Joining the world of soccer felt like gaining access to an exclusive club in my younger years. At the age of 7, I eagerly joined a boys’ team since the first girls’ league hadn’t yet arrived in my New Jersey town. Soccer was still a budding sport in the United States at that time. As time went on and many of the girls on my youth teams abandoned the sport, I found solace in the small group of dedicated players who remained. We proudly wore Umbro shorts, Adidas Samba sneakers, and jewelry adorned with soccer balls to distinguish ourselves as part of our unique tribe.
By the time I reached high school, I had fully immersed myself in soccer. I lived for the exhilarating games under the Wednesday-night lights, where I would receive the ball at the perfect moment and have the entire green expanse of the field ahead of me. With two swift touches and a burst of speed, I would hope to break away from the pack, finding myself alone and facing the illuminated goalkeeper against the backdrop of the night sky. During the winter months, we played indoors, but the most memorable game of that season took place thousands of miles away in China.
Sitting in the players’ box before my own game, I fixated on the article I had clipped from The Washington Post: “U.S. Women Capture World Soccer Title.” Surprisingly, it wasn’t the headline news in the sports section that day, and the only photo included was a small one showcasing the winning goal. There was no image capturing Brandi Chastain in her iconic jersey-clutching celebration or an elated Alex Morgan piggybacking on Megan Rapinoe. It’s hard to believe how different things are now.
The player I idolized the most, Mia Hamm, wasn’t even mentioned in that article. In just two years, she had gone from playing on the Virginia state-championship-winning high school team to becoming a star at the University of North Carolina and ultimately winning the first-ever Women’s World Cup. I was 15 years old at the time, living in Northern Virginia, and seeing Hamm’s success provided undeniable proof that soccer could lead to great things. I stepped onto the field that day with newfound confidence, knowing that being a girl playing soccer was no longer a novelty or something to be frowned upon by disapproving aunts, uncles, or high school counselors.
However, what I hadn’t fully comprehended was that the small tribe of ponytailed players adorned with soccer-ball necklaces and newspaper clippings was on the cusp of being replaced by a vast army of girls. Today, in any medium-sized American town, a young girl can choose between playing in a recreational team or a club team, with the options often extending to numerous teams within each category. Back in 1989, when I started playing high school soccer, there were slightly more than 100,000 girls participating at that level. In the following three decades, that number nearly quadrupled.
The accomplishments of Hamm and other soccer stars like Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers, and Kristine Lilly paved the way for the triumphs that followed. Thanks to their efforts, and the efforts of those who came after them, a thriving professional women’s soccer league was established in the United States. Pay equity was secured, and a pipeline of talented young players was constructed. The U.S. women’s national team has stood as champions at half of the World Cup tournaments to date. But just as I witnessed the growth of girls’ soccer within the United States, the U.S. women are now witnessing its expansion across the globe.
In 2019, FIFA estimated that there were 13 million girls and women participating in organized soccer worldwide. The first Women’s World Cup in 1991 only had 12 contenders, but FIFA steadily increased the number over the years. Today, the Women’s World Cup features 32 nations, the same number as the men’s tournament. The competition now extends beyond the traditional powerhouses like Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and England. Spain, France, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and countless other countries pose formidable challenges. These soccer programs aren’t just growing; they have fully blossomed. Moreover, the larger pool of participants now includes nations making their debut on the global stage, such as Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Vietnam, and Zambia. Almost every columnist analyzing the 2023 World Cup agrees that the U.S. team will face a much more demanding task in securing victory.
I was merely 17 years old when my dreams of soccer glory were dashed. It all began with a skiing accident: the bindings wouldn’t release, a friend’s dad hurriedly took me home, a doctor performed surgery on my leg, and I found myself confined to a wheelchair. Yet, in my teenage mind, none of these events truly sank in until the day I rolled into the high school cafeteria for a team meeting and met our new head coach, who stared at me in disbelief and said, “Please tell me you’re not Claudine.”
Nowadays, I watch soccer from the sidelines or the comfort of my home, passionately cheering for the U.S. women’s team. It’s no longer my secret little club, as millions of fans join me in doing the same. I have made peace with this change. Witnessing new generations of players step onto the field fills me with joy. These players have grown up knowing that competing at the highest level is within their grasp. Similarly, I believe that the members of the U.S. women’s team feel the same way as they observe the remarkable global growth of women’s soccer. The honor of being the best is unparalleled, but there is also great honor in paving the way for others.
During the 2019 World Cup finals, as Rose Lavelle took the shot that sealed a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, my eyes weren’t fixed on the screen. Instead, I gazed at my daughter. The elation and admiration on her face mirrored the feelings I had experienced three decades earlier. She was witnessing the U.S. women’s team triumph in the World Cup, fully aware that the whole world was watching too. For her, preserving the legacy of the sport meant framing magazine covers featuring these champions, rather than clipping newspaper stories like I had done.
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