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Friday, April 20, 2001
Q&A with Brandi Chastain
ABC Sports Online
ABC Sports sat down with U.S. Women's National Team star Brandi Chastain earlier this spring to talk about her team's thrilling victory over China to win World Cup '99 that was clinched by her penalty kick heard 'round the world.
ABC Sports: What it's like to be part of the U.S. National Team?
Chastain: It's hard to describe in just a few words or even a few sentences what it's like to be a part of the National Team. It's an experience, it's a thrill, it's an honor. It consumes your life -- in a good way. It's full of some of the best people I've ever met, and when you put on your jersey, you know you're representing something more than just yourself, more than your team, you're representing the idea of freedom and opportunity.
ABC Sports: You said what it meant to be part of the team but maybe you can continue about the relationships that you had with those people.
|  | | Brandi Chastain holds up her shirt as she celebrates after making the winning goal against China to win Women's World Cup '99 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. |
Chastain: I'm smiling because when I think about being with the National Team and the people who are involved from the top, the administration, down to the players, you know you have something special when there's no ego involved. No one's worried about what they're going to achieve by themselves. It's really the idea of team first. 'How can we all be successful?' And I think in the difficult times, that's when you notice it the most. When there's somebody always there for you to lean on, somebody who will take the time to make sure that you're taken care of. Not so much in a frivolous way either. Not just like on the surface. It's a deep-rooted respect and trust and overall love for each other in the most beautiful, caring way that you could possibly have a relationship with somebody. And I think how that translates for us on the field is that we're willing to do anything for each other. Whether you play one minute or you play a whole game, everybody matters and everybody's sacrifice for that game is something that is noticed.
You know, there's no one who's excluded from the success of the team. And for as awesome as they are on the field, they're much more incredible off the field. They're just wonderful people.
ABC Sports: Now let's just jump right into that game. Rose Bowl 1999, 90,000 plus. Tell me what it felt like.
Chastain: Well, it didn't quite start off the way you would imagine it. Being in the hotel before the game, you're getting excited, your nerves are going, your stomach feels like it's turned upside down. You're trying to keep yourself calm and be a professional. You can hear the cheers, you can hear the laughter of the people who happen to be staying in your hotel that are going to the game, and you're trying to keep your perspective and your focus. And it's going alright, it's going pretty good and then you get to the stadium and the game before has gone into overtime so now they're telling us, You won't get a chance to warm up on the field. And this is the biggest game of your life. It would be telling the guys at the World Series, You can't have batting practice and you can't throw before the game. You're just gonna have to go out there and play.
And so it was interesting to see how the team reacted to that. I mean they could have just been like, This is the National Team, you know, it's a World Cup. But everyone was like, OK, well, we'll just run in the hall and we'll kick the ball against the wall and, you know, we'll do what we need to do to get ready for the game. So that was a little bit of a bump that we didn't expect, but that's what's another thing so great about this team is that they can handle those types of things without a problem. And when we first got to walk through the tunnel -- it's always dark in the tunnel --all of a sudden you come out into the stadium and it's just like blazing sunshine. You can feel the heat coming off the grass and it almost takes your breath away, really. And you realize you've got 5 minutes until the biggest game of your career. And you just look around. It's amazing.
When somebody tells you, Oh, there's gonna be 90,000 people in the stands, it doesn't compute until you actually see the crowd. And they were unbelievable and the flags and the faces painted. I mean, even now it's like I start getting nervous just thinking about how exciting it was and how beautiful the whole game was from the start to the finish.
ABC Sports: Can you take us through the game?
Chastain: I think in the beginning of the game you have this sense of you don't wanna make a mistake. You want your first touch to keep possession or you wanna win the first tackle. And that kind of gets you into the game, you know. Gives you a little bit of confidence. So I remember talking to myself in the beginning as the whistle blew it was like, OK, get that first touch, get that first tackle, then settle down into the match. The game is 90 minutes long and you, you know you're hoping that you'll win the game in 90 minutes.
And as the game progressed, no one was budging. It was like a cat's game. And you always hope that you can do one thing that's going to change the outcome and we had one. Kristine Lilly makes a save off the line with her head, their goalkeeper makes a good save, we have a great slide tackle in the midfield, they have a great through pass to a player and somehow neither team can break the barrier. And I remember going into overtime, it was the last ten or so minutes and the voice in my head is so loud that I don't even hear the crowd anymore. It's like, Do not let down. Don't make a mistake. Do not give away the ball. Physically your body is so tired and you've been sweating for a hundred and twenty minutes. Everybody after the game told me, Oh, it was so hot that day in the stands. And I'm thinking to myself, You have no idea how hot it was for your feet on that ground. I mean it was like baking. I just couldn't wait to get my shoes off it was so hot. And you're cramping and you just wanna get some water in you.
So the end of the game was really intense in the overtime because I think everybody was having that feeling like you wanted to make a difference but you didn't want to make a mistake trying to make something happen at the same time, you know. So there was kind of like that juxtaposition of feeling of do I go for it and take a chance or do I hang back and be safe. And I think that's how the last ten minutes of the overtime ended.
ABC Sports: What was the atmosphere like on the sideline at the end of OT?
Chastain: I think we were all very excited that the overtime was over and that we could lay down on the ground. You see a lot of people wearing iced down towels over their heads, having their legs shaked out. I think having that moment before the (penalty) kicks was very relaxing for the group, but there was an odd thing that happened.
During the run of play, like in every other game, I'm normally one of the players (to take a penalty kick) -- myself and Michelle. But Michelle was out of the game to take penalty kicks. And then Lauren Gregg came up to me and said, Do you wanna take a kick? And I was puzzled to be honest with you. I was like, Of course I do. I mean, that's one of the few things I feel comfortable doing. And she goes, OK, but you have to take it with your left foot. And I said, Fine. Now I don't see that as being a big deal. I mean a lot of people have said you feel comfortable with one foot, you take it with one foot.
In training leading up to that we would have penalty kick competitions and some I would take right footed some I would take left footed. And Tony felt very strongly about my taking it with my left foot, so she wanted to make sure that I knew that I had to take it with my left foot. So fine. And then I remember everybody walking out to the center circle and I realized, I have no idea what number I am. I don't, I could be first, I could be fifth, no idea. And it just happened that everybody would walk up to take theirs and I don't even know if I was looking around like what's going on in terms of the number, you think, Joy, Mia, Lil, Carla, I guess I'm five.
I think it was probably the calmest feeling on the field that day. Just like it was practice, like we've been doing for weeks and weeks. I think if you ask Mia she was nervous. She didn't wanna take one, but the coaches told her, Hey, we're confident in you, you can do it. But they all placed their kicks so beautifully the goal keeper didn't even come close to any of them, that I felt we had already won with Bri making that big save and the place going absolutely crazy, I knew that we had won the game.
ABC Sports: It's now 4-4 and your fifth kick would decide the match. Take me through it from walking up to the ball.
Chastain: I couldn't decide if I wanted to jog or if I wanted to walk. The distance is not very far, but it can seem like eternity getting to the ball when the only thing that was going through my mind was, Don't look at the goal keeper, don't look at the goal keeper, don't look at the goal keeper. Because earlier in the year I had taken a kick against China and I missed it. She came up to the ball and we kind of had this showdown at high noon. And she totally psyched me out and I felt very uncomfortable up there and I ended up hitting the crossbar and the ball went out and we ended up losing the game 2 to 1. So that was the only thing that was going through my mind is, Don't look at her.
So I remember taking the walk up, looking at the referee, grabbing the ball, putting the ball down, backing up, I think I took my hair and I went like that and then the next thing I knew I heard the whistle and I don't know how to describe it exactly but it's like things happen really fast. But I could see it going in slow motion. It's like being in an accident almost. Like you blink your eye and it's happened but you saw every single part of it. It was complete chaos afterwards and it was probably the most exciting, thrilling, satisfying and I let go all the stress, all the anxiety of the whole tournament, maybe of my whole career, I don't know. All things that have been built up for 20-something years of playing the game. And I think that all happened when I took my jersey off. It was an awesome moment. I have no idea why it happened and people ask me, Would you do it again, and I try to explain to them that a moment like that comes around maybe once in your life. And you can never predict how your emotions will take over when it does happen.
I hope I have another moment in my life where I can have that sort of expression, kind of letting lose of any kind of inhibition or fear. I think it also is a moment just of sharing it with those players at that time and, I mean I'll tell you, they've never run so fast from the midfield to the penalty spot. They were there in like what seemed like a blink of an eye. And just seeing the fans' reaction. It was perfect. Couldn't have been any better.
ABC Sports: Did Nike put you up to that?
Chastain: That's funny. No, Nike didn't pay me enough money to take my shirt off like that. No, absolutely not. But I think it's interesting to hear the response of people who have asked that question before. Nike must have known that it was gonna go into overtime and then into penalty kicks and that you would be the fifth player to take a kick and win the World Cup. I mean, gosh, if we were only that smart, you know. If that were the case then they should be leading the country as opposed to being some athletic apparel group, you know. Like I said earlier, when you have the most perfect scenario that you've been dedicating your whole life to and it actually happens in the biggest of the biggest arenas, you have no idea how your emotions will take over. And that was that moment
|  | | Surrounded by her teammates, captain Carla Overbeck holds the World Cup trophy up proudly on that historic blistering hot July afternoon at the Rose Bowl. |
ABC Sports: And that game, as you well are aware of, is going down as one of the greatest events in sports history.
Chastain: Isn't that amazing? I don't know how to react to the idea that our game, that game in the Rose Bowl, is going down in history as one of the most exciting games or events ever. I can understand the excitement because the crowd was unbelievable. Just to witness their reaction I think is exciting for me as a sports fan. I love to sit in the stands and have that kind of reaction myself. It's like it was just another day for me to go out and play soccer and have fun and do what I love and if other people get some sense of empowerment or a chance to experience what it's like to be on that kind of stage then that's great for me. That's what sports is all about.
ABC Sports: And the impact your team had on women's athletics was almost as important.
Chastain: The game did help take a step in the right direction. There are a lot of women that have done amazing things before us that if they weren't present, we never would have been in the Rose Bowl. We never would have had a World Cup Championship. We never would have experienced the thrill of an Olympic Games. So we're just a small part of that history and I think what we were trying to do was to enhance what they've already done and it was to thank them, really for all of their years of dedication.
ABC Sports: I'd imagine it was a lot different for you as a kid than it is for girls now because of such people.
Chastain: Growing up as a small child being interested in sports, I never had a team to look to. And so I think that's where our team kind of has filled a void, so to speak, for young girls growing up, getting that sense of teamwork. The identity of not only having the desire to play sports but to play it in a group setting. I watched Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Dorothy Hamill. I mean, these are the women that I grew up remembering in the sports world. But none of them played on a team. I think that's the lesson, that's where our history will be remembered is how did girls orient themselves into team settings, how to become a leader in a team, how to stand up in front of a group and make a difference and not be afraid to voice their opinion. And then have it transgress the lines of the field and go into the classroom or into the boardroom. And to take chances and to take risks.
I think that's what this team has been so great at doing in their communities and the communities that we've had a chance to go into and play games.
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