Brandi Chastain Quotes

I think I'm being conservative when I say there are more people playing soccer in the United States than in 90% of the world's other countries, probably 95%.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

I've seen the growth of this game in this country, the stadiums that were built, the great European players that have come and the great American players who've been created. Americans want to be number one at everything. And they are at baseball, football, basketball. Soccer is growing fast, and I want to be a part of that.

The more people who come from abroad who played soccer and are brought up playing it and watching it, then come over to America and bring what they know and what they play, that's how the sport will grow.

If you want to know whether soccer is big in America, pick a weekend, go to any park in the land, and pay attention. We're there. We've always been.

My wish is that soccer in the U.S. become on the same level like the Premier League, Spanish league, or the Bundesliga.

You can't obviously predict the future, but I am a fan of the United States and soccer over there continues to grow.

I think what we really want to do is to create a real soccer nation. We want to have kids really wanting to play the sport.

I think soccer in America is growing exponentially, and it's just going to keep getting bigger.

I've never had a problem finding a team, a league, or a pickup game. Actually, I'm not sure I want soccer to get bigger. We have so many teams in San Francisco that there aren't enough fields.

I've never met anybody who says they don't like the World Cup. If you're a soccer fan or not, everybody loves watching it, and I think it could be the same for other sports.

In North America, many fans know Cristiano Ronaldo's smirk and can recognize Didier Drogba in a commercial. Maybe they know too much for the good of M.L.S.

Over the last 10-15 years, you've seen soccer finally start to grow at a fast pace, start to get the recognition it deserves, and I think it has to do with all of the people who come to America from foreign countries.

Even all the top players going to Europe to play helps soccer in America, as do all the MLS players like Beckham and all that, they're trying to promote it. At the end of the day it's about getting the younger generation interested at an early age so most of them will move on and play.

I think it's important to make clear, you know, that the problem with American soccer... it isn't talent.

There is simply no better way to generate buzz for soccer in your country than having your team in the World Cup.

The crowd in Atlanta was amazing the last time we played there. They were enthusiastic, engaged in the game and were happy to be there. They are excited about soccer.

The NFL has captured the casual fan.

Kids in Africa start kicking a ball when they are six or seven years old, if not younger. It's like baseball, basketball and football in America. If you're talented, people will find you. That's what happened with soccer. The number of academies has grown rapidly, and people are really into it.

We want the N.W.S.L. to grow. It is growing; it's continuously growing every year. We want it to be sustainable. It's separate in the sense that this is a U.S. Soccer thing, but the idea is to grow soccer in general, and we want to do that any way we can.

Goalkeeping is now at a point where it's a very popular position.

Baseball is the biggest sport in Japan, then soccer, and basketball is... People don't really care about basketball.

I've wanted to be a part of the Premiership for some time, to experience the excitement and the atmosphere.

When I went to Seattle, it was quite a quiet town and we made it the biggest soccer following in America. We didn't have the paparazzi, though, and I needed that at the time.