The world of women's sports changed forever on July 10, 1999. That was the day the United States soccer team defeated China in a taut penalty-kick shoot-out in the Women's World Cup, triggering the kind of old-fashioned patriotism that sold out the Rose Bowl and brought President Clinton to his feet along with more than 40 million other Americans watching the match on television.In vivid and graceful prose, award-winning New York Times sportswriter Jere Longman brings us The Girls of Summer, an intimate account of the epic final and an inside look at the cultural phenomenon that is U.S. women's soccer. With especially revealing profiles of such superstars as Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Brandi Chastain, and Briana Scurry, Longman illuminates the larger issues surrounding their success--their newfound status as role models, the media's sexualization of the team members, plays' grappling with matters of race, alleged sexual harassment, and equal pay for equal play, as well as the battle to establish an enduring legacy of female participation in the sport.Not since the storied "Miracle on Ice" in 1980, when the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team upset the mighty Soviet Union in the Winter Olympics, has a group of athletes fired America's imagination as did these remarkable champions. The Girls of Summer takes its place as a sporting classic, a definitive work on a team for the ages. Read Less