappeared. She fell off the map. As far as anyone knew, she had retired. "I contacted her way back before the Algarve Cup [in Portugal last March] and she told me she needed some time off," Greg Ryan, the U.S.

It was the Kerri Strug vault, landed with her left ankle sprained, so far beyond pain that she told Coach Bela Karolyi, "I can't feel my leg." And he told her, "You can do it." So she did. Under the bright spotlight of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Briana Scurry has played more games, earned more victories, recorded more shutouts and won more medals than any U.S. soccer goalkeeper in history -- male or female -- but on Monday she was not included on the 18-player roster that will travel to China in August to compete in the Beijing Olympics. It was a decision made for tactical reasons, not to avoid controversy, according to U.S. women's national soccer Coach Pia Sundhage. Scurry, 36, has been one of the American team's stalwarts for the last 14 years, winning Olympic gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the 2004 Athens Games, as well as a world championship in 1999 with her memorable penalty kick save against China in the dramatic final at the Rose Bowl.

You wondered how much the folks in charge of the postgame tunes at Karaiskaki Stadium knew about the deeper meaning of their musical selections that played while the crowd of 10,416 waited for the medal ceremony on Thursday night. There was "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones and "That's the Way (I Like It)" by KC and the Sunshine Band.

Charmaine Hooper scored in the second minute and Briana Scurry posted her fourth shutout this season, and the Atlanta Beat defeated the Washington Freedom, 1-0, Saturday in front of 10,124 at Atlanta. The Beat (6-2-4) took sole possession of first place in the WUSA by one point over Boston. Boston 2, Philadelphia 2 -- Ragnhild Gulbrandsen scored in the 88th minute to give Boston a tie in front of 8,021 at Villanova, Pa.

Briana Scurry crouches low in the net, arms poised at her sides, fingers spread, eyes following every move. Mia Hamm unleashes a searing shot, sending the ball on an apparently unstoppable trajectory toward the lower right corner of the net. Scurry flings herself down low to her left, her body at full stretch, her arms reaching out, her fingertips just getting to the ball and, somehow, deflecting it around the post. Hamm is first to react. "Great save, Bri," she shouts.

U.S. soccer goalkeeper Briana Scurry kept her promise after the team won the Olympic gold medal--she ran naked through the streets of Athens. Hours after the Americans beat China, 2-1, at the University of Georgia, Scurry kept her pledge. "Yeah, I took my clothes off in a car and ran down the street and ran back, and I have proof. I videotaped it," she said Friday. "I ran about 20-30 feet down the road. It was a little nerve-racking." A friend stayed in the car and videotaped the episode.

When the United States won the world soccer championship in China in 1991, the team featured three goalkeepers--starter Mary Harvey and backups Kim Maslin-Kammerdeiner and Amy Allman. Today, Maslin-Kammerdeiner is home in New England, raising a family; Allman is here in the ESPN2 booth, providing the color commentary at the second FIFA Women's World Championship; and Harvey, well, Harvey is watching Briana Scurry from the bench.