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BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Tobin Heath was going to be healthy by Aug. 3.Fortunately, when the calendar reached the aforementioned date, it just so happened that she was healthy.When it comes to the Olympics, those two sentences dont mean the same thing.Slowed by a hamstring injury in the build-up to the Rio Games, Heath knew she would be healthy enough to play on Aug. 3, no matter what her hamstring suggested, because the U.S. womens national team took the field for the first time on that date. But in this particular instance, it didnt have to be a case of mind over matter. Her hamstring actually healed.Fortunately for me, I do feel fully healthy, Heath said the day before the game. But I do think in terms of tournament modes, you always just want to feel good enough.She was as good as her word. She was very good. Not coincidentally, the United States was good enough for a 2-0 win over New Zealand and a clean start in Group G ahead of Saturdays high-stakes second game against fellow gold-medal hopeful France (4 p.m. ET).It was a night when the small crowd in Belo Horizonte took increasing delight heckling U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo, the consensus among local media and native Portuguese speakers being that what began as chants of a slur often directed at goalkeepers upon kicking the ball soon morphed into similar-sounding chants of Zika in response to Solos publicly expressed concerns about the virus.After the game, Solo played down the reception. If fans had fun at her expense, she suggested, so be it.Nor was it all that malicious in the scheme of things -- if the interpretation of the changing chants was correct, the first should be far more troublesome than the second that merely needled a well-known player for public comments and social media posts. But in some sense its a shame that the whole audible sideshow took any focus off a player whose style should endear her to Brazilian soccer fans -- a player for whom Brazil is practically a pilgrimage.I think its a very special place to play, as a football player, Heath said of an Olympic career that has also taken her to some of the great soccer temples of English football.Asked about the chants, U.S. coach Jill Ellis said she hoped her team played a style the Brazilian fans could embrace.They do that better with Heath on the field than not.Consider the goal that put the Americans ahead in the ninth minute. Heath started the game on the left side, familiar space to her but also the real estate in which teenager Mallory Pugh has so often dazzled this year. On this sequence, Heath could have made a run for the end line to set up a cross. Instead, she cut back, avoided defenders and served a perfect cross toward the head of Carli Lloyd (or to improve the odds still more, Allie Longs nearby head).Lloyd sent a header back to where the service came from and found an empty net.Its really my job to get in the box and get on the end of crosses, Lloyd said. There is really no excuse. Ive been working on it. I can outleap people. Its one of those things where, its kind of been the next step for me, just getting on the end of crosses. I knew she was going to whip in a good ball and had to somehow get up there, leap up there and find the back of the net.The opening goal came quickly enough, but only after Heath had already served notice of her presence on the field with a free kick that gave Alex Morgan a clean header in front of the goal.Inside of 10 minutes, Heath set up the two players this team most needs to feed.As often as not, as in this instance, at least one of them is going to score.I think that was the best way we could have started, Heath said of Lloyds goal. Obviously we came out with a lot of energy, with a lot of determination. I think in that regard, we kind of put our best foot forward and got that goal, and I think that helped propel us throughout the game.Morgan scored the insurance goal early in the second half.It was yet another goal in a major tournament for Lloyd, who has scored in five such games in a row. The co-captain became one of 15 American women to play in at least three Olympics. It is her team now, and it is increasingly clear it follows her lead. But the list of players with at least three Olympics also now includes the player who set her up for the goal. Always popular but never quite one of the faces of the team, Heath has amassed 120 caps well before her 30th birthday. She has taken the field in the U.S. uniform more times than anyone on the active Olympic roster save Lloyd and Solo.I think Tobin has grown so much as a player, Lloyd said. She has become such a two-way midfielder. Not to say that she didnt work hard when she was a younger player, but I think shes now got the discipline to track back and win balls, win second balls, tackle. Shes a phenomenal player. Shes soaring with confidence and a super, super important piece to this team.Ellis singled out many of those same traits -- Heaths value as an attacking player, the ability to take on opponents one-on-one and her ability to put the ball on the foot of teammates. She talked, too, about the work rate, the one that forced New Zealand player after New Zealand player to bring her to the ground, either in pursuit or after turning over the ball. Sure, Heath knows how to make the most of that contact, earning a sarcastic pat on the shoulder from Ria Percival after the latter received a yellow card for a tangling of feet. Great players do.But there is more that Heath offers, traits that Pugh, who left her Olympic debut with a minor right ankle issue, and Crystal Dunn dont have at such early stages of such astoundingly promising careers.The other thing we get with Tobin is a player thats been there and someone who can calm us in the storm, Ellis said. There were moments in that game when momentum was building for them. And having players like this that are very comfortable on the ball helps take the steam out of your opponent.If not the steam out of the crowd.Solo was the lightning rod this night, but as she so often does, Heath sparked a team to life. 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Having two big pieces back is going to be a key for us moving forward for years to come," said Knighthawks head coach Mike Hasen.ROME -- Former 100-metre world-record holder Asafa Powell, Jamaican teammate Sherone Simpson and their Canadian physical trainer were formally placed under criminal investigation for allegedly violating Italys doping laws, police said Tuesday. The move came a day after Italian police confiscated unidentified substances in a raid on the hotel where the trio was staying in the northeastern town of Lignano Sabbiadoro after the athletes tested positive for banned stimulants. The trainer is Christopher Xuereb of Toronto. Udine prosecutors believe the trio violated Article 9 of the doping laws, which calls for punishment for whoever administers or consumes banned substances. Police were still analyzing the substances seized to determine if they were legal or not. Being formally placed under investigation is a step up in the Italian justice system from someone simply "informed of the facts," which is how someone can be questioned by police. That occurred after the raid early Monday, when the trio was brought to a local police station. Police told The Associated Press that the raids were executed following a tip from the World Anti-Doping Agency. Paul Doyle, the agent for the two sprinters, said they worked in conjunction with WADA on the raid after becoming suspicious that Xuereb, their newly hired trainer, might have given them supplements laced with a banned substance. Doyle also said that Powell and Simpson were aware of the impending raid, but Xuereb was kept out of the loop. "Asafa and Sherone have been tested more than 100 times each through their career ... and never turned in a positive test," Doyle told The AP in a phone interview. "Now they change their supplements and the first time they get tested, they have a positive test? It has to be something in those new supplements that has caused it. Chris is the one that provided those. "Were not trying to throw Chris under the bus and blame him for anything. We know it has to be something in the supplements he gave them. Were not saying he did anything deliberate, but its in those supplements. We need to figure out what it was that caused this and from there move forward." An email to Xuereb by The Canadian Press seeking comment wasnt returned. It appeared that a Linked In profile belonging to Xuereb had been removed from the popular networking website. The profile, accessible on Monday, said Xuereb is from Toronto and "coaches elite and Olympic athletes (past and present) from Canada, U.S.A. and the Caribbean." The profile said that Xuereb specializes in track and field and soccer and is also a speed/power coach, soft tissue massage and treatment specialist and health and nutritional adviser. Under accomplishments, he lists 2009 World Track and Field and the "2012 Olympics (part of winning gold and silver medals)." WADA director general David Howman likened this case to the doping scandal involving the Austrian cross country skiing and biathlon teams at the 2006 Turin Olympics, when Italian police raided athletes residences following a tip from WADA and the IOC. "Theres nothing new in relation to the way we operate," Howman added. Doyle said Tuesdday the athletes had left Lignano but declined to say where they went.dddddddddddd A hotel receptionist said late Monday that Xuereb had checked out. Powell and Simpson tested positive for the stimulant oxilofrine at the Jamaican championships last month, Doyle announced Sunday, and the agent welcomed the investigation. "That must mean they found something. Thats good," Doyle said. "The whole purpose of the raid was to see what products there were there and hopefully find whatever it was that caused this positive test. Asafa and Sherone were under the assumption and led to believe everything they were taking was completely legal." However, Doyle acknowledged that he and the athletes should have been more responsible about what supplements they used. "In hindsight, we shouldve been given a list, made sure we got a list," Doyle said. "The extent of what I did, I said to (Xuereb) in a text message, that all supplements have to be cleared by me first. He never cleared them with me. He did send them in an invoice that had the names of supplements in there that he had purchased. But that was it. I didnt have the ingredient list. "Just looked at it this morning, 19 different supplements (Powell) was given." Tara Playfair-Scott, Powells publicist, said in a statement that the runner handed over to police one bottle of Aleve containing 50 capsules and one bottle of 5-hour Energy, berry flavoured. Doyle added that the athletes would ask for a backup B sample to be tested. Jamaican athletes have made Lignano their in-season training base for years. A local athletics meet was scheduled for later Tuesday in Lignano and Jamaicans had been scheduled to compete as they do most years. However, neither Powell nor Simpson was on start lists released Monday. The news of the positive tests for Powell and Simpson came the same day that American 100-metre record holder Tyson Gay revealed that he also failed a doping test. Also Monday, discus thrower Allison Randall acknowledged that she was one of the five Jamaican athletes who tested positive for a banned substance at the Jamaican championships last month, along with Powell and Simpson. Randall holds the islands record for the discus throw and competed at the London Olympics. Her statement says she was "shocked and surprised" at the findings and hopes her backup sample will clear her name. The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association issued a brief statement Monday saying an anti-doping management process has started for the athletes. It did not identify the two other athletes who tested positive. Powell was the last man to hold the 100-metre world record before Usain Bolt broke it in 2008. He also helped the Jamaicans to the 4x100-metre relay gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. Simpson won Olympic gold in the womens 4x100 relay in 2004 and silver in 2012, along with an individual silver in the 100 in 2008. The findings come a month after another Jamaican Olympic champion, Veronica Campbell-Brown, tested positive for a banned diuretic. ------ AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver and Stephen Wilson in London and reports from The Canadian Press contributed. ' ' '