9781422275986

CHAPTER 1

Growing Strong Girls across the world love lacing up their cleats and heading out to the soccer field to play the beautiful game. We'll take a look at how far women’s soccer has come, how girls’ soccer is growing in the United States, why sports are so important for the well-being of girls, and why the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team is viewed across the world as the gold standard for women's soccer. Women’s soccer is growing fast—do your best to keep up! YOUTH SOCCER: FROM THE BEGINNING Every weekend, across continents all over the world, thousands of girls hit the soccer field. Sometimes, girls simply get together with friends to play an informal game, while other girls enjoy playing competitively. While this is the norm now, it hasn't always been this way. Women have casually played soccer for a very, very long time, but it has taken many years for female soccer players to have the opportunity to become professional paid athletes. Many people say that women have not been interested in sports for a very long time, but that simply could not be further from the truth. There is evidence of women enjoying the sport as early as 1869. There were pictures featured in the popular magazine Harper's Bazaar of women kicking the ball around and enjoying a casual game. It's extremely likely that women played soccer together before this, even though it wasn't recorded or captured on film. In the late 1800s, women began to play organized games similar to men’s games.

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