World Cup Was A Hit With Players And Fans As Well

PASADENA, Calif. — They liked the bus rides the best. The members of the world champion U.S. women's national soccer team loved those police-escorted rides to the stadiums; they loved seeing the traffic choked up because of them. They loved seeing thousands of people of all ages with their hair dyed in patriotic colors and faces painted, wearing red, white and blue bandanas, headbands and T-shirts, waving flags of all sizes, and going crazy as soon as they saw the bus.

The players always got out of their seats to check the scene. They never got tired of it.

ABC-TV estimated that 40 million viewers watched the final game, making the U.S. victory over China in a shoot-out the most-watched soccer game played by men or women in U.S. history, beating out last summer's World Cup games as well as the 1994 World Cup games.

"You don't see these numbers unless you're watching the NFL," ABC spokesman Mark Mandel said after the overnight ratings suggested that 32 percent of the televisions in use at the time were tuned to the game. "If this event were on a Sunday afternoon, these numbers would be through the roof."

They could have been, but ABC chose to go with the final round of the Greater Milwaukee Open golf tournament yesterday instead. ABC officials weren't the only ones who didn't see how much momentum this tournament would create, though. FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, originally wanted to hold this tournament in small college stadiums. The last Women's World Cup in Sweden in 1995 drew just 112,000 for the entire event.

This time, an average of 67,903 fans showed up for U.S. games, with an average attendance of 36,132 for all the games.

"We have to admit we never thought it would be this successful," said Keith Cooper, director of communications for FIFA.

Here's a look back at what probably will be remembered as a seminal event in the history of women's athletics:

The most valuable player. U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry was an easy choice. If Brazil and the United States had traded goalkeepers for their semifinal, with everything else in that game staying the same, the U.S. team would have lost. Scurry's veteran savvy in the final, knowing the referee wouldn't nail her for stepping off her line, was a key to the penalty-kick victory. Scurry knew she could move laterally but took a chance by stepping forward.

Toughest luck. China never trailed in the World Cup, yet didn't win it.