Aussie softballers need 'miracle' to beat US dream team

Aussie softballers need 'miracle' to beat US dream team

Australian softballer Melanie Roche fires up in competition. The Aussies will struggle against the powerful US dream team.

AUSTRALIA'S softballers admit they need a "miracle" to stop the real version of the US dream team and to save their sport from Olympic death row.

The Australians crave gold in Beijing, but the same old problem stands in their way - the US.

This is the United States' real dream team because, while the money-drenched basketballers have lost their international shine, the softballers are untouchable.

They scorched to their third consecutive gold in Athens, conceding just one run in nine games, and strolled through their pre-Games preparation with one loss in 60 games.

Softball is featuring in its fourth, and last, Olympics, having been introduced in Atlanta in 1996.

The US has won the lot and that's why the Australians are talking miracles, but they have the extra motivation to win before softball joins baseball on the Olympic scrapheap in two weeks.

"It will be a miracle run for us to come home with a gold medal," veteran pitcher Melanie Roche said.

"But we have the character within this team to produce and that's what the Olympic stage is for. That's where they happen.

"In the past, we could have gone: 'We're going to beat the Yanks, we're going to beat the Yanks'.

We've come up short - and a lot short. The mindset for this team is different. We're going to need a miracle run but we've planted that little miracle seed."

But captain Natalie Ward who, like Roche and pitcher Tanya Harding, is attending her fourth Olympics, insists Australia has moved within reach of the US.

"The top five countries at the moment are so close. In the four Olympics that softball has been part of, this is the closest competition," Ward said.

"It's a mindset. We need to believe that we can beat the US. It's achievable. The gap is closing everytime we play them."

A victory by a team other than the US may yet be good for softball as it prepares a last-ditch bid to return for the 2016 Olympics. It has been eliminated from the London schedule in 2012 after IOC members voted that baseball and softball did not belong in their showcase.

"It's a sad thing for the sport. The Olympics are about history and legacy and all of a sudden we've been cut down," Roche said.

"There is time to pick it up and that's where our hopes are. Our sport will continue to grow. It's just a little speedhump, I guess. But it does give us that little extra jab of emotion."

The Australians start their campaign against the powerful Japanese on Tuesday and they will back up less than 15 hours later to play the US.

Even if Australia loses both preliminary games, they can still figure in the gold medal game on Thursday week.