U.S. WOMEN'S SOCCER: MARKGRAF'S CAREER REBORN.

Byline: SCOTT FRENCH Staff Writer

CARSON -- Kate Markgraf can look at her predecessors, how quickly they returned to the field after having babies, and know she's going to be fine. She takes nothing for granted.

``I use those guys,'' says the U.S. women's national team defender, whose son, Keegan, was born July 18. ``But everyone is different.

Christie Rampone had a C-section. Joy Fawcett came back at three weeks. It runs the whole gamut. Who knows?''

Markgraf, the leader of the U.S. backline and among the candidates for world's best defender, could make her return this afternoon against Chinese Taipei at Home Depot Center.

Coach Greg Ryan says `it's a goal of mine' to get the former Notre Dame All-America player a few minutes as she begins her preparations for next year's Women's World Cup in China.

``I feel great to be playing soccer again,'' says Markgraf, 30, who -- as Kate Sobrero -- has been an integral part of the U.S. roster since 1998.

Rampone, another veteran defender, says it took her six months to regain her form after daughter Rylie was born last year, but returning to an international standard was never in doubt.

Fawcett, the former UCLA women's coach, returned to soccer three times after pregnancies and was in training three weeks after the birth of her third daughter.

Markgraf last played in a match last October. She returned to the U.S. team eight weeks after her son's birth, and trained for a couple of days before its Sept. 13 victory over Mexico in Rochester, N.Y., but her real homecoming has been this week.

Markgraf says she wants no gifts today.

``I want to play if I deserve to play,'' she says. ``We've got a ton of other people busting their butts, doing a great job.''

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Photo:

MARKGRAF

Box:

U.S. vs. CHINESE TAIPEI

- Scott French