'99 team watching Americans with pride, nostalgia

By nancy armour

associated press

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Lauren Cheney was just 11 during the 1999 World Cup, watching from the stands and imagining what it would be like to be on that field with Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers and Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain.

Fast-forward a dozen years, and it's Cheney's turn in the spotlight.

And somewhere, there's another young girl watching.

"She's inspiring some 12- or 13-year-old girl just like she was inspired," Chastain said Thursday. "That's what I love about this team, they're continuing the legacy."

That 1999 World Cup was a watershed moment for the U.S. team. All of women's sports, really. The players were part of the first generation to reap the full benefits of Title IX, and they took it one step further by making it cool for girls to play sports. They were adored by little girls and boys alike, so famous the players could go by just one name. Mia. Brandi. Foudy.

They packed stadiums from coast to coast — and not small ones, either. Soldier Field. The Meadowlands. Foxborough. And the granddaddy of them all, 90,000-plus in the Rose Bowl for the final. They won, too, beating China in a penalty kick shootout to give the United States a second World Cup trophy.

"We showed where women's athletics, women's team sports, women's soccer and soccer in general in America could go, and it was a tremendous event," said Tony DiCicco, the coach of the '99 team. "We didn't realize totally what was happening outside the event. But it was life-changing. I think it was life-changing for a lot of people, including some of the athletes on the current team."

As magnificent as the team's success was, though, it's cast a long shadow on everyone who's come after. Every U.S. team is compared to the '99 squad, and nobody's come close to measuring up. Sure, the Americans have won the past two Olympic gold medals. But the World Cup is soccer's biggest prize, and the U.S. hasn't even made the final in the 21st century.

Until now, that is.

The U.S. plays Japan in Sunday's final with a chance to become the first country to win three World Cup titles.