1999 Women's World Cup: USA's Iconic Victory

On July tenth, nineteen ninety nine, in Pasadena, California, at the famous Rose Bowl, the US women's national team is vying for a chance to win the Women's Viva World Cup when the most iconic women's soccer goal ever is made by Brandy Chastain. Here's a brief history behind this iconic moment in sports history on today's short Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide to sports history every day, and this is a short episode on one of the iconic moments that is happening during our break and we will be back with you on July fifteenth. But let's dive into this iconic moment now. There was sixteen teams in this World Cup in nineteen ninety nine, which this was only the third World Cup that had ever been done, as the first one was hosted in China, second one in nineteen ninety one. This one was to be hosted in the United States for the very first time and saw a huge boom in attendance as the very first one had about a half a million people in attendance. The second one in Sweden in nineteen ninety five had just over one hundred thousand, but the nineteen ninety nine World Cup had over a million people in attendance, which really proved to FIVA that this was a viable tournament. And what was great about this is they didn't just host the World Cup in one location. They actually spread it across the United States, holding games in San Jose, Boston, Washington, d C. New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon, and even in Chicago, and it featured sixteen different countries and heading into it, the previous winner was Norway in nineteen ninety five, but the United States had won the very first World Cup in nineteen ninety one, so they were hoping for their chance to win it again as it was being held in the United States, and they started out great, winning their Group A in Brazil, one Group B, Norway, one group in China, one Group D. And this led to the knockout round where the United States defeated Brazil and the semi finals to zero to make their way to the finals to face off against China, who defeated Norway in their semi final five to zero, setting up the final with China versus the United States, and the stakes were high. Had some stars that were really pushing the tournament into the forefront for America with Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Brandy Chastain, and the game was back and forth affair throughout the entire time, and it was intense, and yet no one could score. Every goal was stopped and when the end of regulation happened, the score was zero to zero, which led to one of the most exciting moments in all of soccer penalty kicks, and both teams lined up for their kicks, pushing up the pressure and they went back and forth, back and forth. But in the third round of these penalty kicks, China faltered and the US was able to stop them, which meant that if the US made all of their penalty kicks as they were five, they would win the World Cup. And heading up into the last kick, it was tied four to four, with the last kick being the United States. If they made it, they would win the World Cup, but if they missed, they would continue penalty kicks, and up came Brandy Chastain, one of the stars for the American team, who had missed a penalty kick just a month earlier against China when they were facing off against in the Outgrave Cup. So she places the ball on the marker and just non silently steps back to take her running starts and kicks the ball to the right side of the goal, just pats the outreached arm of the Chinese goalie going in and immediately she goes to her knees as she rips off her shirt showing her sports brawl, cheering, flexing, screaming as her team runs from the half line to celebrate with her. And this is one of the most iconic moments in US soccer history. It's something that was put on posters mainly because she took her shirt off. Yes, everyone was in all that that's what she did, but it was nothing more than you would see at a gym today. It wasn't sexual or anything. It was just cheering in the moment in excitement. And that's why it stays iconic because of that excitement and joy that was done through this moment that we can always remember to this day and talked about for years, as it has helped the United States even develop its own women's pro soccer league and has led to the US women being one of the strongest women's soccer countries in the world. And that's a brief history of today of this iconic moment. I hope you enjoyed this little pop in today. I didn't want to do a whole episode as I'm still trying to get our family put together in everything. We are planned to come back on July fifteenth, excited for that. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you don't forget about us. Please subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss it. We come back for our Monday through Friday episodes that will come out on July fifteenth. It means a lot to me that you guys are sticking with me and come back so we can all learn more about sports history every day