`This is my game, this is my future, watch me play,' has been the catchline in the marketing campaign for the women's World Cup in America. And as the United States and China prepare for the final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena tomorrow, it is clear the instruction has been followed.
Record crowds have flocked to the games across the country and countless girls from Palo Alto, California to Foxboro, Massachussets where the two semis were played on Sunday must be thinking that yes, soccer could well be their game and their future.
The women's World Cup has captured the public imagination in America to such an extent that photos of post-goal celebrations feature regularly on the front pages of the daily papers; spectacular goals from the competition edge the baseball and basketball highlights out of the Play of the Day features on television; and the smiling faces of American stars like Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Julie Foudy seem to gaze off every billboard.
The great lift that American soccer hoped for after hosting the 1994 (men's) World Cup never quite materialised, and when the national team lost humiliatingly to Iran in France last year, there was a recognition that the United States was still far from the world's first division. This time it's different.
The US women started as favourites and the crowds have been spectacular. Nearly 80,000 saw the opening game between the US and Denmark at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey on June 19th 65,000 saw the United States defeat Nigeria 7-1 in Chicago and a further 50,000 saw them dispatch North Korea. After their 2-0 victory over a weary Brazil and China's 5-0 demolition of Norway, the stage is set for a thrilling showdown tomorrow.
The standard of the games has been high, although there is still too great a disparity between the more accomplished sides - the US, Norway, China, Russia, Brazil and Germany - and some of the less experienced and physically resilient teams: Ghana, Canada and Mexico all conceded seven goals in first-round games.
The games have also been considerably cleaner than the men's World Cup, although both Nigeria and Ghana have been criticised for their physical football. The US coach withdrew Hamm in the game against Nigeria because he did not like the tackles going in on her from the opposition, but in general the spirit has been good with many of the visiting teams clearly awed by the massive partisan attendances at the games.
It is a tribute to the way the women's game has been nurtured in the US, where female players make up 41 per cent of the total, compared to two per cent in Britain. More significantly, an incredible 7.9 million girls between the ages of six and 11 play soccer in the US, second only to basketball (9.7 million) in that age group. The English team must be watching with mixed emotions: delight that the women's game is taking off so spectacularly, disappointed that they are not at the party.
There are fears that once the cup is over, the game may not quite have the impetus to reach the full professional potential of basketball or tennis, but for the time being any lingering doubts are obscured by the pleasures of the moment.
Like the beautiful dipping goal scored by Shannon MacMillan against North Korea after she had come off the subs' bench - or, as the New York Times's Jere Longman put it: "She came out of the bullpen subs' bench with her sledgehammer knuckleball." Or China's delicate quick-passing destruction of Australia, which had the Australian coach Greg Brown tipping them for the cup. Or the glorious goals scored by Brazil's Sissi to beat Italy in front of 65,000 in Chicago. Or the dominance of Norway's Ann Kristin Aarones, a member of the World Cup winning team in Sweden in 1995, in the 7-1 defeat of Canada.
Although neither of the semis were real thrillers, the last two quarter-finals, in which the US came from behind to beat Germany 3-2 and Brazil needed a scorching Sissi free-kick to beat Nigeria 4-3 in a sudden-death play-off, decidedly were.
Marla Messing, the president of the organising committee, said on the eve of the semis: "We have always believed in the potential of this tournament to be very successful but we are frankly in awe of what has happened."
