USWNT Trivia
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50 free USWNT trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The U.S. women's national team played its first match in 1985 and lost 1–0 to Italy. Since then it has won four Women's World Cups, five Olympic gold medals and a $24 million equal-pay settlement. These USWNT trivia questions run from the M&M's Cup of 1991 through the Rose Bowl shootout, Wambach's 122nd-minute header, Lloyd's 16-minute hat-trick and the Triple Espresso gold in Paris. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The USWNT's 'Oosa!' chant copies fans who greeted its first-ever team in 1985 in which country?
Italy
Italy. Fans in Jesolo chanted their pronunciation of USA at a side that had sat up sewing its men's hand-me-down kit the night before flying out, and the team still uses the chant.
Q 02Which North Carolina coach led the U.S. women to the first World Cup title in 1991?
Anson Dorrance
Anson Dorrance. After five teenagers held their own against his seniors in 1987, he dropped several experienced players for them, and all five started at the World Cup four years later.
Q 03What was unusual about matches at the first Women's World Cup in 1991?
They lasted 80 minutes
They lasted 80 minutes. FIFA doubted the whole event: it also came close to using a smaller ball, and would not put its World Cup name on the tournament until later.
Q 04Who scored both U.S. goals in the 1991 World Cup final?
Michelle Akers
Michelle Akers. She scored ten goals in the tournament, five of them in a single quarterfinal, and settled the final herself with a late second goal.
Q 05Which 1972 U.S. law, by opening college sport to women, is credited with building the national team's talent pool?
Title IX
Title IX. It barred sex discrimination in education that receives federal money, and women's soccer programmes sprang up on campuses across the country.
Q 06What nickname did the U.S. front three go by at the 1991 Women's World Cup?
Triple-Edged Sword
Triple-Edged Sword. The Chinese press coined the name for the captain and her two fellow forwards, one of whom finished as top scorer and another as the tournament's best player.
Q 07The first Women's World Cup in 1991 was officially a championship played for which candy brand's cup?
M&M's Cup
M&M's Cup. FIFA would not risk its World Cup name on the event, so it was billed as the 1st FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M's Cup.
Q 08Why was the 2003 Women's World Cup moved from Asia to the United States at a few months' notice?
The SARS outbreak
The SARS outbreak. FIFA pulled the tournament out in May 2003, the Americans stepped in as emergency hosts because they had staged the previous edition, and the original hosts were given 2007 instead.
Q 09Where did the U.S. finish at the 1995 Women's World Cup?
Third place
Third place. The side they had beaten in the 1991 final took revenge with a 1–0 semifinal win and went on to the title, leaving the holders to win the bronze-medal match 2–0.
Q 10Whom did the U.S. beat 2–1 in the first Olympic women's soccer final in 1996?
China
China. Shannon MacMillan scored first, days after her golden goal had knocked out the reigning world champions in the semifinal, and the hosts took the first women's football gold.
Q 11Which former goalkeeper coached the U.S. to the 1996 gold and 1999 World Cup?
Tony DiCicco
Tony DiCicco. In the shootout that decided the 1999 final he moved his eventual match-winner up from sixth to fifth in the order and had her shoot with her weaker left foot.
Q 12The 1999 World Cup final drew a crowd of 90,185 to which stadium?
Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl. Organisers had first planned to use small college grounds on the East Coast, then bet on NFL-sized stadiums after the crowds at the 1996 Olympics, and the gamble paid off.
Q 13Who scored the winning penalty in the 1999 World Cup final shootout?
Brandi Chastain
Q 21The U.S. won the 2012 Olympic women's soccer final at which venue?
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium. More than 80,000 watched the Americans avenge the World Cup final they had lost on penalties to the same opponents a year earlier.
Q 22Who scored the winning goals in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic finals?
Carli Lloyd
Carli Lloyd. Her extra-time strike was the only goal of the 2008 final, and four years later in London she scored both American goals.
Q 23The U.S. captain's 2015 World Cup final hat-trick ended with a shot from where?
Halfway line
Halfway line. She spotted the goalkeeper out of position and scored from midfield to make it 4–0 after only 16 minutes.
Brandi Chastain. She had missed from the spot against the same goalkeeper a few months earlier, so on her coach's advice she struck this one with her weaker left foot.
Q 14Which U.S. goalkeeper saved Liu Ying's kick in the 1999 final shootout?
Briana Scurry
Briana Scurry. Chinese newspapers printed a frame-by-frame sequence showing she had come several feet off her line before the ball was struck, which the rules forbid, but the save stood.
Q 15Which team beat the U.S. with a golden goal in the 2000 Olympic final?
Norway
Norway. Tiffeny Milbrett had forced extra time with a header half a minute from the end, but Dagny Mellgren's golden goal stood even though the ball had struck her upper arm on the way.
Q 16The 1996 Atlanta Olympics staged the women's soccer final away from Atlanta, in which Georgia city?
Athens
Athens. More than 76,000 filled the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium, a crowd that persuaded the organisers of the 1999 World Cup to book giant stadiums of their own.
Q 17Which U.S. coach benched Hope Solo for a veteran goalkeeper before the 2007 World Cup semifinal?
Greg Ryan
Greg Ryan. The veteran conceded four goals, Solo said publicly that the switch was wrong and was shut out of the squad, and within weeks Ryan had lost his job.
Q 18Whose 122nd-minute header rescued the U.S. in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal?
Abby Wambach
Abby Wambach. Deep into stoppage time at the end of extra time she headed in a cross to make it 2–2, and the Americans went on to win the penalty shootout.
Q 19Which goalkeeper saved a late England penalty to protect a 2–1 lead in the 2019 World Cup semifinal?
Alyssa Naeher
Alyssa Naeher. A video review had already ruled out an England equaliser for offside, and a second review gave them the penalty that Naeher smothered from captain Steph Houghton.
Q 20Who beat the U.S. on penalties in the 2011 World Cup final?
Japan
Japan. Four months after the earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese twice came from behind to draw 2–2 and then won the shootout, a lift for a country that had had little to cheer.
Q 24Before the 2015 World Cup, what did dozens of top players sue FIFA over?
Artificial turf
Artificial turf. The players called the plastic pitches an injury risk and a form of discrimination, since men's World Cups are played on grass, but they dropped the case and played on them anyway.
Q 25How did New York honour the U.S. team after its 2015 World Cup win?
Ticker-tape parade
Ticker-tape parade. The champions rode up Broadway through Lower Manhattan under a blizzard of paper, and the 2019 winners were given the same welcome four years later.
Q 26Which team knocked the U.S. out of the 2016 Olympics on penalties?
Sweden
Sweden. After the Americans' earliest Olympic exit, Hope Solo called the defensive Swedes 'a bunch of cowards' and was suspended for six months.
Q 27The U.S. opened the 2019 World Cup with a record 13–0 win over which team?
Thailand
Thailand. Ten of the thirteen goals came after half-time, and the Americans' celebrations of the late ones set off a debate about sportsmanship.
Q 28Who scored five goals in the record 13–0 win that opened the 2019 World Cup?
Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan. Three weeks later she scored the semifinal winner against England on her 30th birthday and celebrated by pretending to sip a cup of tea.
Q 29Whom did the U.S. beat 2–0 in the 2019 World Cup final?
Netherlands
Netherlands. As FIFA's president walked out for the trophy ceremony the crowd broke into a chant of "Equal pay!", backing the players' fight to be paid the same as the men's team.
Q 30Who won both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball at the 2019 World Cup?
Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe. She broke the deadlock in the final from the penalty spot and became, at 34, the oldest scorer a Women's World Cup final had then seen.