BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Abby Wambach scored two goals, powering the U.S. women’s soccer team to a 5-1 rout of Brazil on Saturday in a tuneup for the Athens Olympics.

Mia Hamm assisted on both of Wambach’s first-half goals and added one of her own late in the game as the Americans showed no signs of rust after a month layoff. Julie Foudy scored the first goal of the game off a feed from Hamm.

“My teammates set me up with some pretty incredible goals, and I finished my chances,” said Wambach, who had three goals in a win over Norway on March 20.

“I feel really confident in the fact that I’ve been playing well, and the fact that my teammates are really starting to play well with each other,” she added. “That’s the bottom line.”

Wambach sat out the second half. She easily leads the team with 11 goals in 13 games and has scored 25 in 35 international games.

The Americans didn’t score again until the final minutes, getting two quick goals after Brazil made it 3-1 on an unassisted goal by Marta in the 55th minute.

The U.S. squad allowed few solid scoring opportunities, withstanding an aggressive second-half start by the Brazilians.

“Those early goals really helped us out,” Hamm said. “You saw what Brazil’s capable of in that 15-minute stretch of the second half and we weathered that.”

“Once we got the ball, I think we knocked it around pretty well and were able to get some more goals out of that,” she added.

The Americans improved to 11-1-1 in 2004 and continued to dominate the rivalry with Brazil. They are 16-1-2 against the Brazilians, but had won three 1-0 decisions and had a scoreless tie in the previous five meetings.

Christie Welsh scored off a nice assist from Cindy Parlow in the 86th minute, then set up Hamm streaking down the middle for the final goal about a minute later.

“We put it together today,” U.S. coach April Heinrichs said. “Sometimes an opponent will give you enough of a difficult time that it’s hard to put together. Other times it looks easy.”

AP-ES-04-24-04 1755EDT