updated 10:32 p.m. ET July 21, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Greeks are mad about soccer and the sport's popularity has reached new heights following the country's recent victory in the European Championships.
One sign of its popularity are the number of teams in the tiny country of 11 million people - 48 professional clubs and hundreds of amateur squads.
But for all the sport's acclaim, it is impossible to find a professional women's soccer team.
The 22 young women who make up Greece's first national soccer team hope that will change with next month's Olympics.
"It is a good opportunity. If we are good surely things will be different. Soccer will be professional and sponsors will get involved," said 21-year-old Angeliki Lagoumtzi, a defender on the team from the northern town of Kavala.
Getting the women's team together was not easy, even if Greece got in as host country allowing its female squad to take part in the Aug. 13-29 games without qualifying.
There is not much of an amateur league and Greek officials had to scour the country and among Greek diaspora communities for talent.
They eventually signed up 13 women from Greece and another nine of Greek descent from the United States.
"Our goal is for this team to really open the road so that women's soccer in Greece becomes accepted. That's the problem, that it is not socially accepted. Soccer in Greece is a man's sport," Xanthi Konstandinidou, the team's coach, said.
Ileana Moschos, 27, from Dallas, Texas, said putting the team together was not easy.
"It was tricky becoming a team, but now everyone is working together. It is a very positive experience. The team is very cohesive right now," Moschos, a goalkeeper said.
Moschos, whose parents are Greek, played professionally in the United States with the San Jose Cyber Rays.
"We are doing nothing but constantly improving," Moschos said.
It is unclear if the team will be able to improve enough to advance past the preliminaries.
Their first match, on Aug. 11, is against the United States in Iraklion, on the island of Crete. Their group also includes Brazil and Australia.
"I believe that it will be difficult. We did not say we will go out there and win, but the opposition should not ignore us," Lagoumtzi, a student of physical education at Thessaloniki university, said.
The players, however, see a role for the team beyond the Olympics.
"It is fun to see if we can be role models. We talk to taxi drivers. We say: Yes, women can be soccer players," said Eleni Benson, 21, a defender from Willington, Connecticut.
Benson, whose mother is Greek, took a break from her biochemistry studies at Yale University to be on the team.
"It is very inspiring being on the Greek team, playing with the Olympic Games being in Greece," Benson said. "I see myself as very lucky, blessed ... I feel I need to make the most of it."
But most of the players said they hoped their Olympic performance would lure sponsorship and translate into better conditions for women's soccer in Greece.
"There are no sponsors. It is all an issue of money, on how much people will invest in you," Lagoumtzi said.
She said the soccer federation was supporting each player with a euro500 (US$610) monthly salary since it could not find any sponsors for the team.
Lagoumtzi said that whatever the results, all the players were glad to be part of the team.
"The Olympic Games for an athlete is a life's dream," Lagoumtzi said.

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