There's a shadow hanging over the U.S. team as it prepares for Sunday's Women's World Cup final with Japan.
It's big and it's dark but it's been there so long, many outsiders hardly notice it anymore. Inside the American team, however, the shadow of 1999 is inescapable.
That's the last time the U.S. won a World Cup — 16 years to the day next week. And the only way to lift that cloud is to win another.
"They keep saying 'the 99ers.' You hear that all the time, It's always 'the 99ers'," said Fox Sports analyst Cat Whitehill, who played for the U.