Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain cheer on Abby Wambach in final game

NEW ORLEANS — As Abby Wambach, the all-time leading goal scorer on the U.S. national team, takes her final bow Wednesday night she will be watched by the player who scored one of the most famous goals in women’s soccer.

Brandi Chastain, who hammered home the penalty kick that won the Women's World Cup for America’s team in 1999, joined a bevy of elite players to watch Wambach’s last game. Mia Hamm, who held the goal scoring record until Wambach notched her 159th in 2013, is on hand, as are Danielle Fotopoulos and Cindy Parlow.

Fotopoulos holds the all-time NCAA scoring record, a milestone she reached when she and Wambach were teammates on the University of Florida team that won the 1998 national championship. Another world-class player from that Gators team, defender Heather Mitts, also made the trip to New Orleans for Wambach’s farewell.

The former stars and the crowd at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome – banging drums and screaming as Wambach and the team took the field for warmups nearly an hour before kickoff — will see more Wambach than has been the norm this season as she concludes her celebrated career. Wambach came off the bench as the U.S. claimed the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada.

But Wednesday night Wambach will take center stage: she has been announced as a starter and the team’s captain for the friendly against China.