It is Aug. 11, 1984, a warm Saturday evening, and 101,799 fans pack the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to see France defeat Brazil, 2-0, for the gold medal in Olympic soccer.
It is a decade later, July 17, 1994, and 94,194 fans wend their way down the Arroyo Seco on a hot Sunday afternoon to see Brazil defeat Italy on penalty kicks to win the World Cup.
It is July 10, 1999, and . . . what?
If things go according to plan, the Rose Bowl again will be sold out, this time for the final of the third FIFA Women's World Championship.
Today in New York, eight U.S. stadiums will be announced as venues for the 1999 soccer tournament, with the opening ceremony and game going to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and the final coming to Pasadena.
The other venues: Soldier Field in Chicago, Foxboro Stadium near Boston, Jack Kent Cooke Stadium near Washington, Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Spartan Stadium in San Jose and Civic Stadium in Portland, Ore.
The choice of Pasadena will make the Rose Bowl the first stadium to stage all three title games--the Olympic final, the World Cup final and the Women's World Cup final.
"I think L.A.'s record speaks for itself," said Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. "What we're going for is the soccer hat trick.
"We had the Olympics and put the soccer final in the Rose Bowl and sold it out. We had the World Cup and put the soccer final there and sold it out. And now, with the Women's World Cup, we've put the final there again."
The key to the success of USA '99 will be the performance and exposure of the American team. To that end, the former world champions and reigning Olympic gold medalists will be playing in all but two of the stadiums.
"The U.S. team will open the tournament in New York at Giants Stadium, then they'll go to Chicago and to Boston," said Marla Messing, president and chief executive of the Women's World Cup Organizing Committee. "If they qualify for the quarterfinal round, they play at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Washington, D.C.
"If they qualify for the semifinal round, they'll play at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto. We're hoping they'll be able to play on the Fourth of July in Palo Alto to kind of bring back the [U.S. vs Brazil] experience from 1994."
The 16-nation, 32-game tournament will be played between June 19 and July 10, 1999, with exact dates subject to approval by FIFA, world soccer's governing body.
