Brandi Chastain

Brandi Chastain

Chastain in 2003
Personal information
Full name Brandi Denise Chastain
Date of birth (1968-07-21) July 21, 1968
Place of birth San Jose, California, U.S.
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Playing position Defender/Midfielder/Forward
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1986 California Golden Bears
1989–1990 Santa Clara Broncos
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2003 San Jose CyberRays
2009 FC Gold Pride
2010 California Storm
National team‡
1988–2004 United States 192 (30)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 00:56, October 14, 2009 (UTC).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 00:56, October 14, 2009 (UTC)

Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired professional soccer defender and midfielder and a former member of the United States women's national soccer team.

Chastain has played for San Jose CyberRays of the WUSA, FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer, and California Storm of Women's Premier Soccer League. She is best known for her game-winning penalty shootout kick against China in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final and her celebration afterwards. Amongst her many achievements, Chastain has won two Women's World Cup championships, two Olympic gold medals, and an Olympic silver medal. She is married to her former college coach, Jerry Smith, who is still the women's soccer coach at Chastain's alma mater, Santa Clara University.[1] In addition, Chastain works as the a coach for Bellarmine College Preparatory's varsity boys soccer team.

Early playing career

She attended Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California, helping take the team to three section championships. In 1986 Chastain was awarded the Soccer America Freshmen Player Of The Year award at the University of California-Berkeley. Soon after, she underwent reconstructive surgery on both knees which caused her to miss much of the 1987 and 1988 seasons. She transferred to Santa Clara University before the start of the 1989 season, leading them to two Final Four NCAA appearances, 1989 and 1990, before she graduated in 1991.

Chastain first represented her country on June 1, 1988, against Japan. She scored her first of five international goals on April 18, 1991 when she came off the bench as a forward to score five consecutive goals in a 12–0 United States win in a CONCACAF FIFA Women's World Cup qualifier against Mexico. Team USA went on to win the World Cup, staged in China.

After that first World Cup, she played club soccer for one season in Japan in 1993, earning team MVP honors and was the only foreigner to be selected as one of the league's top 11 players.[2]

As a defender, she made the U.S. National team again in 1996 and participated in the 1996 Women's Olympic Football Tournament, helping the Americans win the gold medal, playing every minute of every U.S. game despite a third serious knee injury suffered in the semifinal against Norway.[3] Of her 192 career caps, she played 89 primarily as a defender during but occasionally as a midfielder.[3]

Sports bra episode

On July 10, 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick in the penalty shootout to give the United States the win over China in the final game, Chastain celebrated by spontaneously whipping off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra, her fists clenched, flexing her arms. Removing a jersey in celebration of a goal is so common in men's soccer that it has, at times, been cause for an automatic yellow card caution, according to the Laws of the Game.[4] Photographs of the incident were featured on the covers of Newsweek and Sports Illustrated and the event also landed her on the cover of Time.[3] The image of her celebration has been considered one of the more famous photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory.[5][6]

Chastain's take on the incident was "Momentary insanity, nothing more, nothing less. I wasn't thinking about anything. I thought, 'This is the greatest moment of my life on the soccer field.'"[7]

Professional career

Chastain played on the San Jose CyberRays in the Women's United Soccer Association from its formation in 2001 until its suspension in 2003. She played on the US women's national team until her last game on December 6, 2004.

She appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy! on February 9, 2001, and won with $1. Her charity received $15,000. Host Alex Trebek alluded to the incident when he said, "I hope you win again."

She appeared in the HBO documentary Dare to Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team.

Chastain's book about women's competitive sports is titled It’s Not About the Bra. (ISBN 978-0060765996)

She posed nude except for soccer cleats and a strategically placed soccer ball in the men's magazine Gear.[3] Her appearance in the magazine created a controversy and the issue was brought up as a question at the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1999.

Chastain has been a color commentator on soccer telecasts on two networks. She broadcast for NBC Sports during the 2008[8] and 2012[9] Summer Olympics. Her work with ABC/ESPN has included Major League Soccer matches and being part of a rotation of studio commentators for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.[10]

Chastain was the official spokesperson for Pfizer's (legacy Wyeth) multivitamin product Centrum Ultra.[11]

Chastain is married to Jerry Smith (June 8, 1996 – present) and has son Jaden Chastain Smith, born in June 2006. Jerry Smith's oldest son, Cameron Smith, 25, is in his third year of law school at Santa Clara.[1]

Career statistics

Club career

Team Season League Domestic
League		 Domestic
Playoffs		 Total
Apps Starts Minutes Goals Assists Apps Starts Minutes Goals Assists Apps Starts Minutes Goals Assists
Shiroki F.C. Serena 1993 L. League
Total
Bay Area CyberRays 2001 WUSA
San Jose CyberRays 2002
2003
Total
FC Gold Pride 2009 WPS 10 5 450 0 0 – – – – – 10 5 450 0 0
Total 10 5 450 0 0 – – – – – 10 5 450 0 0
California Storm 2010 WPSL 5 – – 3 5 – – – – – 5 – – 3 5
Career Total – 15 5 450 3 5 – – – – – 15 5 450 3 5

International career

Nation Year International Appearances
Apps Starts Minutes Goals Assists
United States 1988 2 0 87 0 0
1991 13 4 546 7 1
1993 2 0 84 0 1
1996 23 23 1,961 2 7
1997 15 15 1,319 2 2
1998 24 22 1,891 5 4
1999 27 21 2,035 5 5
2000 34 32 2,520 4 3
2001 3 3 250 0 0
2002 15 14 1,061 4 0
2003 14 13 1,080 1 1
2004 20 13 1,149 0 2
Career Total 12 192 160 13,983 30 26

See also

References

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