Before every game, the USA women’s team form a tight huddle and issue the rallying cry “oosa, oosa, oosa-ah!” As well as being an attempt to inspire the players before they take to the field, the chant serves as a unique bond between the stars of today and the pioneers who played in the Americans’ first-ever match, which took place 40 years ago today.
Long before women’s football had its own FIFA Women’s World Cup™ or was part of the Olympic movement, the major international tournament of the 1980s was the International Ladies Football Festival, which was better known as the ‘Mundialito’ (or Little World Cup), in Jesolo, Italy.
Having travelled with hand-me-down men’s jerseys and emergency passports, USA participated in the tournament for the first time in 1985, with their inaugural international match taking place against Italy on 18 August. Even though the USA lost that game 1-0 — and failed to register a victory in the competition — the ’85ers’, as they are known, showed a competitive spirit that has formed the bedrock of the hugely-dominant women’s program.
Indeed, just six years later a team that included Michelle Akers, who took part in the 1985 ‘Mundialito’, won the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in China.
In Jesolo, the USA players heard the cry “Oosa” from the fans. At first, they thought they were being booed, but then came to realise that the supporters were cheering for the USA in their own accents. Now the team has made the rallying cry its own and a powerful symbol of how far they have come as a collective.
With eight of the 1985 team hailing from the Seattle area, the team are celebrating tonight in the first ‘Queen’s Match’ which coincides with the National Women’s Soccer League game between the Seattle Reign and Chicago Stars.
Ahead of the festivities, Akers spoke to FIFA about being selected for the Mundialito, scoring the USA’s first-ever goal and the enduring impact the 85ers have to this day.
Michelle Akers: Forty years ago today was the beginning of the most dominating (women’s) national team on the planet. These 17 players, me being one of them, got to be the first players that began it all. It’s incredibly special and what we’ve been able to put together for this anniversary in Seattle in collaboration with the Seattle Reign and other partners like adidas has been even more emotional and more powerful for this team.
The 85ers have started our own business. It’s the first 17-player owned business ever and we are doing events, story-telling and merch to tell the story of the 85ers in the present but also bring it to the future as well. We partnered with adidas to put together a podcast to tell the story of the 85 team which hasn’t been told yet. Tonight is the first Queen’s Match, which will be held to honor the first US national team because eight players from Seattle were on that team. We will be honoured there, will have our merch at the stadium and there will be fireside interviews and chats. It’s going to be a huge celebration.
The selection process was the Olympic Sports Festival which was in the summer before we went to Italy. The national coach Mike Ryan, who was also a coach in the Seattle area, was selected as the first coach and he chose a pool of players who went to New York for a training camp and then the 17 players were chosen to play in Italy at the Mundialito.
We wore men’s uniforms and we had $10 a day per diem. I was 18 years old and there was no past to refer to in terms of how a national team should do things. Going there, there wasn’t a lot of expectations and we had to go and create the legacy of what would be the US women’s national team by sowing patches on our own uniforms that were given to us by the men’s side.
He coached the University of Washington men’s team and then he coached a lot of youth teams here. Then he moved into the women’s side. I was playing on youth teams against his women’s teams and he was a yeller! He was super-intense but he got it. He was an Irishman and he knew what it was like to play for a national team, the honour and what it required. So when we were over there, he made sure we knew what it meant to play for our country.
Yes, of course it did. Who wants to sit out, you are there to play. I had an ankle sprain so I sat out. I was given a camera and I took some of the first pictures of the team in that first game!
I was just in the moment of trying to win the game. That was interesting too because Emily Pickering assisted me on that first goal so she had the first assist and I had the first goal. And then a few minutes later, I passed her the ball and she scored so she got the second goal and I got the second assist.
Mike Ryan was the first coach then we had Anson Dorrance who had this vision that we would be the best team in the world… and he said that to us without a World Cup. That was our goal and part of his gift was choosing players whose mentality was never-say-die and we would do whatever it takes to win. That mentality was part of the 85 team. Also he was a great coach and his tactic was to play the style to fit the personality of the players we had. We weren’t necessarily the most skilled in all the games all of the time but we definitely wanted it more.
Our thing was we were going to score more goals than you and we had an incredible attacking line. Our team was incredibly tight and that has been maintained in the national team culture today, especially with Emma Hayes coming on. That is part of the reason why we won that first World Cup.
It means a lot. I said it for 15 years before every game and for it to remain part of the DNA of the US women’s national team is incredibly special. We started that… that was our cheer that continues to this day. That is an incredible contribution and legacy towards the team.
Picture credit: Michelle Akers
