We’ve been watching a lot of the World Cup soccer tournament in the last couple of weeks. We were encouraged by the USA’s first two victories, then bummed when they lost literally in the last second on Thursday against a team everyone thought we’d run over. And not only that, we discovered that we’d been misspelling that nation’s name all along. It’s apparently Turkiyie, not Turkey. Maybe they were really made at us for that and took OUT THEIR revenge in their 3-2 win over USA.
It brought up memories my family had when we watched the Women’s World Cup finals in Los Angeles in 1999.
Our daughter had just graduated from Las Cruces High School where she was a varsity soccer player. Her best attributes were that she was smart, could accelerate very quickly, could place the ball strategically upfield and was virtually indestructable physically. We used to marvel at what we called her “Lindsay Moments,” in which she would collide violently with a member of the other team and leave a cloud of dust and the other player whimpering on the ground. Still standing, she would look quizzically at the other player — still squirming on the ground — and wonder why they couldn’t get up immediately and continue playing. She honestly never got many yellow cards because her encounters were legal — just tough.
As a bit of a reward for her, we decided to travel to Los Angeles to see the USA Women’s soccer team play in the championship match against China. That team was just coming into its own, with oustanding players like Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers and Brandi Chastain.
Our son had just completed his sophomore year at the University of San Diego and we arranged to have him come and meet us. Although maybe not at first quite excited about the event, he quickly became interested when he saw how many attractive young women were at the Rose Bowl for the match. He took particular note of a group of young women wearing hula skirts and coconut brassieres outside the stadium entrance.
The game itself was long and arduous. It was very hot and the narrow seats in the Rose Bowl were designed in the 1920s when Americans were much smaller. At the end of regulation, the game with China was tied, leading to a shoot-off. On the very last chance to score a goal and win the game, midfielder Brandi Brandi Chastain squeezed a kick past the Chinese goalie to win the game. Sliding on her knees, she ripped off her jersey and exposed her black sports bra in an impromptu joyous celebration.
In that moment, I think all mothers of young female soccer players feared their daughters would soon emulate that action whenever they scored a goal.
Unbeknownst to me, my wife had save mementos of that event, including some T-shirts she made, programs, game rosters and a Sports Illustrated edition celebrating the win with the picture above on its cover.
Also included in the box were the tickets we purchased for the event. I’m sure you’ve all read stories about how top tickets for the current men’s World Cup event have been in the thousands of dollars, clearly demonstrating to me shameless price gouging by the various venues and FIFA.
So here is a copy of one of the tickets we purchased to the 1999 Women’s World Cup final match.
Check out the price on the ticket — $60. We paid a total of $260 for four tickets, with a $20 processing fee added. I don’t think Ticketmaster was even around at the time and didn’t get its claws into the process.
Other than the hot weather and ridiculously small seats, it was a memorable event for our family. I’m glad my wife save so much of the paraphernalia from the match.
And GO TEAM USA!!!
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