The next three penalties were scored, so it all came down to the hosts’ final kick.
It would be 30-year-old Chastain, previously dropped for the 1995 World Cup, to take the decisive penalty. The left-back, originally the sixth penalty taker, remembers the nerves setting in after being bumped to fifth by head coach Tony DiCicco and instructed to take the final kick of the game with her left foot.
Chastain is right footed.
“I’d never taken a penalty with my left foot in a game before, and certainly not in a World Cup final, and certainly not in front of 90,000 people,” she said.
She stepped up to the line and placed the ball on the penalty spot.
“I took a deep breath and waited for the whistle, and as Tony told me, I took it with my left foot.”
Chastain, who went on to win 192 caps for her country, struck the ball emphatically past China goalkeeper Gao Hong. The stadium erupted, and the USA became World Cup winners.
On the other side of the net, photographer Beck was in position. “Brandi makes the kick and I’m in a cocoon,” he says. “It just goes crazy – you could probably hear it in the UK – the sound of 90,000 people cheering and going crazy.”
Chastain ripped off her shirt, her sports bra on show, and dropped to her knees screaming as her team-mates ran towards her.
