Why did this FIFA legend know that the World Cup will change the game of women's football in Australia

There have been several footballers throughout history who have not only played in the World Cup at home, but won it there.

Carla Overbeck is one of them.

The FIFA legend was part of the famous US team of the 1990s that won the first official Women’s World Cup in 1991 before captaining the team that lifted the trophy as hosts in 1999.

Carla Overbeck captained the United States when they made women’s soccer history at the Rose Bowl in 1999.(Getty Images: Elsa)

It was the tournament — and the team — that changed everything for women’s football in the United States.

Despite having an operating budget of only $30 million, the event attracted nearly 1.2 million people throughout the month, with an average of 37,000 fans per game. Television ratings soared, as did media coverage once the tournament took place.

The final — held in Overbeck’s hometown of Pasadena, California — still holds the record for highest ever attendance at a Women’s World Cup final as 90,185 people watched the US beat China on penalties.

Past that a landmark moment for women’s football in the US, and one that Australia and New Zealand have been waiting for when, exactly one year from now, they co-host the 2023 edition.

“They didn’t think we could do it,” Overbeck recalled at an event in Sydney this week to mark the occasion.

“There was a lot of pressure because, for a long time, no one expected people to come out and watch us play. We have to convince the Americans.

“Most reporters are naysayers. They don’t believe we can fill a giant stadium, that we can fill the Rose Bowl.

“It’s great to tell them we have a pretty good product, the world is bringing their best team, and it’s going to be a great show for people to watch.”

And so. Indeed, the interest and investment generated after 1999 arguably laid the groundwork for the US to become the next major superpower in women’s football, usurping China that dominated in the 1980s.

Carla Overbeck scored the first penalty in the US’ 5-4 win over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final in front of a record-breaking crowd.(Getty Images: Sports Illustrated/Robert Beck)

The first push is at the domestic league level. The ’99 World Cup led to the formation of the world’s first professionally paid women’s soccer competition, the United Women’s Football Association, which featured legendary players such as Player of the Century, Sun Wen, former Matildas captain Cheryl Salisbury, Brazilian icon Sissi and Asian players. . Japan’s first and only World Cup winning captain Homare Sawa.

Although the league went out of business a few seasons later, it laid the groundwork for the National Women’s Soccer League, which is now a decade old and widely regarded as one of the best competitions in the world, in which nearly all of the current US women’s national team players play their part. . .

The league also started a conversation about paying female athletes for their work, something that inspired the current generation of players in their fight for the same salaries — including World Cup prize money — that they got from their federations earlier this year.

“It was a big fight we had to fight,” Overbeck said.

“It’s not that we want millions of dollars. We just want to be able to be professional, play [our] sport and don’t have to get a job outside to live.

“Our federation, I think, grew up with us. It was a bumpy road, of course, but I think they realized the importance of women and supported them.

“The game has evolved a lot. And it’s very important for young women and girls to know that there is an opportunity for them.”

Another push further down the pyramid, with the ’99 World Cup seeing the historic uptake of the sport by women and girls at lower levels.

The US college system is well equipped to catch this influx of participants, thanks to Title IX legislation: a law that guarantees equal access for women to sports facilities and programs at government-funded universities.

Nearly all US women’s national team players past and present — Overbeck included — emerged through this development system, creating a second “golden generation” that won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019.

“Title IX is huge,” Overbeck said. “Even before the ’99ers, what women went through to be able to play. All that adds to what we have.

“We are Title IX babies because of all the things that were given to us, because of all the women who worked so hard before we came.

“They’ve made great strides since I’ve played, and what the women are getting now in terms of money and support is incredible.”

Australia and New Zealand can learn a lot from the impact hosting the Women’s World Cup on football in the United States.

While it is already one of the largest participatory sports in the country, football is struggling to cement itself as the dominant code in the multi-sport landscape of the United States. Professional leagues, development lines, mainstream media coverage, and public lines constantly lag behind the “bigger” or more entrenched code.

However, leveraging the enthusiasm and investment of the 1999 tournament, channeling funds to create new competitions, youth national team programmes, community and grassroots facilities, professional opportunities and growing the mainstream profile of its athletes, women’s football in the US has thrived.

The legacy of the 1999 Women’s World Cup can still be felt through generations of inspired players.(Getty Images: Quality Sports Images)

“The US is behind Europe and all these other countries and has to compete with basketball, American football, baseball,” Overbeck said.

“But, for women to win the 1999 World Cup, it was incredible. The interest and support that women and girls got after the World Cup is over very monumental.”

Football Australia and the Women’s World Cup 2023 team are counting on him.

As part of Wednesday’s One Year To Go event, organizers announced an initiative entitled “Unity Pitch”, which symbolizes FIFA’s ongoing multimillion-dollar investment into much-needed facilities – such as an upgraded training site, community pitch and inclusive dressing rooms. — to capture the expected triple increase in post-2023 enrollment.

FIFA and the Women’s World Cup 2023 team this week launched the “Unity Pitch”, which aims to increase investment into football facilities across Australia and New Zealand.(ABC: Adriane Reardon)

Football Australia has secured $230 million in funding from state and federal governments as part of the “Legacy ’23” programme, where facilities – as well as leadership, tourism and participation – are key pillars.

Australia’s top women’s competition — A-League Women — has begun to expand its season and add more teams to full-time professionalism, while media coverage and public engagement with women’s football continues to grow, thanks to the growing profile of Matildas and the ebb and flow of the women’s sport. large.

The women’s game was light years out of the way when players like Overbeck, Wen, Salisbury and Sissi played. It has proven to be able to fill stadiums, attract billions of television viewers, attract bespoke sponsors, and penetrate mainstream consciousness.

With all the right pieces in place exactly one year from now, imagine how far that could go.

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