9781422275979

This first, quickly assembled USWNT had no success on the field, but its legacy is indelible . However, eight of the players, including Bender, would never play for the USWNT again. Six others played ten or fewer career matches for the national team. Only Akers, Pickering, and her University of North Carolina teammate Lori Henry became fixtures of future teams. A FRESH START Mike Ryan was out as coach after that initial tournament, and North Carolina men’s and women’s head coach Anson Dorrance took over the job in 1986. His NCAA

women’s team won four of the first five national championships ever awarded in the women’s game. Dorrance would also go on to win nine consecutive titles from 1986 to 1994. Dorrance was determined to match the success that his women’s team had achieved in the infancy of high-level college competition at the even- newer international level. After purging many of the original USWNT

Longtime University of North Carolina head coach Anson Dorrance ran the USWNT from 1986 to 1994.

players, Dorrance made Pickering the team captain. Then he began adding the women who would become the foundation of future champions. Kristine Lilly, Joy Fawcett, Carin Jennings, and Mia Hamm joined the team in 1987. Brandi Chastain, Carla Overbeck, and Julie Foudy arrived in 1988. All seven women played more than one hundred career matches for the USWNT and, along with Akers, were key pieces of the team for the first- ever Women’s World Cup.

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