This Year, Success Runs in the Family

Vicki, Christina, Gina may vaguely evoke the title of the latest Woody Allen film, but the comparisons end there. And though the three DiMartino sisters — Vicki, Christina and Gina — may one day be film stars (who knows?), right now, they hold a celebrated spot in American soccer, starlets in the making.

Red Bulls Champions League UEFA Cup Other International Cup International Leagues Games on Friday and Sunday ended a whirlwind year and a ridiculously busy couple of months for the DiMartino family of Massapequa Park, N.Y., on Long Island.

Vicki, 17, was the second-leading scorer at the FIFA U-17 World Cup last month in New Zealand, helping the United States to a second-place finish.

Christina, 22, was a four-year starter at U.C.L.A., which advanced to its sixth straight N.C.A.A. Division I women’s College Cup semifinals. The Bruins’ first loss of the season came against the eventual national champion, North Carolina, 1-0, on Friday.

And Gina, 20, started one game in Chile as the United States won the championship of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, 2-1, over North Korea on Sunday. She plays at Boston College, where Vicki will join her in the fall.

“It’s such a phenomenal thing to have three sisters make their respective national teams and to be among the elite in their age groups,” Kazbek Tambi, the coach of the under-17 team, said Monday in a telephone interview. “I’ve never heard of anything like it happening.”

The United States took two sisters, Samantha and Kristie Mewis, to New Zealand for the under-17 tournament; they were the first sisters to play together for the United States in a world championship at any level, according to U.S. Soccer. The Fair sisters, Ronnie and Lorrie, played together in two national team games. In the American team’s semifinal match against Germany in the under-20 tournament, the Germans finished the game with two sets of twins — Sylvie and Nicole Banecki, and Isabel and Monique Kerschowski — on the field.

The DiMartinos come from an athletic family, which includes their father, Daniel, a captain in the New York Fire Department, who played basketball in college; an older brother, also Daniel, 24, also a basketball player; and the youngest, Rosie, 13, who probably had little choice but to start kicking around a ball.

“My dad doesn’t seem to mind at all that all four girls play soccer,” Vicki DiMartino said in a telephone interview Sunday as she prepared to watch the college and the under-20 finals on television. “We hope to all three play on the national team together, and for me, soccer always comes first. It is the love of my life. I really don’t mind missing things with my friends, but then again, most of my friends play, and we’re in a town where soccer is so important that there’s a lot of support.”

Spain

Barcelona is on the cusp of making a mockery of the Liga race before Christmas.

With games against fifth-place Real Madrid on Saturday and at second-place Villarreal on Dec. 21, Barcelona could have a double-digit lead when the Spanish season resumes Jan. 4 after a short holiday break.

And with Barcelona’s having already clinched a spot in the Champions League’s knockout stage, which begins early next year, the first-year coach Pep Guardiola has decided to hold out eight players from Tuesday’s final Group C match against Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.

Barcelona’s recent form has been nothing short of incredible. It has gone 20 games, in all competitions, without a loss, winning 17 (11 league, 4 Champions League and 2 Copa del Rey). The current team is seven games from matching the club’s unbeaten record set under Coach Rinus Michels in 1973-74 (a lineup that included Johan Cruyff).

Barcelona has a plus-35 goal differential, having allowed only nine goals in 14 Liga games this season. It leads Villarreal by 6 points and fading Real Madrid by 9. Barça has three players (Samuel Eto’o, 14 goals; Lionel Messi, 9; and Thierry Henry, 7) among the top 10 scorers in La Liga.