RICHARDSON, Texas — Who better to portray a historic Texas coach than Matthew McConaughey?
According to multiple reports, the Oscar award-winning actor is set to star in the upcoming film "Dallas Sting," which chronicles the story of Richardson-based girls soccer team that made history in the 1980s becoming the first American soccer team, male or female, to win a major international tournament.
McConaughey will star has Bill Kinder, who alongside U.S. soccer legend Lamar Hunt and other soccer pioneers, founded the Dallas Sting, named after the popular film featuring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Long before the domination of the U.S. Women's national team (USWNT), there was The Sting. The team was founded in 1973, becoming the country's first and oldest all-girls soccer club.
The Richardson-based club was the first women's team to travel outside of the U.S. In 1976, they played in front of 35,000 people in Mexico prior to a division one men's professional game in Mexico City's Olympic Stadium. One year later, the Sting became the first American girls soccer team to play in Europe, playing in Sweden's Gothia Cup and falling to a team from Taiwan in the championship game.
After falling to Taiwan, the Sting Soccer U-19 team was the only American team invited to compete in at the Women's World Invitational Tournament in 1978. The Sting finished in second place after losing to Finland in the final, according to the team's website.
The American girls soccer team broke through, however, in 1984.
The Sting were selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation in 1984 to represent the U.S. in Xi-an, China, for the first ever FIFA tournament for women's national teams because, at the time, the U.S. did not have a women's national team. The Sting defeated countries from all over the world, including Australia, Japan, host nation China and soccer powerhouse Italy. They became the first American team, male or female, to win a major international tournament.
Four Sting soccer players were invited to join the 16-player roster for the USWNT in 1991 for the first ever FIFA Women's World Cup. Stacey Pulpaneck and SMU grad Lisa Cole Zimmerman elected not to go. However, Carla Overbeck and Tracey Leone, joined the team.
Directed by Kari Skogland, "Dallas Sting" will show the Rocky-esque underdog story of Kinder, an Oklahoma native who had no prior soccer coaching experience, and his passionate group of young women who defied the odds against the world's top teams.
Deadline reported that filming for the production is set to take place in New Orleans in the fall of 2022.
The Sting Soccer organization still thrives to this day, holding tournaments and showcases throughout the Lone Star State. Sting operates youth soccer divisions in North Texas, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, West Texas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Pennsylvania.
Ironically enough, McConaughey won his lone Oscar for a Dallas-based movie, also filmed in New Orleans. He starred in Dallas Buyers Club, which premiered in 2013.
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