Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, sports broadcaster, and co-founder of Bay FC, the professional soccer club representing the Bay Area in the National Women's Soccer League. She played for the United States national team from 1988 to 2004. In her 192 caps on the team, she scored 30 goals playing primarily in the defender and midfielder positions. She scored a World Cup–winning penalty shootout goal against China in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final. In 2023, Brandi co-founded Bay FC alongside fellow former USWNT and professional club players Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton, and Aly Wagner.
Chastain played professionally for Shiroki FC in the Japan Women's Football League, the San Jose CyberRays of the Women's United Soccer Association, FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer, and California Storm of Women's Premier Soccer League.
Chastain was named to the USWNT All-Time Best XI in 2013. In March 2017, she was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame. In 2018 she was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Chastain was born and raised in San Jose, California and began playing soccer at the age of eight. Because there was no girls' soccer team at Davis Junior High School, she played for the boys' soccer team after a successful tryout.
Chastain attended Archbishop Mitty High School and helped lead the team to three consecutive Central Coast Section championships.
Chastain attended University of California, Berkeley where she played as a forward for the Golden Bears and scored 15 goals as a freshman. Following her first and only year with the Bears, she was named All-American and earned Freshman Player Of The Year honors by Soccer America. Soon after, she underwent reconstructive anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgeries on both knees which caused her to miss the 1987 and 1988 seasons.
Santa Clara Broncos, 1989–1990
After transferring to Santa Clara University ahead of the 1989 season, Chastain helped lead the Broncos to two consecutive Final Four NCAA College Cup appearances (for the first time ever) in 1989 and 1990. Chastain scored ten goals for the Broncos during the regular season. In 1990, she was a national scoring leader with 22 goals (50 points) and helped the Broncos to a 18–1–1 record. The same year, she was named the ISAA Player of the Year. She also won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top soccer player. She graduated from SCU with a degree in communications in 1991.
Of her 192 international career caps, Chastain played 89 primarily as a defender but occasionally as a midfielder. On June 1, 1988, she earned her first cap for the United States women's national soccer team during a match against Japan. She scored her first international goal on April 18, 1991. After coming in as a substitute forward, she scored five consecutive goals in the team's 12–0 win against Mexico during the 1991 CONCACAF Women's Championship.
The U.S. went on to win the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup in China.
Chastain was not called for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden, in which the U.S. won the bronze medal.
Playing as a defender, Chastain competed with the national team at the 1996 Women's Olympic Football Tournament in Atlanta, the first Olympic tournament to include women's soccer. She played every minute of the U.S.' games despite suffering a third serious knee injury during the semifinal against Norway. The Americans won the gold medal after defeating China 2–1 in the final.
In the quarter-finals of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Chastain scored an own goal in the fifth minute for Germany. However, she redeemed herself by scoring the second equalizing goal for the U.S. in the 49th minute, finishing a corner kick that was taken by Mia Hamm. The match ended with a 3–2 win to the U.S. to advance to the semi-finals against Brazil, which they won 2–0. Later, Chastain, who had missed a penalty kick in the Algarve Cup against China months earlier, scored the deciding penalty against the same opponent in the final, clinching the World Cup title for the U.S. in the Rose Bowl, Pasadena. Chastain celebrated by removing her shirt, exposing her sports bra. This led to both praise and criticism from spectators and sports commentators, and the image of the celebration is considered a key symbol of women's athletics worldwide.
In 1993, Chastain played club soccer for one season in Japan's L.League for Shiroki FC. She earned team most valuable player (MVP) honors and was the only foreigner to be named one of the league's top 11 players.
Following the success of the 1999 FIFA Women's Cup, Chastain was a founding player in the Women's United Soccer Association, the first professional women's soccer league in the United States. She played for the San Jose CyberRays all three years of the league's existence. During the league's inaugural season, she helped the team finish second in the regular season with a 11–6–4 record securing a berth to the playoffs. The team eventually won the league's championship title after defeating the Atlanta Beat in penalty kicks. Chastain started in all 19 games in which she played during the regular season, scored 2 goals, and provided 5 assists. During the playoffs, she started in both games and scored two goals.
The CyberRays finished in fifth place during the 2002 season with a 8–8–5 record. Chastain started in all 18 games in which she played, scored 4 goals, and provided 3 assists.
During the 2003 season, Chastain started in all 15 games as a defender, scored 1 goal, and provided 4 assists. San Jose finished in sixth place during the regular season with a 7–10–4 record.
In 2009 at age 40, Chastain played as a midfielder for FC Gold Pride in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), the second professional women's soccer league in the United States. She was selected in the seventh round of the 2009 WPS Draft. She started in five of the ten games in which she played. The Pride finished in last place during the regular season with a 4–10–6 record. Chastain was released by the team in February 2010.