Read more
Informationen zum Autor Gina Shaw; Illustrated by Ted Hammond Klappentext "The first international women's soccer match was in 1881, but the Women's World Cup didn't become official until 1991--110 years later. Read about the courageous, soccer-loving women who worked hard to have a World Cup of their own in this addition to the Who HQ series. Young readers will learn about the history of women's soccer, star players, and iconic wins"-- Leseprobe What is the Women’s World Cup? On July 5, 2015, more than fifty thousand soccer fans were just settling into their seats at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. They were there to watch the final game of the Women’s World Cup. It was Japan vs. the United States. These same teams had played in the final in 2011, and now they were playing again four years later. In 2011, Japan had beaten the United States. Would they be able to repeat the victory? If you didn’t arrive on time to the game, this is what you would have missed. In the third minute, Carli Lloyd, the captain of Team USA, rushed down the pitch (the playing field) and directed a well-placed corner kick from Megan Rapinoe into the net. A corner kick is a free kick from the corner of the pitch. This goal was the fastest one ever made in a Women’s World Cup final. The score, United States 1–Japan 0. Next, US team member Lauren Holiday took a penalty kick. (This happens when the other team has broken a rule.) At first, Japan’s defenders kept the ball from going in. But they bungled it in front of the goal. Lloyd slipped into the confusion and gently tapped the ball into the net. Only five minutes into the game Carli Lloyd had scored the second goal! The score was now United States 2–Japan 0. A goal by Holiday fourteen minutes in made it 30. And just when the spectators thought they could take a moment to catch their breath, Carli Lloyd did it again! At midfield, she pounded her foot against the ball as hard as she could. That sent it soaring halfway across the length of the pitch. The crowd went wild! It was an astonishing goal. It gave Carli Lloyd the first hat trick (three goals made by the same player in a single game) in the final of a Women’s World Cup. The score: United States 4–Japan 0. Team USA scored one more goal. Despite Japan getting two goals, the final score was 52. Team USA won! Lloyd was named Player of the Match. It was an unforgettable Women’s World Cup! In 1999, the Women’s World Cup was played in the United States for the first time. Since then, women’s soccer has become incredibly popular in this country among kids and teens. There are more than three million soccer players in the United States between the ages of five and nineteen, and about 1.4 million of them are female. Chapter 1: First, a Bit of History Soccer, or football as it is called in many countries including England, is the most popular sport around the world. It has a very long history. It can be traced back more than two thousand years to Asia, the Americas, and Europe. But the modern-day version of the game began in England. There, in 1863, the Football Association (FA) was formed. It set rules for the game. These include forbidding tripping opponents or touching the ball with the hands. At first, football was entertainment for the British working class. By the late nineteenth century as many as thirty thousand people would come to watch the big matches. As the popularity of the sport grew, women wanted to play. They wanted to create women’s teams and leagues. Would they be allowed to do this? The Football Association would not get involved. They had set the rules for men’s games only. In the late 1800s, women didn’t have the same rights as men. They were expected to be proper and ladylike and stay at home to care for their families. They were not supposed to be running around a...
