July 10, 1999: The Women's World Cup Final is held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, in front of 90,185 people. It was the highest attended women's sporting event in history.
FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, had first held a Women's World Cup in 1991, in China, with only 12 teams, so it was difficult to take it seriously. The U.S. beat Norway in the Final, 2-1 at Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou on November 30. Outside of soccer fanatics, few Americans noticed. Even women devoted to women's sports barely seemed to notice. A 2nd tournament was held in Sweden in 1995, with Norway beating the U.S. in the Semifinal and then Germany in the Final. That one wasn't well-acknowledged, either.
But the 1999 tournament was set for the U.S., and ESPN, and its parent company ABC, were ready to promote it, having successfully broadcast the men's World Cups in 1990, '94 and '98. They worked with the U.S. Soccer Federation to promote the tournament, and hired studio analysts, men and women alike, who were thoroughly experienced former players, and knew the game enough, and could explain it well enough, to first-time viewers.
And America embraced its national team. They were women, but they didn't fit the previous stereotype of the female athlete. As Rick Reilly put it in his post-tournament column for Sports Illustrated, most men had figured that the first great American team in women's sports would have players who looked like "Joe Torre in heels." I guess he forgot how good the 1996 U.S. women's basketball team was. (Torre, the Yankees' manager, had, in his playing days, been mocked for his appearance. In his book, Ball Four, Jim Bouton said Torre was so ugly, he broke mirrors just by looking at them.)
But these women were not stereotypical female athletes, the kind you might find in tennis or field hockey: Unattractive, musclebound, lesbian, or some combination thereof. Most of them were attractive, and most of them were straight. Some of them were married, and some even already had children, bringing kids in strollers and diaper bags to practice along with their gym bags. And they were from all over the country:
* From the Northeast: Sara Whalen, a midfielder, and Tracy Ducar, a backup goalkeeper, were from Massachusetts; Kristine Lilly, a midfielder, was from Wilton, Connecticut; Shannon MacMillan, a midfielder, was from Syosset, Long Island; Saskia Webber, a backup goalkeeper, was from Princeton, in Central Jersey; and Christie Pearce, a left back, was from Point Pleasant, on the Jersey Shore.
* From the South: Danielle Fotopoulos, a forward, was from Florida; Mia Hamm, a forward, was from Alabama; and Cindy Parlow, a forward, was from Memphis.
* From the Midwest: Kate Sobrero, a centerback, was from the Detroit suburbs; and Briana Scurry, the team's starting goalkeeper, was from Minneapolis.
* From California: Julie Foudy, a midfielder, was from San Diego; Carla Overbeck, the Captain and a centerback, and Joy Fawcett, a right back, were from the Los Angeles area; midfielders Michelle Akers, Lorrie Fair, and Tiffany Roberts, and left back Brandi Chastain, were all from the San Francisco Bay Area; and Trisha Venturini, a midfielder, was from nearby Modesto.
* And from the Northwest: Tiffeny Milbrett, a forward, was from Portland, Oregon.
The U.S. team began the tournament on June 19, beating Denmark, 3-0 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. The promotions paid off: The were 78,972 paying customers, the largest attendance for a women's sporting event, ever, anywhere in the world.
On June 24, at Soldier Field in Chicago, they beat Nigeria, 7-1, with Milbrett scoring 2 goals. Attendance: A full house of 65,080. On June 27, in Foxboro Stadium outside Boston, they beat North Korea, 3-0, with Venturini scoring twice. This one was attended by 50,484, about 10,000 short of a sellout. But the U.S. had topped their group.
The quarterfinal, on July 1 at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium (now Northwest Stadium) outside Washington, was their first real test. Germany led them 1-0 after 5 minutes and 2-1 going into halftime. But Chastain scored early in the 2nd half, and Fawcett won the game in the 66th minute, 3-2. Attendance: 54,642, about 30,000 short of a sellout. One ticket bought 2 games: In another Quarterfinal, Brazil beat Nigeria, 4-3, in extra time and on a "golden goal" by Sissi in the 104th minute.
The other 2 Quarterfinals were held the day before, at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. China beat Russia, 2-0; and Norway beat arch-rivals Sweden, 3-1. Attendance: 21,411 -- but that was a sellout.
Both Semifinals were played on the 4th of July, one on each coast. At Stanford Stadium outside San Francisco, Parlow scored in the 5th, and the U.S. were awarded a penalty in the 80th, converted by Akers, and beat Brazil, 2-0. The crowd was 73,123. In Foxboro, China beat Norway, 5-0. Attendance: 28,986. With no Americans, and no familiar names, to root for, the New England Patriots' old oversized high school stadium, with its professionally-appropriate replacement, eventually to be named Gillette Stadium, going up next door, was less than half-full.
The Final was held on July 10, at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. The crowd of 90,185 broke the record set at the Meadowlands for the highest-attended women's sporting event -- and, as of July 10, 2022, that record still holds. ABC's coverage averaged 17.9 million viewers throughout, peaking at 40 million (presumably, during the penalty shootout). Not only was America watching these women, but America cared about them.
Manager Tony DiCicco selected this starting lineup: Scurry in goal; a back four of Fawcett, Overbeck, Sobrero and Chastain; a midfield of Lilly, Foudy and Akers; and a forward line of Hamm, Parlow and Milbrett. The U.S., as the home team, had the choice of colors, and wore white, leaving China, as they might have preferred, anyway, to wear red.
And then, as with the men's Final at the same stadium 5 years earlier, the worst possible thing could have happened: Nobody scored. Not in the assigned 90 minutes, plus stoppage time. Not in the assigned 30 minutes of extra time, plus stoppage time. It was 125 or so minutes of 0-0 ball.
DiCicco replaced Parlow with MacMillan in the 57th, switching from a 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2; Akers with Whalen at the start of extra time; and Milbrett with Venturini in the 115th, going to a 4-5-1 with Hamm, the team's most-heralded player and probably its best overall player, as the lone striker. Chinese manager Ma Yuanan also made the allowable 3 substitutions, going from his starting 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3 for much of the 2nd half, and then going back to a 4-4-2 in extra time. Nothing worked, for either side: Nobody scored.
But a funny thing happened on the way to this game being denounced as being as boring as the 1994 men's World Cup Final: The crowd was into it the whole way. It may have been about 50-50 gender-integrated, and the sound was very different from a men's game: The higher-pitched voices of women, and especially of girls, echoed through the venerable old gridiron-football stadium. This crowd got it. They understood what was a nice pass or a nice shot, even if the ball didn't go in the net. They understood what was a strong defensive play from a defender, or a great save by Scurry or China's Gao Hong. This crowd treated a 0-0 draw the way an English crowd might have treated a local "derby" rivalry.
And it was a clean game. The referee, Katrina Eloverta of Finland, issued just 1 yellow card to the U.S., to Akers in the 74th. She issued 2 to China: To Zhang Ouying in the 70th, and to Liu Ailing in the 80th.
The game went to penalties. China went first. In the 1st round, Xie Huilin and Overbeck scored. In the 2nd round, Qiu Haiyan and Fawcett scored. But in the 3rd round, Scurry stopped Liu Ying, and Lilly put the U.S. 3-2 up. In the 4th round, Zhang and Hamm scored. Chinese Captain Sun Wen converted to start the 5th round.
Now, DiCiccio sent Chastain up. It seemed odd to some people that what could have been the title-deciding penalty was being taken by a defender, but having defenders in the penalties -- Overbeck also was one, as was Xie -- is not very unusual.
There wasn't nearly as much pressure on Chastain as there could have been: Had she lost, the penalties would have continued until a winner was found. But she, and every other person in the stadium rooting for the U.S., wanted to end it there. With her left foot, she sent the ball to the left of the goal. Gao dove to her right, but she couldn't stop it. The U.S. had won, 5-4.
Like so many men celebrating major goals before her, Chastain ripped off her shirt (Number 6), spun around, and dropped to her knees. She was wearing a black "sports bra," and the celebration became iconic.
Some people criticized Chastain for doing what any man would do in her situation, and ripping her shirt off. Well, she told an interviewer, "I ran my ass off for this body. I'm proud of it." There's now a statue of it outside the Rose Bowl, along with statues of former UCLA multi-sport athlete and Pasadena native Jackie Robinson, former UCLA football coach Terry Donahue, and longtime ABC sportscaster Keith Jackson, who broadcast many games there, including his last, the 2006 Rose Bowl.
Collectively, the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup team was named Sportswomen of the Year by Sports Illustrated.
With this victory, American soccer became the 1st sport where "You play like a girl!" was accepted as an improvement. And the image of women in sports has changed tremendously. The U.S.' 2015 and 2019 World Cup winners are the product of that influence, and will be an extension of it as they add their own. It has reached the point where some of them are openly gay, and the fans don't care.
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July 10, 1999 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played, all of them Interleague:
* The New York Mets beat the New York Yankees, 9-8 at Shea Stadium. This was The Matt Franco Game, where Franco singled home 2 runs off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th inning. I have a separate entry for this event.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Montreal Expos, 7-6 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Mussina outpitched Paul Byrd. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. John Wasdin walked Andruw Jones to start the bottom of the 11th inning. Brian Hunter bunted, and Wasdin threw the ball away, allowing Jones to score the winning run.
* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Florida Marlins, 9-8 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-10 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. The Reds led 9-4 going into the bottom of the 5th, but the Indians clawed back, and tied the game in the 8th. The Reds took a 10-9 lead in the top of the 9th.
Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Danny Graves started the bottom of the 9th by walking Jim Thome. He was replaced by Scott Williamson, who gave up a game-winning home run to Omar Vizquel. Thome drawing a walk, and Vizquel hitting a home run, instead of the other way around? That's the way it happened.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field). Sammy Sosa went 0-for-5, but the Cubs got home runs from José Hernández and Glenallen Hill.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Anaheim Angels beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-3 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Tim Hudson took a 3-hit shutout into the 9th inning, but A's manager Art Howe decided he needed Billy Taylor to get the last 2 outs.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn did not play.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Adrián Beltré singled Devon White home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Candlestick Park (then known as 3Com Park at Candlestick Park) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire did not play.
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