The 1984 Dallas Sting: Starting the US Soccer Legacy

The 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup is just around the corner. The USWNT will face off against the rest of the world, fighting for their fifth World Cup title. Odds are you know all about the 1991 team and their inaugural gold medal, but what if I told you there was a team before this one that made FIFA waves? Let me introduce you to the Dallas Sting. 

The Inception of the Team

This club was founded in 1973 as the nation’s first all-girls soccer club. The club was initially made up of elite high school players who had played for the newly developed High School Girls Soccer League in Dallas. Under founder Bill Kinder and promoter Lamar Hunt, this team went on to be a team of firsts.

The Sting was the first girls’ team to travel outside the US for a tournament, to play in Europe, and represented the states in the first triennial global invitational tournament for national and club teams. The Sting grew so much throughout the 70s that by 1979, they had teams at every level, U11-U19. 

Finding Success

The 80s was more of the same for The Sting. The U-19 team won the first-ever Women’s United States Youth Soccer Association tournament. With 400 wins at the beginning of the 80s, this same program tore through the rest of the decade, racking up five more U-19 national titles. 

But the real story we’re getting at here is how The Sting became the first US women’s team to play in a FIFA tournament. This was not a FIFA World Cup but the predecessor to that tournament. In 1984, The Sting went to Xi’an, China, to take part in this historic event. This team that had dominated stateside was now up against the best teams in the world. They had a point to prove.

The Sting advanced to the finals after coming out on top over Japan, Australia, and the host nation China. After defeating Italy in the final, The Sting went from being the first U.S. women’s team to play in a FIFA tournament to the first US to win a major international and FIFA title, period. A record that still holds today. In this tournament, this team started a shockwave of success through women’s soccer programs in the US. 

Starting the U.S. Soccer Legacy

And they didn’t stop there. The Sting went on to not only win the Norway Cup, the biggest youth tournament in the world but be selected as the Team of the Tournament. Two Sting players were present at the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Although a total of four were selected for the roster. Carla Overbeck and Tracey Leone went from groundbreaking FIFA champions with Dallas Sting to first-time World Cup gold winners with the USWNT. 

 With the biggest tournament in the world just around the corner, it’s important to look back on the legacy of this sport in this country. Nearly 40 years after the Dallas Sting made their mark on the international stage, the USWNT will fight to do something else that has never been done before—by a men’s or a women’s team—and go for that fifth star. May the spirit of the Dallas Sting be with our squad this summer! 

Featured image via @StingSoccerClub on Twitter

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