Ours to Win

and the California's son is brutal. The closely fought game is still tight at zero after one twenty minutes of soccer. The exhausted American and Chinese players lie on the turf while trainers massage. They're cramped muscles. Now the biggest pressure of your lives. For most of these women, maybe all,

they're most important cavally kicks. Ever, the penalty kick shootout is tied at four, and the USA's final kicker, Brandy Chastain, steps up to the pen holty box and into the history books shop stand will take up she missed a penalty kick against China. I'll go and they lost that care Then the woman known as Hollywood to her teammates, whips off her jersey and sets off one of the most memorable celebrations in sports history. The party began to pasitator.

Whether this was that it continues from the roast part and pasitator have extent just one the woman's world time. Brandy Chastain's kick mark the climax of a summer when millions of Americans and a whole new generation of soccer fans fell in love with their national team. But it marks so much more than just that. Maybe it's an holy shame to day. Roll wasn't built in a day, puts in the arena, not above the sound and periods that day. Let us play, Let us play. I'm Sean Braswell.

And This is the Thread, a podcast from ouzie Or. We unravel the stories behind some of the most important lives and events in history to discover how one thing leads to another. We launched this season of The Thread as the US women's national soccer team takes the field in France for the twenty nineteen World Cup. This July also marks the twentieth anniversary of the ninety nine ers U S women's team, whose victory at the Rose Bowl on that sweltering summer day remains seared into the memories

of millions. In season five of The Thread, we tell the incredible backstory behind that World Cup triumph, but it's not a story that happened on its own. This season is about how the weight of history builds behind a single defining moment, how little details can change the course

of history. We'll hear about how nineteen students at Yale strip naked in an athletic director's office and changed how female college athletes are treated, how a largely forgotten black transgender lawyer laid the ground work for multiple civil rights victories, and how a single word placed into a single congressional bill opened up the floodgates of opportunity that led up to that glorious summer day in the national team's victory in n was not its first Women's Soccer World Cup title.

It was not even its first championship. In the nineteen nineties, the team started the decade with a World Cup victory in China. That experience, however, was very different from ninety nine. You know, no one has names on their jerseys and only some of the games were televised. Jim Cooper is a soccer analyst and researcher for Fox Sports. And the

host of the Mixed Zone podcast. There had never been a women's World Cup before, and FIFA, the governing body and charge of men's international old soccer, wasn't quite sure what to do. FIFA felt like, well, we don't know, if you know, the women can last ninety minutes, so we're going to make the games eighty minutes long. And of course they called it not the Women's World Cup. They called it the FIFA World Championship for the Eminem's

Cup because the tournament was sponsored by Eminem's. Welcome to China and a truly historic occasion. For the first time in the history of American soccer, a US team will play World World Championship. But the U S team did not just come to play. Tim Nash is the author of It's Not the Glory and has covered the women's national team for decades. No one would believe that the US could play soccer men or women, or dogs or cats.

It just wasn't gonna happen. So when they went there and they started smashing people, it really turned some heads. The American steamrolled their way through the tournament. They developed this attacking game. It was just fun to watch. It was entertaining. They just scored an unbelievable amount of goals. The team outscored their opponents twenty five to five, winning

all six games they played. Michelle Acres, an aggressive midfielder who later helped lead the ninety nine to victory, scored ten of those goals, including five in one game and the winning goal in the final against Norway. Michelle with a boy run up field here open that the US beat Norway two to one before sixty five thousand people. First of all, Michelle, what can I say? How does it feel? I feel great? I mean, I'm gonna be floating on Seventh Heaven until two years from now. Many,

we better get out of here in a hurry. Between all the fireworks and the celebration. There's a whole lot of party and gonna go on down here in China. But back in America, a few people cared about the historic victory. Jin Cooper again, I love the story of Michelle Acres. You know, when they finally get back to New York, and you know, and they're all separate and going home, and the woman on the plane next her,

it's like, oh, where where have you been traveling? She's like I was in China, we won the Women's World Cup and the woman replaced Well, that's nice, dear. No one knew what a Women's World Cup was. Caitlin Murray is a journalist and author of the National Team, The Inside Story of the Women who changed Soccer. And when the players got to the airport pretty much known was there? You know? The players joke there were two people there. It was their bus driver and their operations manager. Unlike

there were no parades or appearances on David Letterman. The national team played only two games the following year, two in World Cup. The team lost a heartbreaker in the semifinals to their old rivals Norway. Then, finally a bigger opportunity came calling. Women's soccer was included in the Olympics for the first time. In Tim Nash, the Olympics really was the turning point. That was that was a huge deal. It was still the question of will anybody come watch?

They did. The women's national team played before packed football size stadiums. Jim Cooper again, it's such a mixed bag the n Olympics because it had such an incredible impact on the sport, but not many people got to see it unless you were actually in the stadium. Uh. The joke at the time was they were calling NBC no bloody coverage because they aired all of about three minutes of the final. NBC barely covered the Olympic gold medal, but there were tens of thousands in the stands cheering.

This was the beginning of a movement, and for millions of fans, the movement was synonymous with a single player. I could be champion of Women's Well Cup soccer. I can be a goal like soccer. Mia Hamm joined the national team when she was just fifteen. She was fast, fearless, relentless, one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of international soccer, and by the late nineteen nineties she was everywhere.

The US gold medalist, Mia ham spens ninety minutes destroying her hair and ninety seconds bringing it back with pert plus. Hamm became a household name. She was in a commercial with Michael Jordan's. She was shy, introverted, but gave hours of interviews, signed thousands of autographs. It was a duty

she took very seriously. It's kind of cool. I mean, one of the coolest things is walking into a stadium and seeing those you know, young girls and young boys wearing your jersey, and it's something that I think is extremely important and I take responsibility for it. The amount of pressure on Ham was enormous and her teammates marveled at how she handled it all. Tracy Noonan or Tracy Doukar as she was known, was a goalkeeper on the squad.

She was, you know, the face of our team, and she was under a lot of pressure as a forward to produce and to score, and you know, she managed that unbelievably, in my opinion, Americans started to pay attention to women's soccer as never before, just in time for the country to play host to its first Women's World Cup. Marla Essing was the president and CEO of the FIFA Women's World Cup. The event had last been played in Sweden, and I think they averaged like maybe three or maybe

even four thousand people per match. So um, they weren't thinking of big stadiums or major markets. But after we saw what had happened with the men's World Cup in ninety four as well as um the women's soccer event at the Olympics, we felt like the event had the potential um to to do well. In large stadiums and major markets. Not everyone was optimistic, author Caitlin Murray. You have to keep in mind at this time soccer was not a popular sport in the United States by any means.

One year earlier, the men's team went to the World Cup and came in dead last place. It was an absolute embarrassment, and soccer just wasn't cool at the time. Many doubted a women's World Cup could fill large stadiums, but World Cup planners did their best to prepare for any outcome. If tickets didn't sell, they were going to put up tarps and decorations to hide the empty sections.

They also blacked out time to have concerts, so if tickets weren't selling well, they would have a concert as part of the event, and then they could maybe sell more tickets that way. In the end, the skeptics were wrong, and perhaps the biggest reason the skeptics were wrong an unprecedented grassroots promotion campaign led by the players themselves author Tim Nash. They went to cities where they hadn't been before, parts of the country where they had been before. I mean,

they didn't just lock themselves in the hotel. All they go to and get on the bus and go to training and come back. They were out in the community. They're doing clinics, anything they could to sell. Take. The players would stay and sign autographs for hours until every single fan got one. They became ambassadors for the game

and for women more broadly. Tracy Noonan, we were spending time, you know, after every event, every game, every practice, UM signing autographs, meet and greets um, anytime that we had an opportunity in front of the media to speak and promote you know what our message was. Goaltender Brianna Scurry put it later. We had ownership of that World Cup. It was ours to put on and it was ours to win. Marla Messing again, former president of the Women's

World Cup. These were amazing women. Some of them had been playing soccer and almost total obscurity for over a decade. They were articulate, intelligent, educated, They cared deeply about the game, and they were They were also role models. This is

Lorden Gregg, one of the coaches on the squad. Every time we stepped out onto a training field or a game, every one of us looked in the eyes of those young kids, boys and girls, and knew that we had such an enormous responsibility to pave a different path for them. Americans came to know thee and to love them in the weeks and months before the World Cup. They wanted to be part of the team's journey. I think that's what endeared them so much the American people is they

became household names. They became people that not just athletes that they admire, but people that they admired, and that they were real and genuine and open, and they were the role models they never had. And Women's World Cup tickets started to sell like never before. Soccer analyst Jin Cooper, four months before the tournament started to announced that they had already sold two hundred thousand tickets, which was about double the attendance of the very small World Cup, and

the response from the press was your line. The players themselves didn't quite believe it, and no one knew what to expect. When the World Cup finally launched that June. Up next, the team that started in obscurity and became the talk of the nation was about to forever alter the landscape of sports in America. The big day finally came. It was time for the U S women's soccer team to take the field after months of barnstorming the country.

The team's opener was at Giant Stadium in New Jersey and eight thou Seed Arena that's usually the side of NFL games and rock concerts. Author Caitlin Murray. The team was going to arrive at Giants Stadium on their team buss, the way they always do for games. Nothing unusual about that.

But as they were approaching the stadium, the traffic started to get really, really bad, and the team was at a standstill, and the players started to actually worry that they were going to be late for their own game. The players wondered what was causing all of the traffic. Was there something happening in New York City that was

backing up to the New Jersey Turnpike. But then as the ride continues and the players get a little closer, they start to notice that all these cars that are congesting the roads have paint on them, let's say, go USA and American flags, and they realized, all of this traffic is here to see us. When the players finally got to the stadium, they saw people tailgating and playing

pick up soccer games in the parking lot. The players had spent so much time getting the word out, helping market this event, this World Cup, that I think it was a really gratifying experience for them to see that it had worked. Victory will be bad to day. This is the largest club whoever with the women's soccer bat. It was also the largest crowd to see a sporting event at Giants Stadium. Only the Pope drew a bigger one. The team filled the stadium. Now they had to beat Denmark.

Team member Tracy Nowton. There's a lot of pressure then to do well and to win, because if we do go big and it flops, what's going to really hurt women soccer. A scoreless tie came to an end in the eighteenth minute when number nine Mia Hamm received the ball coming down the right side pane, reversing all the way to be a halb hab Wi down fill out of the left. The stadium erupts. Ham's teammate mob her

in a sea of red jerseys. That was also really big release for everybody, like all right, we've got a goal. Here we go. Everything's gonna be okay. The US one easily three to nothing over Denmark. Next they played to a sold out crowd in Chicago, beating Nigeria seven to one, then be North Korea to top their group and advanced to the quarterfinals in Washington, d C. To play Germany.

Journalist Caitlin Murray the team started really strong, and they looked really good until they went up against the Germans. Just five minutes into the game, disasters struck right in front of the American goal. It was an own goal, and the US trailed one to nothing. And suddenly, for the first time in the whole tournament, the US was actually at risk of being knocked out, and Brandy Chastain was at risk of being the goat for the American defeat.

Coach Lauren Gregg our captain Carla Overbeck went to Brandy and said, you know, we need you, and basically like, snap out of it. We need you, you know, just re framing her. Immediately, four minutes into the second half, Chastain redeemed herself, striking a goal to even the score. President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton celebrated as they watched from a suite above the field. The US defeated Germany and then blew by Brazil in the semifinal.

Thousands of people started to turn up to watch team practices. It felt like all eyes were focused on women's soccer that summer, and no longer just on Mia Hamm Jen Cooper. One of the smartest things that Mia Hamm did in advance of the tournament was say, hey, I don't want to be in all the ads. So we ended up getting not just Mia ham out of the tournament, but Julie Foudy became a household name, Brandy Chastain became a

household name, Branda Scurry became a household name. And these players did almost everything as a team, something even the television commercials picked up on, including this famous Nike ad How'd it go? He had to drill I got two fillings, then I will have two fillings. But Mia, I just examined your teeth. They're perfect. I will have two fillings. I will have two fillings. I will have two fillings. Commercials aside. The US women's national team was about to

play the biggest game of their lives. So much was writing on that final game against China, and there were so many things that could go wrong. Two days until the finals, and if you don't know what finals, you may already have missed some of the most exciting sports action in a long time. Saturday's championship match between the US and China and Women's World Cup Soccer s all the atmosphere of a Super Bowl. The Women's World Cup final was held in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California,

the fifteenth largest stadium in the world. The U S team faced a formidable Chinese squad that had cruised through the tournament. Team member Tracy Nowton, you know the game is a chess match, back and forth. I mean it was opportunities, great saves, back and forth, back and forth, try and want to count for Chress Bird. The game was a scoreless tie after ninety minutes. The American defense, led by Michelle Acres, held China to just two shots

on gold. Then, ten minutes into extra time, China launched a corner kick and sent a header toward the far post. U S goaltender Brianna Scurry, guarding the near post, could not get to it. Try said, we was clad but homeless. For God, defender Christine Lily lunged upward and headed the ball away, preventing an almost certain Chinese goal. The game was still scoreless after one and twenty minutes. Refreence. Just look at the watch. That's it the winner, I'll be.

Women's World Cup will be divided on penalty kicks and a penalty shootout. Each team takes turn shooting at the goal and the opposing team's goalkeeper. The team with the most goals after five attempts wins. Author Caitlin Murray, the penalty shootout is just designed to play tricks on people's minds, and there are all these little psychological things that players do. Either they look at the goalkeeper so the goalkeeper knows they're not scared, or they block the goalkeeper out they

walk up. They only focus on the ball, They don't pay attention to anything else. It was a situation the US players were well prepared for coach Lauren greg You never know what moment is going to change a game. The penalty kicks themselves. We prepared for that. I had countless, you know, pages and pages of documented plony kicks all spring, so we were way more prepared for that moment, as prepared as you can never be to have to win a World Cup, you know, and palony kicks. But the

pressure was still enormous. Caitlyn Murray. I think the players felt the way of the moment, and they couldn't let anything going wrong throw them off their mission, which was to cap off this fairy tale, this moment that they

had helped create. They had to win. The first two American kickers, veterans Carla Overbeck and Joy Faucet, nailed their kicks past the Chinese goalkeeper, but China match the u S shot for shot, and it was two to two in the shootout, so the pressure mounted on the goalkeepers to make a save. Jin Cooper, any goalkeeper knows when you're going into a penalty kick situation, you're lucky if you get one, but if you get one, you've really

given your team the opportunity to win. As the third Chinese kicker came forward, the US goalkeeper, Brianna Scurry stared her down the shots. Scurry dove left and batted to kick away. Suddenly the Americans had a chance to take the lead. It all came down to Brandy Chasting, the last kicker in the USA's rotation. On the snaps chick chop Stain will take it. She loss a pedaled kidneys Chatta the pup and I lost that care. Chastain placed the ball in the spot and took a few steps back.

Tracy knun It. Yeah. I mean we were all standing on like the very edge of the sideline, holding hands like anything that we can do, Like we kind of don't want to look, but we want to look at it. It's so nerve wracking. Chastain fired a shot across her body to the right side of the gold with her left foot. Every time I watched that video, it always looks like it's going to go out. It's a pretty dramatic,

risky shot to take. The stadium erupted and Chastain's teammates rushed toward her, and then the moment that she sported it was just like absolutely I think everyone just like ran to Brandy. Of course, Chastain released some of her emotion by ripping off her jersey and waving it around her head. Then she dropped to her knees and her sports braun with both fists in the air. Caitlin Murray, there was that iconic photo of her holding in her jersey in her sports braw celebrating just this release of

just pure joy. That is a moment that I think still to this day is one of the most iconic moments in all of sports. The victory meant so much to women's sports, but it meant something to more than just women. Two thirds of the TV viewers who watched that World Cup were men. There wasn't a gender tag on the game. Stacy, you know, has played on the very first women's national team almost thirty five years ago. It was just like that was one of the best

sporting events ever. And people didn't extinguished male or female, but they were genuinely walking up to me on the street saying, I have never been so captivated by soccer in my whole life. That was the best sporting event ever. The players paraded down Disneyland's main street in California, they appeared on late night talk shows, They journeyed to the

White House to meet the President and first ladys. They've definitely stolen our hearts and by creating the largest women's sporting event in history, they have exploded the myth once and for all that women's sports can't attract fans and public attention, and it is about time that that has happened. It was about time, in fact, it was long overdue, and the ninety Niners journey would not be possible without another group of talented and undaunted women the first US

women's national team. We tell their story on the next episode of The Thread. The US looked like they were playing in their first ever games, and that's how the results went. And there were a few upsides to even being on the team. The players on the early national teams were not doing it to be famous or get rich or be on TV, because those things were even possibilities yet. But they had something more valuable. They had a deep love of the game and they were willing

to sacrifice everything for it. It was choosing between doing something you love to playing soccer, or building a career and actually making a living and having money. That was the choice that the players had to make. To be the change you want to see, and don't threat to the tapestry. You can be the true battle, set us free in the congregation say let us Play, let Us. The Thread is produced by Robert Coulos, Shannon Williamson, and

me Sean braswell. Evan Roberts engineered our show. This episode features the song let Us Play, written and performed by teacup Gen. You can hear more of their songs at teacup gen dot com. To learn more, about the thread, visit ausi dot com, slash the thread all one word, and make sure to subscribe to the thread on Apple podcasts, follow us on I Heart Radio or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out at Aussie dot com or on Twitter and Facebook.