National Sports Center Blog

Women's World Cup brings memories of past big games at NSC

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

No, I haven't been getting up at 3:00 am to watch the Women's World Cup live from China. But I have been setting my DVR to record all the games and my first stop, upon waking at the more civilized hour of 7:00 am, is to turn on my TV and check on the progress of whatever games are on.

It's been fun to see so many old friends on the screen. All right, in the interests of honest disclosure they probably wouldn't remember me and I've never gone beer drinking with them, so they're not really friends. We'll call them players I've interviewed, or stood nearby while other reporters interviewed them.

Just this morning I was watching Canadian stars Christine Sinclair and Erin McLeod, both of whom I interviewed when Canada played Sweden during Schwan's USA CUP in 2006. Yesterday I watched Sweden tying Nigeria, and there, bigger than life were Victoria Svensson and Sara Thunebro, who played for Sweden that year, when the Swedes lost two tough games at the NSC to the U.S. and Canada.

Left: Abby Wambach fights a Swedish player for possession during a Women's National Team game in the NSC Stadium in 2006. Right: Julie Foudy played for the U.S. team at the NSC three times (2001, 2002 and 2004) and in 2006 came as an ESPN color commentator. She's working in the same role on ESPN's World Cup coverage.

And of course the U.S. Women's National Team has a stellar history of games at the NSC. Mia Hamm scored her 150th international goal here in a 3-0 victory over Australia in 2004. Last year, Kristine Lilly scored with seconds left in the game as the U.S. dramatically beat Sweden 3-2. Julie Foudy, who last visited the NSC as an ESPN commentator, recalled the 2002 game when Norway "died in the heat" and the U.S. recorded a 3-0 win. In 2001, 15,615 fans, still an NSC stadium record, watched the U.S. beat Canada 1-0. That was also the first year that Women's National Team games at the NSC were broadcast live on ESPN. Now it's commonplace.

   

Above: The above photo shows Minnesota's own Brianna Scurry in goal against Canada in 2001 when 15,615 fans set an NSC stadium record. 

I looked through our records, and here is a list of Women's National Team game appearances at the NSC since we opened in 1990: USA: 1990, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006; Germany (then West Germany): 1990; England: 1990; Soviet Union: 1990; Canada: 2001, 2006; Norway: 2002; Australia: 2004; Sweden: 2006.

I have many more memories of Women's National Team games here, but I thought I'd ask you first. If you've attended any of the games over the years, what do you remember?

Comment back!

Kara Goucher joins the NSC's "Famous People" list

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

At the National Sports Center, we have a thing we call the NSC Famous People Quiz. It's a list of the famous people who have visited and competed at the NSC since we opened in 1990. Names like Pele, George W. Bush, Mia Hamm, Greg LeMond, Freddy Adu and Apolo Ohno are on the list. We use the quiz when we train new interns, with visiting classes and tours, and with new sponsors. It's just a fun way to communicate the tradition of America's greatest amateur sports facility.

We just added a new name to the list. From 1991 to 1995, Kara Wheeler was a star distance runner for Duluth East High School. She won won state track championships at the NSC Stadium in 1993 and 1994 in the 3200 meters. She then went on to run at the University of Colorado, and now lives in Eugene, Ore.

Left: Kara Goucher, seen in a current photo, was a high school star when she ran at the NSC back in early '90's.

On August 25, Wheeler, who now runs under her married name Kara Goucher, finished third in the 10,000 meters at the World Track and Field Championship in Osaka, Japan. It was the first World Championship medal ever for an American woman in the 10,000 meters.

That performance puts Goucher right into the mix for a strong performance in the Beijing Olympics next summer, where she will hopefully run on the U.S. team with another former Minnesota high school star who also raced on the NSC track in the early '90's, Carrie Tollefson. As a member of the 2004 Olympic team in Athens, Tollefson had already earned a spot on our Famous People Quiz.