The Last Year - 1979 - The Best-Ever Year
Greatest Team Ever Claim
Had there been a Women’s Soccer World Cup in the late 1970’s, this youth team from McLean, Virginia would have won it hands down. How can one be so certain? As you will see, this team was without question the best youth team in the world; they then proved they were several notches above the best college teams in the US. Organized adult women’s soccer was virtually non-existent in that era, as were consolidated national teams, which leaves the Grasshoppers as the world's best women's team of the day. A prominent men’s coach of the day said that this team could beat any women’s team on earth, and if they play soccer on Mars, they would beat them as well.
The Team
The Grasshoppers were a McLean Youth Select team that played in the late 1970’s. The term “select” has since given way to the more politically correct term “travel” team. In those days youth teams were identified by year of birth rather than U19, etc. - the Grasshoppers were 1961. Most of the girls lived in McLean or Great Falls and attended Langley High School. There were two from McLean High School and two more from local private schools. Most if not all graduated from high school in 1980. Most but not all were simply high school girls out to have a good time. Only a handful were serious athletes, but all were extremely competitive and the team chemistry was remarkable.
The Season
In their last year together, 1978-79, the Grasshoppers compiled a perhaps never to be equaled record of 53-0-2 (needs verification.) This included their championship in WAGS (Washington Area Girls Soccer) league play, several regional tournaments and the three most prestigious tournaments in the world.
Major Tournaments
WAGS Tournament - The WAGS tournament was relatively new at the time and had not as yet gained its status as the premier girls' tournament in the world. It was however already the most prestigious tournament in the U.S. The Grasshoppers defeated their local league nemesis the Annandale Spirit (needs verification) in the WAGS final.
Robbie International Tournament - The Robbie in Toronto, Canada, was the most prestigious tournament in North America. The Grasshopper's arch-rival at the national level was from Northport, Long Island. An interesting difference between then and now is that frequently, when travel teams attended out-of-town tournaments, they were hosted in the homes of the local teams. The girls from Long Island and the Grasshoppers had exchanged hosting at least twice and thus they had established some warm friendships. They met in the 1978 finals (needs verification)of the Robbie and McLean won.
Gothia Cup - The Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden was the premier tournament in Europe and probably the premier tournament in the world at the time. An excerpt from their web site describes the 1979 tournament: "In 1979, the talk was of "unbeatable records", with 425 teams made up of about 8,000 players from some 40 countries." The Grasshoppers breezed through the international competition, defeating Främmestads IF, of the host country 2-0 in the final. An American team had never won this tournament and would not do so again until 1993.
No other team in history has won all three of these tournaments.
Collegiate Competition
It’s appropriate to ask how winning some “youth” tournaments can make them the greatest women’s team ever. Had these been their only accomplishments one probably could not make this claim. However, at the close of the final season Ted Cook, the team’s original coach and the sponsor/manager throughout their existence arranged for the Grasshoppers to cap their high school club team careers by playing the two best college teams in the country.
Brown University - Brown University fielded the first major college women's soccer team in 1977. In 1979 they had completed an undefeated season and were the reigning Ivy League champion. In those formative years, the Ivy League was probably the strongest women's soccer league. It speaks to the reputation the Grasshoppers had established, that the Ivy League champions would travel several hundred miles after the completion of their regular season to play a high school club team. They did and were probably sorry. The score at half time was 6-0. In an attempt to avoid further embarrassing the guests, Cook swapped many of his offensive and defensive players in the second half, which was somewhat effective in holding down the score. The final score was 8-0.
University of North Carolina - The Grasshopper's ultimate achievement took place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Anson Dorrance was in the first year of the greatest college sports dynasty ever, at the University of North Carolina. The UNC women had won the ACC championship and also completed an undefeated season. They invited the Grasshoppers to Chapel Hill for a two game series. The invitation was undoubtedly a recruiting ploy, which turned out to be successful, as three of the girls went on to play for UNC in the early years of the dynasty.
The McLean girls ended their unbelievable year by dominating UNC in both games by scores of 7-3 and 4-0. Starting in 1981, UNC proceeded to win 17 national championships between 1981 and 2000. In the first 14 championship games, they yielded a total of only 4 goals. In the first 5 of those championship games, the UNC women didn’t surrender a single goal, yet the Grasshoppers scored 11 goals in only two games. The UNC women have lost only six home games in their 26 year history - 1/3 of them to the Grasshoppers.
It speaks well for the integrity of the UNC sports historians that a Google search for the Grasshoppers yields only three hits; One, an ESPN article about the Dorrance dynasty, and two on the official UNC sports website:
North Carolina Women's Soccer Web Site
(Above Article Reprinted from http://mclean.pbwiki.com/1979%20Year%20in%20Review )
