‘IT BELONGED TO EVERYBODY’
Twenty years later, Chastain reflects on a game for the ages
LOS ANGELES >> It was the biggest match of her career, one of the most important events in sports history. And 20 years later, as the United States prepares to face the Netherlands on Sunday in France, looking to clinch its second straight Women’s World Cup title, what Brandi Chastain remembers vividly about July 10, 1999, at the Rose Bowl is that her and her teammates didn’t get to warm up on the field before it faced China in the most crucial game of their lives.
The third-place match between Norway and Brazil had gone into penalty kicks, leaving the U.S. and China with minimal warm-up time before the final.
And so, the team made do with what it had. They turned the music up in the locker room, and then they ran in circles, up and down the hilly
tunnels, kicking the ball against the walls in the bowels of the Rose Bowl.
“The thing that resonates, if I could close my eyes and be there, is the smell and sound in my ears and nose,” Chastain said in an interview last week before flying to France for the World Cup. “It was this musty, dank, dark, cool tunnel.”
They laughed. They sang. They danced. And they waited until it was time to walk onto the field in front of 90,185 fans — a record for a women’s sporting event — in the summer L.A. heat.
THE BUILD-UP >> Little did they know how transformative the next two hours would be for everybody in attendance. The Rose Bowl had hosted a World Cup final before — in 1994 between Italy and Brazil— but this was different.
Andrew Broughton, a 35-yearold banker from Huntington Beach, was 15 when he attended the match. He had been to the ’94 final too, but this one was far more exciting. People were everywhere. It was a festive environment. A buzz filled the stadium leading up to kickoff.
“I remember it being unrelentingly hot, and nobody cared,” Broughton said.
Fans dumped water on themselves. Some took off their shirts. Not all of them were soccer aficionados. But as the match went on, remaining scoreless through regulation and extra time and going into penalty kicks, the realization of the moment sunk in for fans like Jason Schmidt, who was in Los Angeles for a business trip and decided to swing by the game.
Schmidt, 59, lives in St. Louis and works in construction sales. He found cheap tickets up in the stands, where it was “hot as heck” the whole game. Schmidt didn’t know much about the women’s game, but had brought his 10-yearold daughter, Hannah — who was 10 at the time and played club soccer — with him on the trip.
“It wasn’t anything for me, like, ‘I need to go watch this,’” Schmidt said. “I thought we could make a nice vacation out of it, swing by the game.”
‘FELT LIKE 90,000 AMERICANS’ >> Chastain didn’t hear the noise until after the kick.
It’s been replayed millions of times by now, seared into every American sports fan’s memory: the U.S. and China tied 4-4 in a penalty shootout. Chastain calmly placing the ball on the spot, running up and striking it with her left foot.
On the television broadcast, there was a distinct “plump” — the sound of the ball hitting the top-right corner of the net, past China goalkeeper Gao Hong for the win.
There was a split second of silence, and then, sheer bedlam. Schmidt still gets chills describing it.
“It was the most national pride I’ve ever felt,” he said. “It felt like 90,000 Americans.”
None of it hit Chastain, though, until that happened.
The team had been used to big crowds the entire tournament, playing in large stadiums across the country on home turf. They drew more than 50,000 fans every match. Even during practices, which were open to the public, thousands of fans poured in to watch the team train. They had worked with Colleen Hacker, the team’s performance psychologist specialist, on how to stay focused amidst a chaotic environment.
So, Chastain didn’t remember how loud it was until her kick. There was the ball that Kristine Lilly cleared off the goal line during extra time, keeping the match scoreless. There was Brianna Scurry’s crucial save in the third round of penalty kicks that set up Chastain’s winner. But Chastain might as well as have been playing in a soundproof, windowless room.
“There wasn’t anything I can remember because I was trying to block those things out during the game,” Chastain said. “You’re not distracted by the crowd, you’re not distracted by the opponent. You’re very focused on the things that you have to do.”
She did what she had to do, and then, “it was a shocking amount of noise.” Her teammates sprinted from midfield to embrace Chastain. They laughed. They yelled. They made sounds that Chastain can’t even describe.
And then, of course, the resounding image from the match: Chastain ripping off her jersey and falling to her knees, arms and fists clenched before being engulfed by her teammates. To this day, she doesn’t know why she did it, perhaps a subconscious movement of something she had previously seen in soccer. Chastain called it a “moment of insanity.” It was something she couldn’t even create in her dreams.
“You cannot predict or create a moment that intense and that perfect and that glorious,” she said. “The emotions that come are just too powerful.”
ELEVATING THE SPORT >> When Chastain watches that moment 20 years later, she still feels relief that the ball went in.
“I used to have the semi-moment of panic, like it wouldn’t go in this time,” Chastain said. “Even when I know it goes in, I would just have that brief moment of, ‘What if it didn’t?’”
But it did, and it capped off a World Cup run that captured the hearts and minds of Americans, pushing women’s soccer from the backburner to the forefront.
The celebration continued well into the afternoon at the Rose Bowl, pouring onto the grass of the adjacent golf course, according to Broughton. Hot dog vendors were outside the stadium. People were happy and jovial. They were engaging, blowing horns, beating drums.
“You felt the joy everywhere,” Broughton said. “It created a lasting impression.”
Chastain has heard countless stories like that from people who were in attendance — stories like fans becoming enamored with women’s soccer or young girls being encouraged to play the game for the first time.
Schmidt’s daughter was just getting into soccer at the time. He said that watching the match made her love the game even more. She wound up playing through high school.
“It’s crazy the impact that it’s had,” Schmidt said. “As a 10-yearold, she could have quit soccer in two years. She really did fall in love with the sport.”
Stories like that touch Chastain deeply. She is grateful for the Bay Area community she grew up in for encouraging her to play soccer when it wasn’t popular — Chastain led Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose to three consecutive titles and then starred in college at Santa Clara University.
Today, she hears about other communities where 100 girls played soccer prior to 1999 and now, 10,000 girls play soccer. This is what Chastain believes her team’s magical run encompassed.
It wasn’t just about the players and the coaching staff. It was every person who came to the stadiums and the 40 million more who watched on television. Everybody had their own connection to the outcome and felt like they were part of what was happening.
“It belonged to everybody,” Chastain said.