9781422275979

CHAPTER 1

A History of the U.S. Women’s National Team The United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) may not have the long history of its male counterpart, but what history it does have is far more accomplished. The seventeen women that sewed the USA decal onto their used men’s jerseys in 1985 could scarcely have conceived what those accomplishments would be, but that first USWNT was the start of a proud and successful legacy. THE PIONEERS The 1985 USWNT was chosen after a group of seventy players was invited to participate in a sports festival soccer tournament in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The coach, Mike Ryan, was an Irishman who came to America in 1958. Ryan settled in the Seattle area and spent ten years building the University of Washington’s men’s soccer program. At the end of the Baton Rouge festival, Ryan selected the players who would comprise the first USWNT squad by calling out their names as they sat on the field after the final match. The most prominent of these first team members was University of Central Florida forward Michelle Akers. The nineteen-year-old and her teammates left for the team’s first-ever international tournament just two weeks later after only three days of practice.

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