“It was fate that brought us together,” Chastain would say. “It was probably something that never should’ve happened because I was in the wrong place at the right time,” he subsequently revealed. His now iconic shot of Chastain would go on to make the covers of Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and Time. As he made to do so, he was then told to stay put because his attempt to carry his gear elsewhere was proving even more off-putting. Positioning himself behind the goal, Beck was promptly ordered to move because his presence might distract those involved in the shootout. Having spent the entire game located high in the stands, he and his assistant made their way down to the pitch upon learning what would happen if the match remained all-square at the end of extra-time. A specialist in surfing action pictures who did not understand the rules of football, he had only been sent along to the World Cup final as his publication’s third man, tasked with taking shots of the great and the good like Jennifer Lopez and Bill Clinton in the crowd. Terrill/APīehind the goal, the Sports Illustrated photographer Robert Beck was in position by mistake. With the World Cup up for grabs, she begins her run-up and the 90,185 fans present hold their breath.īrandi Chastain fires her surprisingly left-foot penalty past China’s goalkeeper Gao Hong to win the World Cup for the USA. It is why, having seen her team’s goalkeeper, Briana Scurry, save China’s third from Liu Ying, she now knows it is all down to her and her untested left peg. It is also why, after a scoreless draw over 90 minutes and an additional 30 of Golden Goal extra-time, he insisted the defender be named as the fifth penalty taker when she was originally down as sixth. It is why she has been practising with her left following a chat with the USA’s head coach, Tony DiCicco. She begins her run-up, knowing Gao has done her homework and is expecting her to shoot with her right foot. She turns back to face the goal, takes a final couple of paces backwards, another two forward and pauses for a breath. One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, five steps, six. Anxious not to catch the eye of China’s goalkeeper, Gao Hong, who had psyched her out in similar circumstances earlier that year, Chastain turns away and retreats. It’s 10 July, 1999, and in the packed stands a partisan crowd looks on as Brandi Chastain makes the long, lonely walk from the centre-circle, catches the ball casually tossed her way and carefully places it on the penalty spot.
T he Rose Bowl, Pasadena – a virtual cauldron on a typically sweltering Californian summer’s day.
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