In 1971, tens of thousands of fans filled Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to watch soccer. It was two decades before the U.S. women took home the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup championship title after defeating Norway 2-1 but the players that fans were filling the seats to see were women.
“This is unbelievable,” says 1999 World Cup hero Brandi Chastain in the opening scene of a new documentary, ‘Copa 71’. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
If Chastain didn’t know about the tournament, it’s likely the average fan didn’t either. That’s what the new documentary hopes to change.
The film, which is out in the U.S. on Friday, tells the story of the unofficial women’s World Cup held in Mexico in 1971. The tournament featured players from six countries, drawing massive crowds to Latin America and unprecedented coverage of women’s football. Yet, all the footage from the pioneering event was lost to history… until now.
The film is as entertaining as it is infuriating. It outlines how Copa 71 came to be, retelling how those governing soccer explicitly kept women out of the world’s favorite game. While the success of the tournament is one to marvel at 53 years later, it also demonstrates how the women’s game was robbed of 20 years’ worth of potential…
