A Summer Hit for the Masses
Seventy-nine thousand fans for a women’s soccer game in New Jersey?
“Phenomenal,” Mia Hamm said.
“Unbelievable,” Brianna Scurry said.
Or, if Julie Foudy’s delirious 73rd-minute goal celebration had been properly subtitled for the benefit of the full-house Giants Stadium crowd: Shagadelic, baby. Groovy, yeah.
For the 78,972 eyewitnesses inside the stadium and those watching at home, yes, that little mincing bunny hop by Foudy in front of the U.S. bench was a tribute to Austin Powers, the summer’s biggest box office hit--or at least the biggest this side of a U.S. women’s soccer match.
Unlike most men’s teams, who ready themselves, grim-faced, for battle by watching such gut-check motivational fare as “Rocky” and “Rudy,” the U.S. women’s soccer squad passed the days leading up to Saturday’s Women’s World Cup opener by hanging out at the local cinema with the Austin Powers sequel.
“We’ve been watching it all week,” Foudy said. “I’ve gone to see it twice.”
So, after a surprisingly tense first 70 minutes against Denmark, with the United States clinging to a 1-0 lead, Foudy freed herself alongside the Danes’ left goalpost, took a feed from Mia Hamm, found the upper roof of the net and then let loose in a fashion not yet seen from Ronaldo or David Beckham.
Foudy brought the house down with it, leaving teammates on the field and on the sideline doubled over in laughter.
Now, all she needs was a name for it.
The Midfielder Who Shagged Me, perhaps?
Foudy broke the game open, both competitively and emotionally, as the United States finally settled in, scored again 16 minutes later and secured a tougher-than-expected 3-0 victory.
That set forth another sort of celebration, sending U.S. players to all points of Giants Stadium, looking up at the standing and cheering fans surrounding them and returning the gesture.
“We just wanted to say thank you to the crowd, to have so many people there,” forward Tiffeny Milbrett said. “I know they’re here for the World Cup, but they’re also here for us. We can’t sit here and sign 79,000 autographs. But we can do a little victory lap just to say thank you.”
There was much to say thank you for. Saturday’s crowd was the largest in the history of women’s soccer, anywhere, eclipsing the previous mark of 76,489, set during the United States’ 2-1 victory over China in the gold-medal game at the 1996 Summer Olympics. It was also the largest crowd for a sporting event at Giants Stadium--bigger than last January’s AFC playoff game between the New York Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars (78,817), bigger than Pele’s 1977 farewell match for the New York Cosmos (75,646).
Only one Meadowlands act ever played to a larger crowd than the U.S. women Saturday, and that was the pope, who drew 82,948 to a Mass here in 1995.
It was heady stuff, difficult to absorb, enough to make U.S. defender Brandi Chastain fight back tears as she walked out of the tunnel for introductions and caught her first glimpse of the heaving masses.
“It gave me chills,” Chastain said. “I thought I was going to cry, I was so proud.
“But then I took a deep breath and told myself, ‘OK, this is a nice feeling. Now let’s show them why they’re here.’ ”
U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco said it was “hard to get a grasp on everything this game represents. But I know it’s historical. I know this was a glimpse into the future. And I know that 79,000 people went home today feeling they were entertained.
“Women’s athletics are here to stay. We are just scratching the surface.”
It was something to see, the world’s largest AYSO convention congregated just outside Newark. The stands were filled with soccer moms and dads, young girls with their faces done up with red, white and blue makeup, young boys wearing No. 9 Mia Hamm jerseys.
Not your typical Meadowlands football crowd, in other words.
“That’s the soccer community, right there,” said Marla Messing, Women’s World Cup president and chief executive. “It’s a different mix than what we had for the men’s World Cup in ’94. The ’94 World Cup was supported mainly by ethnic Americans and men aged 18 to 49. That was their target audience. Here, we have more families, more boys and girls. The grass-roots soccer community.”
Foudy said she will remember Saturday’s events for the rest of her life.
It was that kind of game, wasn’t it?
“Who cares about the game?” Foudy joked with reporters. “I got to do ‘the Austin Powers.’ ”
Oh, behave!
