It has taken 16 years but finally USA and China PR will meet again on the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ stage. The 1999 Final remains a milestone moment for women’s football, with two well-matched teams doing battle in front of a 90,185 crowd; a figure which remains a world record for a women’s football match. USA triumphed by the slimmest margin that day – 5-4 on penalties after 120 scoreless minutes – and now Ottawa will host the two nations on Friday with a berth in the last-four at Canada 2015 the rich prize awaiting the victor.

The sun-filled memories of that iconic July afternoon in Pasadena’s hot Californian sun still conjure warm responses throughout both the United States and also the globe’s most populated nation. And the flow-on affects of the match still resonate nearly two decades later, with several youngsters of that era now lead performers in the latest chapter of this storied rivalry, with each pointing to the ’99 match as their greatest football inspiration.

USA fullback Ali Krieger was an impressionable young teenager at the time of the USA 1999 Final growing up in a football heartland in northern Virginia. “I was watching at home and all my team-mates were watching too,” Krieger told FIFA.com. “I thought it was a dream come true just watching all the girls play. It is something I will never forget. I remember wanting to be in their shoes, be on that field and have that experience. I wanted that dream for myself.