EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – Briana Scurry could be taking it easy. It’s a brutally hot day on a local practice field, and the U.S. women’s national team is going through a four-on-four drill.

Scurry stands in front of a net and makes a diving hand save.

She then leaps to tip a shot off the crossbar. Next, she, well, scurries across the goalmouth to jump on a trickling ball.

When she rises, Scurry is smiling.

Sweaty, with grass stains all over her shirt, but smiling.

“I love it. That’s the main reason I’m still here,” the goalkeeper said. “If I didn’t love it, it would be incredibly difficult to still play.

“But I feel I’m still at a top level and I’m training hard every day because I feel I still have something to give to the team.”

Scurry has given her all in 161 international games, winning World Cups and Olympic gold medals. At 35, she could be coasting, especially because she’s generally considered the backup to Hope Solo.

But when Solo’s father died last week, Scurry stepped in and got her 75th career shutout, 2-0 over China in Cleveland.

It was the opening of a six-game warmup tour for this year’s World Cup, which begins in September in China.

There was no question in anyone’s mind on the U.S. team that Scurry would come through.

“The girl has some magic,” defender Kate Markgraf said.

Scurry most likely will get the call today at Giants Stadium against Brazil, the first meeting of the nations since the United States’ 2-1 overtime victory for the 2004 Olympics title.

It will be the first time since late 2004 that Scurry has started consecutive games for the national team.

She expects the Americans to play better than they did in their sloppy performance against China.

“This team has an invaluable characteristic,” she said. “We’ve never thought we can just show up for this game and they’ll fall over ’cause we’re the USA. That thought has never popped up.

“And now, five games out from the World Cup, we know how critical this period is. We’ll play a New Zealand as hard and as good as we play against a Brazil.”

Scurry is best known for a naked romp through the streets of Athens, Ga., after the U.S. women won the first Olympic gold medal in their sport in 1996.

And for stopping Liu Ying’s penalty kick in the shootout that was the difference of the 1999 World Cup final – before 90,000 fans in the Rose Bowl.

What her teammates recall most are the hundreds of big saves, her intensity and willpower and leadership.

Scurry is thrilled that she attracts so much respect from the players, be they veterans such as captain Kristine Lilly, or youngsters like Stephanie Lopez, at 21 the squad’s youngest member.

Then again, that is exactly how the U.S. team has been built and has comported itself for more than two decades.

It’s the reason the roster can go through a major transition and a coaching change, yet still carry a 20-0-3 record since the last defeat, a penalty-kick shootout loss to Germany in 2006 that goes down as a draw in international statistics.

“When I came in, there were a lot of players like Mia (Hamm) and Julie (Foudy) there on the team for quite a while.

“Heck, they came in at 15, so even if they were not old, they were vets,” Scurry said. “A lot now come to the national team at 19 or 20, and that’s a huge difference. But it’s still the same mind-set and approach as always.

“With the vets, there are fewer of us now, but we feel like our new people have made a real impact and as they get playing time, they get a lot more comfortable quicker. When I came in, I didn’t get as much playing time. “Now we have these youngsters like Carli Lloyd and Lori Chalupny who will be stars.

“They have the personality you want for this team.”

AP-ES-06-22-07 1613EDT