Brandi Chastain is most well known for her game-winning penalty that saw the United States win the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Over an impressive career with the USWNT, Chastain contributed to two Women’s World Cup championships, two Olympic gold medals, and a silver medal. Off the pitch, Chastain has worked as a commentator for both ESPN and NBC during major competitions, is currently a volunteer assistant coach at Santa Clara University and is in her 5th year of being an Advisory Board member with the Capital One Cup.
The Capital One Cup is awarded annually to the top men and women’s Division I athletics programs in the country. Programs compete all year to earn points through NCAA championship results and final official coaches’ polls for fall, winter and spring sports. At the end of the spring season, a champion is crowned for both men and women’s programs and a combined $400,000 in student-athlete scholarship money is awarded.
Chastain describes her role with the Capital One Cup as an enthusiastic board member and athlete ambassador in that, having gone to two championship weekends herself, she understands the commitment required to be successful both on and off the field. “I love collegiate sports, I think it is a wonderful opportunity for a young person to learn so many life lessons and get ready for, whether its their professional athletic career or their professional career outside of sports and at it’s core, the Capital One Cup represents what’s good in sports. It celebrates championships and top 10 finishes, but at the same time it recognizes the importance of the academic side.”
The Capital One Cup is an influencing factor in discovering players that otherwise might not have been seen and that this initiative allows for those individuals to use their talents to be successful and contribute to their institution. Chasten specifically mentioned that several current players seen at the national team level today have contributed toward their institutions past Capital One Cup successes when they played at the collegiate level.
With their NCAA Women’s College Cup victory, Florida State earned 60 points towards their 2014-2015 Capital One Cup campaign, which could go a long way in their overall points total. Speaking about the recent College Cup tournament, Chastain seemed impressed with the quality of play not only throughout the tournament, but the entire season itself; noting the increased parity women’s soccer and that having a first time champion is great for the development and longevity of the game.
In addition the college game, another area of development that has grown over the years is the youth national team system. Chastain comes from a generation where players were brought onto the national team at a very young age, where now we are seeing players like Julie Johnston, among others, who have developed in the youth system starting to see more consistent call ups and playing time with the full national team.
Chastain offered some insight to some of the opportunities afforded by the youth national team system noting that, with no disrespect to parents coaching their team as her father did, that soccer has changed for the better. From the days of her and her dad renting videos from the library and learning the game together, players in the youth system have access to very different resources.
“Now these young players have coaches that are much more experienced than my father ever was, but I think it is the quality of time that these kids are spending on the field, not the quantity,” she explained. “I think that sometimes gets lost and when you look at a player like Julie Johnston, since you brought her up, that is a player who valued every moment on the field.”
It is clear that the development of players has grown over the years, but certain aspects of the game itself have changed as well. The USWNT, though still a dominant force in the women’s soccer world, has been challenged more over the last year or so and much has been said about the US game compared to the rest of the world.
According to Chastain, “What the US does now well is what we always did before; which is, we had great attacking players, players that could score multiple goals, players that had the incredible elevated intensity mixed with their sheer desire and mentality to win.”
What has changed in her opinion, is the ability to play make and to maintain possession all over the field. Chastain credits the ability to defend and have seamless transitional moments as factors that are differentiating teams, specifically mentioning Germany and Japan as teams that have been able to do that and have had past and recent success in the World Cup.
The upcoming World Cup should not only further exhibit the growth in women’s soccer over the years, but it will test to see which teams adapt to the various styles of play that have helped teams to be successful in the tournament. The United States was recently drawn into what is being billed as the “Group of Death” with Australia, Sweden and Nigeria, but Chastain touched on the fact that other groups will have a challenging road out of the group stages as well. Brazil and France earned specific mentions as countries who are very solid and talented but are in groups with teams such as South Korea who are very technical and organized and Spain who have been influenced by a men’s side that has produced top quality players and soccer over the years. To sum it up, in word “the whole tournament is challenging.”
There was a lot of discussion after the draw about not only the group that the USWNT was drawn into, but how their trajectory towards the winning the World Cup changes depending on where they finish in the group stage. Chastain’s thoughts on what the US needs to do to be successful in the World Cup?
“Focus on one game at a time. You cannot look beyond your first game; I think it would be a mistake. If you’re thinking about how this tournament is organized and how long it is and the quality of opponent and then think about what happens if, first, second of third place in our group and who we may play. That gets in the way and takes up space you can be using to focus and prepare on each match.”
Image courtesy of Santa Clara
