Aug. 23 (1985)

St. Louisan Ruth Harker takes over as goalkeeper in the second half for starter Kim Wyant in the U.S. Women’s National Team’s 3-1 loss to England in the Mundialito (“little World Cup”) tournament in Caorle, Italy. The tournament, considered the unofficial World Cup for women, marks the first games ever played by the USWNT. The England match is the USA’s third of the tournament. She will play the next day in the USA’s 1-0 loss to Denmark in the third-place match in Jesolo, Italy. England will defeat Italy, 3-2, in the championship game on Aug. 25. Harker will finish her USWNT career with three caps. “I barely remember anything about the tournament except that a player from another land spit on me after a save; our national anthem; and how that felt to be there in front of all those folks and be so proud,” Harker tells Dave Lange in a 2011 interview. Harker, who played for nationally ranked teams at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, earned a berth on the first-ever USWNT with her performance at the U.S. Olympic Festival earlier in 1985. There will be no official FIFA World Cup for women until 1991, after Harker’s playing career ends. Harker and the rest of the USA’s pioneering women played for $10 per day, wore the U.S. men’s old practice uniforms, and went to their first international tournament after only three days of training, according to a story in the Nov. 6, 2000, issue of Soccer America magazine. “Michelle Akers probably said it best,” Harker says, referring to one of her teammates on the 1985 USWNT who will make 153 appearances over 15 seasons. “She said, ‘We turned the lights on.’ Someone had to be the first and the road was hard and frustrating at times, but that road also shaped me. I wouldn’t change a thing. Someone is always at the beginning. I am proud to let them step on my shoulders.”