It was hard not to miss the four former US Women’s National Team players who traveled to Cary, North Carolina to support the Santa Clara University women’s soccer team as it won its first National Championship in over twenty years.
During seemingly every break in the action, ESPN’s national broadcast would focus on the foursome of Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborn, Danielle Slaton, and Ali Wagner in the stands cheering their alma mater as it once again reached for the mountaintop in women’s college soccer.
Brandi Chastain was the first of the group to play for the Santa Clara Broncos from 1989-90. After that, she became an essential part of the US Women’s National Team for sixteen years, earning 192 caps and scoring the decisive penalty kick to win the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She currently coaches at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose.
Danielle Slaton, Leslie Osborne, and Aly Wagner were integral parts of the golden age of Santa Clara University soccer around the turn of the century. All three played for the school when they won their first women’s soccer title in 2001.
Slaton, Osborne, and Wagner have high-profile jobs working as television game analysts for soccer games. Osborne has called many US Women’s National Team games and is a studio analyst for FOX Sports, Slaton features on San Jose Earthquakes broadcasts, and Wagner became the first female sports announcer in the United States to call a men’s FIFA World Cup game in 2018 and works for CBS Sports covering the NWSL.
Recently I interviewed all four about Santa Clara’s championship, the state of women’s collegiate soccer, and why there is no NWSL team in the Bay Area—and how that might change in the future.
Q: Congratulations on Santa Clara’s NCAA title. What did it mean for you to have your alma mater win the championship for the first time in 20 years?
DANIELLE SLATON: It was a blast obviously to see the team win and hoist the trophy, but it was also really fun to reconnect with a lot of teammates and alumnus across all decades and spectrums. It was a whirlwind 36 hours, but it was the best 36 hours for sure.
LESLIE OSBORNE: Everyone kind of wanted to go, but you just need one person to purchase a ticket and then everyone was in. I took the redeye flight with Aly Wagner, Danielle Slaton and Brandi Chastain, and we met a bunch of our other alumni in Cary the next morning.
It had been a long time since we got back to a final four since my senior year, which was 2004. We felt as if this was a huge moment for our alma mater. We’re still a very close family out here.
ALY WAGNER: It was amazing to be there. When I go to games now, I’m always working. I always have to temper my emotions, and I can’t be biased. I can’t get as emotionally invested in games as I would as a fan. Just to go to a game as a fan and watch these women grind out the victory and do something that they were probably the ones going into the tournament that thought they would accomplish was spectacular.
BRANDI CHASTAIN: We’re in it to help these young people the best version of themselves. If we do our jobs right as coaches, then we have a chance to put together teams that are really successful. What’s really impressive is that Jerry [Smith, the Santa Clara women’s soccer head coach] has been doing this for 34 years. To have two national championships 20 years apart … is not easy to do with the amount of teams and coaches that are out there talking about this and preparing for this.
WAGNER: There was the belief that people that knew that Santa Clara could pull it off. Because of the weapons they had with the likes of Kelsey Turnbow, the freshman Izzy (D’Aquila), Alex Loera holding down the fort in the back. They had some special pieces. It wasn’t a Leicester City winning the Premier League. This group always believed cause they knew they had some special qualities.
Q: How would you compare this year’s championship team versus the 2001 championship side?
OSBORNE: What I loved about this Santa Clara team is they just found a way to get it done. It wasn’t pretty at times, but they were scrappy. Tactically they had to figure it out and have that never die attitude which we had back in 2001.
WAGNER: The game has changed so much since we played. We had a very special talented group. Even in the years [Santa Clara] didn’t win, like in 1999, we had an amazing team. I think that was one of the greatest teams in women’s college soccer history.
SLATON: I think back. It was 20 years ago. Our biggest hurdle back then was winning a semi-final match. We could make it to the final four but never make it to the final. Getting to the final with such a huge weight off of our shoulders. To take that final step was just icing on the cake.
Q: What does the national championship mean for Santa Clara?
OSBORNE: For Santa Clara, it’s huge. It’s massive. We are a mid-major school. People know about Santa Clara because of our women’s soccer team. That help put us on the map early on.
There is a strong freshman class coming in this fall. You’re going to see the potential and opportunity that Santa Clara has to build off of what they just did. This isn’t going to be a one-off championship. This could be something huge. We’ve missed that for a long time.
CHASTAIN: I think that there is a traditional foundation built over 34 years of coaching that allows the players to believe that they come to Santa Clara for a great education and a great opportunity on the field. If they’re diligent enough and determined, a national championship is within their reach. What this year exemplified was a true triumph.
SLATON: I still think it’s an uphill battle for schools like Santa Clara. You saw five to seven years ago the realignment of all of these conferences and the Power 5 conferences shifting and consolidating. It felt at the time that the rich are getting richer, and the big schools are pooling their resources. So schools like Santa Clara, like Portland, who have won national championships 20 years ago, are still going to have the challenges that a lot of mid-majors have in keeping up with the Joneses. I think the fact that Santa Clara did win this year proves that it is possible. It proves that what we helped start twenty years ago wasn’t just a blip on the radar.
WAGNER: The reason I went to Santa Clara was Jerry. If you have a coach that is going to help players develop so they can go turn professional and may make the national team one day, that drawing card is weighed heavily with a lot of young players. So that is one of the things that Santa Clara has going for it. But it was incredibly important for Santa Clara to step up and recognize that they have to have first-class training facilities. They’ve got to treat these players the way other universities are. These perks have to be there because the reality is those other universities are doing that. I love it, but this is a spoiled generation with the way they are treated as collegiate athletes. Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve wanted the exact same thing, and that’s the reality of the expectation of these players coming out of high school now.
Santa Clara is saying we have one of the best women’s programs in the game, and let’s throw our resources behind that and not rely on a big football team or basketball team. I like that they are embracing and getting fully behind it to stay up at the top.
Q: How do you think the women’s college game has changed in the last 20 years?
SLATON: Oh my gosh, they’re so much better than us, no question at all. The game is faster, more sophisticated. There are so much more technology and video resources and sports science and performance and nutrition. All of that is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was 20 years ago. The soccer is better.
WAGNER: It’s much more tactical. The way they are teaching these players is layered deeper. A lot of coaches back then were not interested in possession or not interested in playing through the midfield. We were, so I think that Jerry was kind of ahead of the curve I think in the term of the style and the artistry he wanted his players to play with. Overall, in every position, players are more technical.
CHASTAIN: You have the pick of a litter that is more populated than ever. Soccer is not anonymous anymore. It’s not the outlier sport it used to be. It’s the premier sport. The athleticism and pace of the game have obviously improved from top to bottom. There will always be debate about the great teams of one era playing the great teams from another, and that’s for great banter. I think they would be close games. I don’t think it’s an X’s and O’s game it’s more of a population.
Q: Why is the Bay Area such a hotbed for women’s college soccer?
OSBORNE: There are so many amazing club teams, developmental academies where kids are being brought up in these competitive environments by great coaches. That’s just breeding a strong women’s soccer culture.
You look at those three schools [Stanford, Santa Clara and UC Berkeley] up here and what was producing, both as soccer players and as students, it’s a very attractive place. There are a lot of amazing players that have Bay Area roots, and that’s not a coincidence.”
WAGNER: I think it’s the best [region] in the country without a doubt. In terms of the players that we have here that are homegrown, that have gone on to play a high level professionally, gone on to the national team. I think it’s got to be probably the highest numbers with our US squad, just the natural talent that’s in the Bay Area. I would even argue that we have so much untapped talent here too, because of the pay-to-play structure. There are so many players that if we give them the opportunity are going to be special talents.
A lot of colleges [elsewhere in the USA] don’t get many fans. But Stanford is always packed. Santa Clara, with a brilliant new stadium, is getting the amount of fans that some of the NWSL teams were getting maybe two years ago. I think that says a lot about the support of the game here.
SLATON: I think it’s a little bit of everything. I think it’s history. You look at that woman’s soccer players from 10, 20, 30 years ago and even before my time. You look at Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, players who have come out of this area and developed their game here. If you put history along with investment in the youth space in terms of coaching and teaching young girls about the game of soccer. You put a little bit of weather on top of that in the fact that we can play outside on a good field and good surfaces. You just continue to build on that culture.
CHASTAIN: It makes an emphatic statement that we have a great environment for great soccer to happen. It’s not just importing great players. If great players exist right here in our backyard we have great coaching and knowledgeable fans. We expect great soccer to be played.
Q: With the college soccer game so popular here, why is there no professional NWSL team in the San Francisco Bay Area?
CHASTAIN: I think everything comes down to people, let’s be honest. People and resources. If you have the right people with the right money, you can do pretty much anything. I think stability for an entity like the league has to be part of their decision-making process. You don’t want to go into anything unstable and then have it fall apart. I’m sure there is due diligence from the league of standards and how the standards are being met. Make sure that we don’t just jump into anything with the passion we all have, which is unwavering and make sure that it’s right. I think that takes time.
OSBORNE: There needs to be a team up here in the Bay Area. There is an appetite for it. There is a built-in culture, a built-in audience.
I think the opportunity here is massive. There is an appetite and a special unique feel to the Bay Area with so many successful companies and startups. We just have to tap into it more.
SLATON: The fact that California and the Bay Area is such a hotbed to me is a signal that this place needs to continue to build the pipeline of women’s soccer that will include a women’s professional team. At the youth level and collegiate level, we continually have women’s national team players that are honing their game and craft here. It’s an important next step, and hopefully it’s going to happen.
The NWSL is here to stay. The women’s game is growing globally. We see the rising tide of women’s soccer. We see it not only as fans, but we’re now starting to see sponsors and investors see the value that woman soccer can bring to communities, can bring to brands. It’s a growing market. At some point, it’s a no-brainer that there needs to be an NWSL team in the Bay Area.
WAGNER: I do think that women’s soccer needs a professional team here. I think in the past, the NWSL was being cautious in growth, and rightfully so, to make sure the league was sustainable. The Bay Area wasn’t one of the areas in, and it becomes a little more challenging to get in. But overall, there is an appetite for women’s professional soccer here. The first place the USWNT wants to come play is because they sell out PayPal Park. It’s the number one venue for the team when they travel, pre-COVID, of course. There’s a lot of support for it. There is a lot of demand for it, so it’s just a matter of time.
Q: Why is it important for professional women’s soccer to continue to grow in the NWSL as well as worldwide?
CHASTAIN: One thing I remember about [playing for] the CyberRays and Gold Pride was the influence you can have on a community of people who just need to see it to believe it. When that happens, the transformation that exists.
I’ve had countless interactions with young girls that are now going to college. They shared a picture of us when they were eight and that their love for soccer was born from being able to go to a CyberRays game or a Gold Pride game. It spurred them on to work hard in their academic life that they could go and play collegiate soccer. Now some of them are playing professional soccer.
I think about the fact that my dad, who I absolutely love, did his best as my coach for eight of my most impressionable years. He didn’t know anything about soccer. Just imagine if I had a women’s professional team around that, I could’ve seen every day, be part of an academy, or part of an organized league where girls were getting coached. It makes me smile to think, wow, I accomplished a lot with the little resources we had. I think it was four books and one VHS tape from the library.
SLATON: I grew up in East San Jose and when I started playing soccer, I played with the boys’ team. You didn’t have a five-year-old girl’s team.
I think we still have challenges of access. Soccer is a middle-upper-class suburban sport, and we have a wide spectrum of folks in the Bay Area where girls still don’t have access. Girls still don’t have “play equity” and the ability to get out on the field that needs to be. We talk about the play to pay system and all that is wrong with, and the Bay Area falls into that as well.
OSBORNE: I have three little girls ages one, three, and four and would love to take them to games, meet the players and show them that anything is possible. They could play professional soccer one day if they would like and they won’t have to work two jobs. That, for me, is a dream of mine. It’s always been a personal dream of mine to be able to be an owner and be involved with a women’s professional soccer team.
WAGNER: I think it’s a confluence of factors. The quality is by far the best I’ve seen in the league in years and years and years. I would be the first to say that I didn’t think the quality was that good in previous iterations of the league. Now you see that they are able to keep these players around because they are able to make a living doing it, even if it’s not yet where it should be. You do not see the turnover, and the quality is getting better. It’s more competitive.
CHASTAIN: At the end of the day, it’s money. What FIFA learned in ’99 we filled 90,000 plus stadiums seat and 75,000 seat stadiums during group games. We had full stadiums come to watch Denmark play China, a non-U.S. game. They’ve been a slow-turning ship, but they understand that women’s soccer has the potential. It will be about money. That’s the big fight we have on the women’s side right now. The resources being spent in a way that is helpful for programming that is not only at the elite level but trickles down to the grassroots.
Money is always going to be a factor. When you have resources, you should spend them in ways that make a difference. That’s what I love about women’s soccer. Women’s soccer makes a difference.
WAGNER: I’m just jealous that I’m as old as I am. I would’ve loved to had played in these leagues and play for a lot of these managers in the professional game. I played in France for Olympique Lyonnais when they started to bring internationals over. What the environment we faced there and what the players are experiencing today are two different worlds.
It’s starting to get to that level we all dreamed of, but its not even close to where it’s going to be or where it needs to be.
For a very long time, NWSL feared what’s happening abroad. But not you seeing the support in these massive clubs shifting towards the women’s game. My opinion is all boats rise together. It feels like not only are the players getting better training environments. It’s forcing the NWSL to step up and compete. The same way we were talking about the evolution of Santa Clara having to invest in drawing talent in that is what these leagues are having to do. It’s just great for the game.
Q: Finally, any thoughts on the U.S. Women’s National Team and their chances to win gold in the Olympics?
CHASTAIN: I’m super biased. I believe in what we’ve created. The fundamental mentality of the USWNT has always been about finding ways to win and being the most competitive. That’s very hard to beat when you are a team walking on the field against a team that already thinks they are going to win. I’m a pro-USA fan. I would like to see us play a more controlled style, but that’s my preference. We’ll see.
SLATON: In my mind, I think the women’s national team is the favorites to win the gold medal. But I also know that tournaments are tricky. You have to continue to improve over the course of the tournament. The Olympics are especially difficult because the roster is limited, with only 18 players. Games are really tight; you’re playing games every three days. You’ve got to be good, but you’ve also got to be a little bit lucky.
CHASTAIN: My last comment: Go Broncos!
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