Brought together for the new Starbucks and Amazon documentary series, “This is Football,” soccer player Brandi Chastain and photographer Robert Beck share what it was like to be on either side of a career-defining moment at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, and how their lives intersected – not once, but twice.

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It’s one of the most iconic images in all of sports. 

In the center of the frame is Brandi Chastain, shouting to the skies in celebration of her game-winning goal at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, her jersey off and clutched in one hand. On the other end of the lens was Robert Beck, a Sports Illustrated staff photographer who had never before even been to a women’s soccer game. Chastain and Beck, who share their stories in a bonus video for the new Amazon and Starbucks documentary series “<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/this-is-football/">This is Football</a>,” tell what it was like to be on either side of that moment, and how their lives intersected – not once, but twice.

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When Beck arrived at the Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on July 10, 1999, he was assigned to shoot the match only from high up in the stands. 

“I was not very aware of the sport. I bet you could count the number of soccer games I shot on two hands, maybe even one,” Beck said in an interview for the series. “I couldn’t believe how full (the stadium) was and especially, you know, I hate to say this, but almost for a women’s sporting event. And it was just packed and it was so hot and I thought, ‘What are these people doing?’”

For Chastain, the journey to get there had been a long and improbable one. When she signed up as an 8-year-old for her neighborhood soccer team in 1976, the world’s game had not captured the American imagination. Among boys, only 115,000 high school athletes played soccer at the time – only a tenth of the number playing American football according to the <a href="http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/">National Federation of State High School Associations</a>. Among girls, that number was even lower, with only 600 girls’ soccer teams and less than 12,000 players. But Chastain was on the cusp of an explosion in sports participation for young female athletes thanks to the 1972 federal civil rights law, known as Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination in education.

“The popularity of soccer in America when I was growing up was fairly low in comparison to all the other sports that we had,” Chastain said. “I got a lot of, ‘Why are you playing that immigrant sport, that foreign sport?’ I think maybe that made my resolve even stronger. ‘Oh yeah, just wait, you’re going to fall in love with this game as well.’”&nbsp; 

There were few female athletes as role models. And those who were in the public eye tended to be the ones competing in skirts or leotards, not muddy cleats and shin guards. Chastain found heroes where she could, emulating male soccer stars like George Best and Franz Beckenbauer. 

Watching the U.S. beat Russia in ice hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics, the outlines of a dream were beginning to take shape. “I thought, I want to do that… I want to represent the U.S. But even that was like, ‘Hmm, kind of crazy because it doesn’t exist!’,” said Chastain. Women’s soccer wouldn’t become an Olympic sport until years later – but when it did, Chastain was there to be part of it. 

She had earned a scholarship to play soccer at Santa Clara University and then joined the roster for the first-ever Women’s World Cup in China 1991 (earning just $10 a day). When women’s soccer debuted as an Olympic sport in Atlanta in 1996, she was on the field as a member of the team.

“The American public virtually had no idea what was happening, which is not their fault,” she said. “Because women’s soccer lived in anonymity for so long, we wanted to have it shared. We weren’t doing it for trophies or fame, we did it because we loved soccer and we chose soccer.”

In the summer of 1999, the United States hosted the second Women’s World Cup, taking a gamble by scheduling the matches in big stadiums typically used male sporting events. After an electrifying three-week tournament, the crowd of more than 90,000 that had gathered to watch the final between the United States and China was the largest-ever for a women’s athletic event. ABC’s game-day commentator Robin Roberts called it a watershed event for the country. “What we’re seeing clearly transcends sports,” she told viewers. “This is a moment in American culture.”

Under sunny skies and intense Southern Californian heat, the U.S. and China battled for 90 scoreless minutes, followed by another exhausting 30 minutes of overtime that sent the game into tie-breaking penalty kicks. That’s when Beck, the photographer, decided to make his move down to a spot right behind the goal, despite not having a field credential.

“I’d been to the Rose Bowl a hundred times, I knew where to go to get on the field and I was just kind of keeping my fingers crossed that no one would say anything,” Beck said in an interview for the film. 

Chastain wasn’t slated to take a penalty kick until sixth, stepping up only if the score remained tied after each side took five kicks. At the last minute, she was bumped up to the fifth spot. Four consecutive goals by the first U.S. kickers and a save by American goalkeeper Briana Scurry meant that a goal by Chastain could win the game. “I don’t even remember any of the other kicks, but at that time you’re feeling the crowd and it’s really loud and when it comes to Brandi’s, you know everything’s on the line,” Beck said.

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Chastain took the ball and placed it on the penalty spot, avoiding eye contact with the goalkeeper. While behind the net, Beck trained his camera on the kicker. Both were lining up the perfect shot.

“I remember the moment as being absolutely dead silent,” Chastain said. “You know, you could hear a pin drop. Not a peep from anyone.”

“How I framed it was to have Brandi in the middle, but her team is so out of focus and the depth of field is so small that, that she’s just singled out,” Beck said. “She really was all alone in that moment.”&nbsp; 

Once the referee blew her whistle, Chastain made her run up to the ball and perfectly struck it with her left foot, sending it just inside the goal post and past the outstretched fingertips of China’s goalkeeper Gao Hong. The game won, Chastain spun around and ripped off her jersey, sliding to her knees in her black sports bra as her teammates ran to join her from midfield. 

Chastain remembered, “The flash bulbs, the sound, the goosebumps, the emotions, all of them incredibly genuine, and just phenomenal. Best feeling ever.” 

Beck watched the scene unfold through his lens. “I’m just looking through this square and I can see all the players running towards her,” he said. “This is in film days so I have 36 frames at the most, so I just can’t burn it all. When she went to her knees and began her celebration most of that just went out the window. I was very lucky that Brandi stayed within, like one square of that frame.”

That moment would change the trajectory of two lives, and perhaps countless others.

The next week, Beck’s photo ran on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a close shot of Chastain with the simple headline, “Yes!” The image marked a new chapter in women’s sports, an expression of the strength and resilience of a generation of female athletes and an inspiration for generations more. It would go on to become one of SI’s iconic covers ever, second only to a photo of the “Miracle on Ice” that had inspired Chastain almost 20 years earlier.

This Is Football

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After a few weeks, Chastain’s goal slipped into memory for Beck. He shot hundreds of other events in other cities. Five or 10 years later he was photographing a basketball tournament in the Bay Area when he saw her working as a TV commentator and decided to introduce himself.

“I said, my name’s Robert Beck, I’m the guy who took the picture that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Beck said. Chastain jumped on him and wrapped her arms and legs around him, screaming – almost crying. &nbsp;

“She looks at me and she says, ‘You don’t understand what an impact that made on hundreds of thousands of girls in our country, let alone around the rest of the world,’” Beck said. “I didn’t realize that.”

That image showed that young girls and women could have their own heroes, their dreams could fully take shape. They didn’t have to hide their athleticism. They could be sweaty and unapologetic and strong. And it proved football, the world’s game – the beautiful game – was in America to stay.

“There are certain things that happen to sports, it’s such a gift,” Chastain said. “Robert’s world and my world came together at the exact time it should to make that moment happen. You know, a picture is worth a thousand words, or a million, or maybe that’s not enough anymore.”&nbsp; 

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Jennifer Warnick contributed to this report

The story behind one of the most iconic sports photos of all time - Starbucks Stories

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The story behind one of the most iconic sports photos of all time

Soccer player Brandi Chastain and photographer Robert Beck share what it was like to be on either side of a career-defining moment at the 1999 Women’s World Cup.

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Landmark series explores inspirational stories of how football unites the world

This Is Football will launch on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories worldwide

SEATTLE – Amazon Prime Video today announced that it has secured This Is Football, a six-part premium documentary event series exploring the emotions, stories, passions and triumphs at the heart of the world’s most loved sport. The series will launch August 2, 2019 exclusively on Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

Watch the trailer here:

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This Is Football is produced by leading British indie October Films in collaboration with pre-eminent Spanish TV and film production house Brutal Media, and Starbucks for Amazon Prime Video.

This Is Football (6x60’) unpacks the unique phenomenon that grips and unifies billions of people from every corner of the globe.&nbsp;Across the episodes universal themes of the human experience are explored: Redemption — football’s uplifting role in rebuilding the soul of Rwanda after the genocide, Belief — the inspirational rise of women’s football and two teams who gave everything to make it happen, Chance — the agony and the ecstasy of the fates that humble champions and keep every fan believing in the impossible, Love — four stories from every corner of the earth where the love of the game transcends adversity, Pride — how Iceland’s football Vikings take on the world and give every underdog hope, and Wonder — unlocking the secrets of Lionel Messi’s genius and the global delight of watching him play. Each story unfolds dramatically through the experience of men and women of different races, cultures and creeds, all of them remarkable, all of them united in their passion for football and chosen from every continent on Earth.

The series is written and co-created by award-winning foreign correspondent and sports author John Carlin (Invictus), based on an original idea by Carlin and Raimon Masllorens. The films are directed by a team of award-winning directors and producers led by Creative Director James Erskine (One Night in Turin, Le Mans: Racing is Everything) and Series Executive Producer Jos Cushing (Mygrations, Walking The Nile/Himalayas/Americas). The series is scored by Grammy Award-winning and Emmy-nominated composer Lorne Balfe (Mission Impossible: Fallout, Churchill, The Queen).

Filmed across the globe from Iceland to Argentina, Spain&nbsp;to Rwanda, China to the United States, and including a glittering cast of characters from legendary players to presidents, poets to priests, managers to mathematicians — This Is Football creates a unique and timeless portrait of the game and humanity itself.

This Is Football joins Prime Video’s growing stable of sports docu-series and live sports, including All or Nothing: Manchester City; forthcoming live and exclusive Premier League football matches, US Open Tennis and ATP World Tour Tennis events in the UK; and NFL games, all available to watch on Prime Video at no extra cost to a Prime membership.&nbsp;

“The universal appeal of football is something we know resonates strongly with the Amazon Prime Video audience worldwide, so I’m delighted that we are able to bring this fascinating six-part series of unique stories about the world’s most talked about sport exclusively to Prime Video,” said&nbsp;Vernon Sanders, Co-Head of Television, Amazon Studios. “We’re thrilled to add This Is Football to our stable of award-winning docu-series and live sports for Prime Video audiences around the world.”

Gina Woods, senior vice president, Public Affairs for Starbucks: “Starbucks mission of inspiring and nurturing the human spirit brings customers and partners together in our stores every day. While we do this through coffee, football has a similar ability to unite people around the world across boundaries of age, background and beliefs. It’s this shared spirit of connection and values that drew us to the project and we’re thrilled to share it with our partners and customers around the world.”

Adam Bullmore, Managing Director of October Films and Executive Producer of This Is Football said: “Football is now a universal language and everywhere you look, football is touching lives and inspiring us in remarkable ways. So, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Amazon Studios and Starbucks to bring these stories to a global audience.”

Raimon Masllorens, CEO of Brutal Media and Executive Producer of This Is Football highlighted: “We cannot be more proud to have teamed up with our amazing partners for such a great match. It’s really a dream come true that one of our most beloved projects, cooked in-house for such a long time, is now a top tier TV series that will get to every home in the world. Thanks to this teamwork I’m sure This Is Football will spread the magic of football and their human stories among diverse and massive audiences around the globe.”

Joe Roth, Executive Producer of This Is Football, added: “This is a fantastic series of stories that begin to explain why it’s the world’s most popular sport.”

This Is Football&nbsp;is a Starbucks Production. The Series Executive Producer is Jos Cushing and Creative&nbsp;Director is James Erskine. The Executive Producers are Raimon Masllorens for Brutal Media and Adam Bullmore for October Films, Joe Roth, and John Carlin.

A football fairytale: The unlikely story of a new documentary from Amazon and Starbucks

About Prime Video

Prime Video is a premium streaming service that offers customers a vast collection of digital videos — all with the ease of finding what they love to watch in one place.

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In addition to access to movies and TV shows included with Prime, the Prime membership includes unlimited fast free shipping options across all categories available on&nbsp;Amazon, more than two million songs and thousands of playlists and stations with Prime Music, secure photo storage with Prime Photos, unlimited reading with Prime Reading, unlimited access to a digital audiobook catalogue with Audible Channels for Prime, a rotating selection of free digital games and in-game loot with Twitch Prime, early access to select Lightning Deals, exclusive access and discounts to select items, and more. To sign-up for Prime or to find out more visit:&nbsp;<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fprime&amp;esheet=51478741&amp;newsitemid=20161215005679&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.amazon.com%2Fprime&amp;index=19&amp;md5=c86dfd36b585fb130eedf7800b2368e9">amazon.com/prime</a>.

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Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.amazon.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">amazon.com/about</a> and follow <a href="https://twitter.com/AmazonNews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@AmazonNews</a>.

October Films is an award-winning, innovative television production company and one of the fastest-growing and truly independent production companies in the UK and US. We are experts in unique and powerful story-led content. From specialist factual, factual drama, hard-hitting current affairs and documentary to reality and entertainment, we aim high. Our work has earned us over 100 prestigious awards worldwide. October’s recent shows include:&nbsp; How the Victorians Built Britain (Channel 5), Journey in the Danger Zone: Iraq (BBC 2), Eight Days That Made Rome (Channel 5), Can Science Make Me Perfect? With Alice Roberts (BBC 4), Home Alone (Investigation Discovery) From Russia To Iran: Crossing The Wild Frontier (Channel 4), Dangerous Borders (BBC2), Motorheads (BBC Brit), David Jason’s Secret Service (Channel 4), The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done? (Channel 4); and Annie: Out of the Ashes (BBC3). The company is currently in production on multiple series for Channel 4, the BBC, Investigation Discovery, Science Channel and other platforms and networks worldwide.

Brutal Media is a trendsetting and creative tv and film production company in Spain. We have created our unique way of storytelling, from human emotions to the screen. We have developed our original formats, created factual content, documentaries, documentary series and scripted content: tv series and feature films.

Our last works include the original formats This is Opera (Beta Films/TVE) and This is Art (Movistar/TV3), broadcasted in more than 70 territories, El Paisano (TVE), La Paisana (TVE), El Foraster (TV3), El caçador de veritats (TVE), Òpera en Texans (TV3), Yayoma (TV3), El Gran Silenci (TV3), Laia (TV3), Tornarem (TVE, TV3), Felipe y Letizia (Mediaset), Tita Cervera (Mediaset). And now we are producing two feature films: Te quiero, imbécil and La Vampira de Barcelona and a series, The Roller Girls (TV3 and a platform ), as well as other programs for tv networks.

Since 1971, Starbucks Coffee Company has been committed to ethically sourcing and roasting high-quality arabica coffee. Today, with more than 30,000 stores around the globe, Starbucks is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. Grounded in our mission and values, Starbucks highlights stories that celebrate and inspire the human spirit. Through storytelling and shared connections, we are committed to amplifying and developing content that is both original and created in partnership with others with a singular goal: featuring the best of the human experience and communities around the world. Previous credits include Upstanders (<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/upstanders-season-1/">1</a>, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/upstanders-season-2/">2</a>), <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/hingakawa/">Hingakawa</a>, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/productions/to-be-human/">To Be Human</a>, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/?s=1st%20%26%20Main">1st &amp; Main</a> and more. For more information, visit <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/">stories.starbucks.com</a> and follow <a href="https://twitter.com/Starbucksnews">@StarbucksNews</a>.

This Is Football, from October Films, Brutal Media and Starbucks, to Premiere on Amazon Prime Video August 2 - Starbucks Stories

This Is Football, from October Films, Brutal Media and Starbucks, to Premiere on Amazon Prime Video August 2

Amazon Prime Video will premiere This Is Football, a six-part documentary event series exploring the emotions, stories, passions and triumphs at the heart of the world’s most loved sport.

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This Is Football to Premiere on Amazon Prime Video August 2

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