Nationalism in the 1999 Women's World Cup

Since 1993, the US has played host to a number of high profile international events. The Olympics came to Atlanta, GA in the summer of 1994, while Salt Lake City played host to the 2002 Winter Games. In between those two were two World Cups: the men’s cup, won by Brazil on PKs, while the Americans won the women’s cup on home soil in 1999. The win by the US women’s soccer team did not vault soccer into the center of the national spotlight, but it did attract more attention than the game had received for either the Men’s or Women’s national team. Part of the reason for this was the way the women played, and how they won their dramatic final victory.

Prevailing opinion in the US held soccer as the most boring game one could possibly watch, and worst of all the game might well end in a tie without a real result. One writer quipped that they goal of Men’s soccer was to take a 1-0 lead, then stack 11 men in the box. Contrary to this view, the women scored 13 goals in their 3 group games, including a 7-1 thrashing of Nigeria. The team drew reasonably well wherever they played, but matches that did not feature the home team showed American apathy to the sport all too clearly. On July 4, 1999 the US squad faced Brazil in the Semifinals at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, CA. Had this match been in France on Bastille Day, or any European nation on a day of national celebration for that matter, the game would have been sold out and the fans raucous with national pride. The American fans did their best, but there were still seats left in the stands; on the other side of the country less than 9000 people paid to see China dispatch Norway. Foxboro was at less than 1/6 of its full capacity.

As proof that America loves winners, especially if the opponent is an ideological foe as well, the final between the US and China was the best-attended women’s event in history. The capacity crowd at the Rose Bowl got their money’s worth, as the game remained tied all the way into sudden death. PKs would decide the winner. The TV audience grew steadily throughout the game finally reaching nearly 40 million viewers according at ABC’s reports after the fact. The sport Americans love to hate had drawn more viewers than the Stanley Cup Finals, and about the same as the NBA finals. By the time Brandi Chastain famously ripped off her shirt after scoring the winning PK, more Americans were watching the event than had ever watched soccer before.

No one, least of all me, will deny the excitement of that game. I was among those perched on my couch watching excitedly as the US kickers continued to baffle the Chinese keeper. The question is: what brought the 40 million others to their TVs. Was it the excitement of sudden death? Was it the undeniable appeal of 1-1 PKs to decide who was the best team in the world? Or was it something that transcended the sport at all?

The men’s national team had finished dead last at the Men’s cup in France the previous summer. Drawing a dedicated, but comparatively tiny, fan base to France and a small share of fans watching at home. Men’s games outdraw women’s in every sport, it is the sad truth. Why, then, did the women’s squad do so much better with the fans than the men? The answer lies in a force that Americans rarely talk about outside of “Things that are wrong about Europe”

Nationalism. The success of the women’s team on home soil elicited a response in the average fan that intra-national games simply cannot. It is the same reason Americans get up in arms about the US’ loss to the USSR in the 1972 Olympic finals, fans set aside their distaste for the sport or for individuals to cheer on the team and by extension, the nation. As the tournament ran its course, it became clear that this team, unlike their male counterparts, was deserving of national support. Paired against an ideological rival in Communist China, nationalist passions were inflamed even more.

Sadly, with 3 years between the women’s triumph and the next World Cup, the passions didn’t stay. Nationalism is not a force one can just start and let go, it must be fostered, and there is little in US culture designed to accomplish such a task. The Men did well to reach the quarterfinals, but partially due to US apathy and partially due to the time difference between the home fans and the matches in Korea, their accomplishment went largely unnoticed. The women hosted the Cup again in 2003, but fell in the semifinals to a powerhouse German squad that went on to defeat Sweden for the Championship.

The 1999 Women’s soccer team picked up where the 1992 Olympic Dream Team left off. They ignited US nationalist passion for just a while, and like the Dream Team, they did much to advance their sport. It took a few years, but the 2006 Men’s World Cup showed demonstrably more support from US fans than would be expected. The growth of younger players like Freddy Adu or Lori Chalupny will largely determine whether or not soccer’s popularity will continue to grow or if it will wane, but one thing the 1999 team taught us is that the fans will come if they’ve got a team to cheer for. What separates the American fans from their European counterparts is this: US fans will come if they feel the team deserves them, European fans will come and cheer no matter what.