Golden Farewell for Famous Five

For one gloriously silly, polysyllabic summer in 1999 Ivy League sociologists pondered at length the cultural significance of Brandi Chastain ripping off her shirt to reveal a black sports bra after scoring the penalty that won the World Cup for the United States. One wonders what Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf would have made of Chastain's performance last night as her team beat Brazil 2-1 after extra-time to win the gold medal.

Probably, that the 34-year-old left-back has lost much of the pace that once made her the best defensive player in the women's game; that her team-mate Lindsay Tarpley is a star of the future; and that her far more skilful Brazilian opponents were countered with organisation and grit that in the end ground them into a physical and psychological powder. A headed goal after 112 minutes by one of the US's lesser lights, Abby Wambech, broke a 1-1 deadlock and Brazilian spirits. Until that point the match look destined to be settled by penalty kicks.

Alas for the posse of expectant photographers, Chastain's choice of underwear remained secret. Instead, they had to settle for pictures of the delirious US players piling on top Mia Hamm after the final whistle.

The two teams went into last night's game carrying some residual bitterness from a match in the preliminary round of the tournament. On that occasion the US won 2-0 on the pitch, but off it Brazil's coach Rene Simoes - the man who took Jamaica to the World Cup finals in 1998 -accused the Americans of deliberately trying to injure his players. He promised to meet physicality with physicality but instead his skilful young side chose simply to inflict injuries to their opponent's dignity - at least for the first third of the game.

Much of the early play revolved around Brazilian attackers shimmying past static US defenders. It should have been 2-0 by the 11th minute, as first Rosana and then Elaine - Brazilians favour a single name for their footballers - shot wide when they should have scored. Perhaps they should have attended the same coaching clinics as Tarpley. When she had her chance to shoot, from 25 yards in the 38th minute, she buried it.

That goal shifted the momentum in the US's favour. It remained that way until halfway through the second half when Cristaine shook off three US defenders to squeeze the ball through to Pretinha, who scored.

The Brazilian No9 then had a chance to win the game with three minutes left of regular time but sliced her shot against the post. That miss seemed to crush Brazilian moral and when Wambech headed her side ahead half-way through the second period of extra-time the US were able to coast home to the gold medal.

Besides its billing as a grudge match, last night's game was the swansong for the five women who have constituted a Mount Rushmore of US women's football. Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Hamm and Chastain were all expected to announce their retirement on receipt of their Olympic medal. If so, then their leaving is truly the end of an era.

Between them, the five have been the face of women's football in the US for the past 13 years, forming the backbone of national teams that since 1991 have won two World Cups and, with last night's victory, two Olympic titles. That 1999 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was watched by 40 million US viewers.

Hamm, for reasons that have a little to do with the fact she has scored a remarkable 153 goals in 265 international matches and a lot to do with the fact that (a) the men who run the magazine industry like to put attractive women on their covers, and (b) she is married to one of the US's most famous baseball players, Nomar Garcia parra of the Chicago Cubs, was, is and probably always will be a celebrity. Chastain, who goes by the nickname "Hollywood", has never knowingly run away from a camera. Or taken her celebrity too seriously. "My most hilarious sporting moment," she says in her Olympic biography of her bra-bearing celebration .

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that this single moment was the foundation upon which a new women's football league in the US was built, but not much of one. The WUSA was launched in 2001 and set new records in marketing hype, player accessibility and fan friendliness. But the league foundered, folding in 2003.

For now, the next generation of top-class women players in the States, like Heather O'Reilly and Tarpley, will have to content themselves with playing exhibition and international matches while plans for a new women's league come to fruition.

How the organisers of WUSA (mark II) must be thanking the Greek god of football they do not have to operate in the Greek market.

Despite the best efforts of the organisers to disguise the poor attendances at many of the Olympic matches the women's football tournament was one of least popular events of Athens 2004. The 33,000-seat Karaiskaki Stadium looked around one-tenth full for last night's final. America's famous five deserved a more auspicious theatre in which to perform the final act of their careers.