Reading several articles that are going in different directions on the allegations.
Quote:
In 1984, President Reagan made a concerted effort to open relations with China. China in turn invited America to send its U.S. team to the first world championship they were holding for women's soccer. There was only one problem there was no U.S. Women's Soccer Team. A nationwide search led officials to a 19-and-under league of Dallas high school girls who called themselves The Sting, after the recent Robert Redford-Paul Newman hit movie. Led by Kinder who had no prior experience coaching soccer before he formed the team the story of how this passionate group of young women got to China was miraculous. And what they did against the world's top women's teams from China, Australia and Italy comprised of grown women who played together for years was nothing short of a miracle.
In order to form the team nearly 40 years ago, Kinder had to get a note from a gynecologist asserting that playing soccer would not harm a woman's reproductive organs. Texas parents who envisioned their daughters waving pom-poms at halftime soon became the cheerleaders for this eclectic mix of girls drilled to precision by a Lombardi-like coach, and became a local powerhouse. They then overcame bureaucracy just to be able to make the trip, and rose to the occasion despite being underdogs against dominant international teams. All this led by a coach who so believed in The Sting that he charged $85,000 on his credit cards for non-refundable tickets to ensure the team got to China, where many expected they would lose badly.
This is the story the movie was based on supposedly. Big problem, by 1984 North Carolina women's team had already won two NCAA national championships and before the NCAA recognized the sport they still had a team going back to the 1970's and so did many other schools.
They had to get a gynecologist to say that it would not harm their reproductive organs? Come on, seriously? Women were playing all types of sports by then and hell my sister was playing soccer before this.
Sounds like a lot of the story was fabricated and then once someone did some due diligence into the story it fell apart. Also rumors of the girls conduct on the trip that the story was bringing to light.
Sad, when I first heard about this I was excited, but I think this one is dead. Unless they make a movie about the attempt to make a movie about a false story.