Pete Kiehart for The New York Times
HAZEBROUCK, France — There is no plaque at the tiny stadium here. Nothing to commemorate the long-ago match. Some players say they had no idea of its immediate significance until the final whistle. One of the best players was absent, unable to get the day off from work.
And only decades later did the men’s officials who long ignored women’s soccer, and allowed it to be banned in England, France and Germany, append a larger, contrived meaning to the game. As if history could be attached like an artificial hip.