Soccer Icons Brandi Chastain and Michelle Akers on the Match That Changed Everything

It was one of the most talked about and most significant wins in women’s sports: After 120 minutes of gameplay, defensive player Brandi Chastain stepped up to the pitch, kicking in the final penalty shot with her non-dominant left foot. The second the ball hit the net, Chastain whipped her jersey off, revealing a black sports bra as she fell to her knees, unknowingly creating one of the most iconic images of all time. The United States Women’s National Soccer Team had beaten China to take home the trophy in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. 

It was a moment of joy, power, and progress. Women can and should show up for themselves and celebrate in a way that dares people to try and look away. 

Twenty-four years later, women’s soccer is in another World Cup cycle and much has changed. Viewership has increased. Pay has increased. The competition is fiercer than ever and more teams are being added to female leagues worldwide (including one in the U.S.’s National Women’s Soccer League owned by Chastain and other former players). 

Watching this year’s World Cup (which saw the United States lose to Sweden in a penalty shoot-out on August 6, ending America’s chances for a three-peat), it’s evident just how far the game has come, and also where it can go. Yes, it’s disappointing for fans to see a team they love lose, but that’s what sports are all about — winning, losing, learning to move on. 

But in order to look forward, it’s important to look back and see how far we’ve come from “The Match that Changed Everything.” Ahead, what happened that fateful day in ‘99 straight from the players who were on the pitch.

Before the Match 

Brandi Chastain, defender: Even before we got to the locker room, just the excitement around the hotel and anticipation of getting on the bus and heading over to the game was always a fun time. When we get to the Rose Bowl, we quickly find out that the game before us is tied and will be going to penalty kicks, and we can get there early just to be there and make sure we're not pushing the time. So now, we're going to be there an extended amount of time, and we won't be getting onto the field.

Michelle Akers, forward: I remember literally thinking, Oh, this would never, ever happen to the men. Never mind. We have a job to do. There was a constant putting aside of things and just warming up on the concrete, trying not to slip and trying to warm up to get ready for one of the biggest games in my life.

What I remember in the couple days leading up to that match was we went and had a burger at a pub. It was a famous pub there, I can't remember the name of it. We had burgers and beers. We were walking back and there was a horse patrol cop outside the stadium, outside the grounds on the street there, at a light across from our hotel. And so I'm into horses, so I talked to him about the horses. He knew who we were. It was all exciting. All those little things to me are so important in being grounded to approach what will take every ounce of what you have inside you and beyond to accomplish and to compete and to be your best at. 

I remember looking at myself in the mirror on the way out, because I had a big black eye from the Brazil game. I got cleated in the face. And going, OK, when I come back, next time I'm in  this hotel room, I will know if we won or lost. It was a weird and poignant moment, just to think about that.

Chastain: We turned the tunnel and the locker room into a dance party warm-up zone. And this Rose Bowl, this beautiful historical traditional stadium, where all these monumental events have happened in our country's sporting history, is now going to be hosting the final of the Women's World Cup. 

Akers: I don't remember the music. 

Chastain: It was, like, “Livin' La Vida Loca.” And, of course, Kristine Lilly would have some melancholy slow song, and everybody would be like, “Boo!” And '90s jams. It was the '90s. But honestly, if you can get pumped up to Melissa Etheridge, I guess that’s part of what made her amazing. 

Gameplay

Akers: That match. Man, that match. I remember just being intensely focused on going from almost job to job on the field, and mode to mode; marking and not letting her turn, winning the air ball. It was literally from executing one thing to executing the next, which means also anticipating the next thing and organizing all the things. It's such an amazing experience to be in that mode, and I felt like the crowd was so into it. It was like we were almost floating down this powerful river, because they carried us.

Chastain: Starting the game, my position as the defender was not thinking about scoring, so I wasn't really in that headspace. I was more in the “how will I stop China” [headspace] and the number of Chinese players that will run at you at any given time from any given direction. They were so good. My job was to keep it out of the net, so that was as much of a physical task as it was a mental task.

I'm just talking to myself the whole time about where to be. And the game is a long game. That's before you even think about overtime. Just the regular game is a long game and so it's hard to stay in that really super hyper-focused mode. And so having worked with a sports psychologist about how we go in and out of that focus — a game like this, one minor mistake and that could be the game. I remember that being just really so apparent to me, the amount of self-talk, the amount of talking to my teammates. Just keeping connected, that was really something that I spent a lot of energy on. 

Akers: I remember, because of my job description, getting forward, getting in the box, shooting and winning any serves in, et cetera, that it was exhausting. And I remember working so hard to get up there every time, and then [the Chinese team] did a quick transition and a long ball and I was like, Oh, my God, and I was all the way in their box, and I was like, I'm not going to make it. I'm trying, but I'm just going so slow, but I'm going as fast as I can. And then I just heard Carla [Overbeck] go, "Hey guys, we need you." And then all of a sudden, I had turbo speed. It was like another three years kicked in and I got back. That literally took everything.

Chastain: I think getting closer to the end of the game, the intensity starts to ramp up. The opportunities become a little less. The threats become a little more provoking, and so everything just gets on pins and needles, because you want to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.

When I see it now and when I've watched it again, that's how I see the game. I can semi-recollect that feeling in my body, that tension that you get when you get into those tight moments. But, also, again, that we went through the practice of taking those deep breaths and really being able to calm yourself and to stay in the moment and to still have the connection with your teammates. It was a battle. It was a mental battle the entire time.

Akers: At the very end, there was the corner, and you're focused on what you need to do, but at the same time it is, Well fuck, if they score we're fucked. They cannot score. So, it's like the 90th minute and there's a corner. They're great on set pieces, and so all I kept thinking was, Oh, I've got to win the head ball. And it's so loud, you can't hear anyone on your team, screaming or yelling or giving instruction. They served it in, I went for the head ball, and then [the goalie] Bri came over the top of me, punched the ball and me, and then she knocked me out. That was the end for me. I do remember being on the sideline. They blew the whistle and I was on the sideline.

Chastain: We always had this mindset that we would win every game. We prepared in that way. We supported each other in that way, and we grew to believe that every game was ours. But when you get into a game with China, you better bring it, or you're going to get smacked down. So, it was exhausting. It was probably one of the most exhausting games I've ever played.

The Penalty Shootout

Akers: They took me off the field into the locker room. I was in a training room, trauma room under the stadium. They had me in with double IVs and on ice. And I remember our docs yelling, "Akers. Get with it, Akers. Get with it, Akers. Come on up. There's a helicopter waiting outside for you. If you don't get with it, I'm going to have to put you on the helicopter.”

Chastain: When we went to the middle, I realized that somehow in all the communication and all the stretching and all the drinking and all the things, I did not hear the order of the kickers. As we're walking out, I'm thinking, I don't know when I'm going. And then I think, Well, I'm not saying anything, because I don't want to screw it up. I didn't want to mess with anybody else's preparation for going out to that thing. That was a little bit of a tension-builder for me. 

Then we had one, two, three go, and then Bri made the save. Then we made our kick. They made their kick. And it was my turn to go, and we all knew that if it went in, it would be good.

The only thing that I was thinking at that point was, Don't look at the goalkeeper. As it turned out, that was really a detriment for Gao Hong. In the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team, she said she tried to look in my eyes, but couldn’t.

Akers: I was like, "I'm not going to the hospital. I am fine." I bucked up. I don't know, I plugged in the synapses and I sat up to get the IVs out, but it was the penalty kicks going on. They had a super-small TV up in the corner of this room. And so they got the IVs out and we were sitting, everyone. I remember looking at the backs of the men in that room, the doctors and the people in there. There were probably six or seven people there working on me, and we were all just glued on, transfixed. And then Brandi scored and they almost jumped through the ceiling, because it was this low room, low ceilings. I remember thinking, God help me, they're going to bust through the ceiling.

Chastain: There have been times when I'm at an event or something and somebody now plays [a video of] it, and I get little heart palpitations like it's not going in this time. I was totally out of my mind [when I made the shot]. Out of my mind. 

Now, people have asked me if I planned to take my shirt off, and I always say no. Honestly, this is a moment that I had created in many different iterations of sports at the local playground, in the street playing with friends and teammates. I saw my brother and his friends always [act like] they were the greatest things when they'd make a basket, and just thinking, Girls don't do things like that. They don't celebrate themselves too often. I didn't have a role model in a celebration moment, and so, for me, that just speaks to the authenticity and the genuine organic nature of the moment and that you'll never know what your emotions will do when presented in a way that you've dreamt about for your whole life. It was joy. It was being ecstatic. It was relief. It was gratitude, happiness. It was every single emotion you can possibly think of. It was a long road to that moment, not just the three weeks in the tournament, but really a lifetime to seeing that through.

Akers: I got up, which didn't quite work out, getting up, the way I imagined it, because I was dizzy and all the things. But then they gave me this yellow shirt and they were carrying me and walking. And then these bodyguards, these big giant men suddenly appeared and stood in our way. It was like the Pittsburgh Steelers arrived and there's no way you could pass. Apparently, it was because [President] Clinton had arrived and all these bodyguards were in the way, saying, "You can't go out there,” but I was like, "I am going out." 

I came onto the field just as the team was getting all their medals, so I missed that. Then, they took me out into the middle, the center circle, with our doctors. I just remember standing there, watching the team do a lap. It was so surreal. It was like I was watching all these screens. I was on the first ever U.S. Women's National Team in 1985; I played on that team. I was the only player [in ‘99] still playing from that team. So, that [1985] team, those players, that memory and legacy was alive in me, and so I brought that in every game. I was transposing all those memories while I was watching my team celebrate this, after I had nothing left. But it was almost worth it, standing there in that moment, because of that.

Amanda Cromwell turns to me and says, "Mich, listen. Listen. The crowd's chanting your name." The whole stadium was chanting: "Akers, Akers." I was blown away. When I got back to my hotel room, it was kind of a full-circle thing ... we did it. Then I ordered a burger and fries from room service. I was late seeing the team, who were absolutely guzzling Champagne and all the things.

Chastain: I did not see the ripple effect of the pebble that was being thrown into the pond, and what it has meant in so many different ways has been fascinating to hear about. We have to fast-forward 24 years and see what is happening, and the expansion of the [National Women’s Soccer League] and our Bay FC team coming in as one of the next two expansion teams. And the growth of women's soccer globally has just been ... It's been a slow burn, and now, all of a sudden, it's exploding.

Akers: We still have so far to go. We also have a responsibility to pull up everyone, all the women up from the past whose shoulders we're standing on. It's because of them. There's so many. That's part of the push, part of the legacy here. I'm spending time now on getting this 1985, that first U.S. Women's National Team story told, because that's where it all started … Women are just freaking amazing.