Just two months from now, women's soccer will step onto the world's biggest stage as the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off in Germany. The buzz around the sport -- and what German organizers are hoping for -- is that this edition will rival the watershed 1999 Women's World Cup in the U.S. that drew massive attention to the sport and made household names out of Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain.

"It was so big, you had such a great crowd," said Steffi Jones, who played defender for Germany in the1999 tournament and is now head of Germany's organizing committee. "I felt like, this is how I want ours to be too. Each World Cup has its own chapter, its own history. &

"We are doing our best to keep this history. ... We are a soccer nation, too, so I think that it's going to be huge, too."

For Germany and Jones, with just two months remaining, that means pumping up last-minute ticket sales. Jones plans to visit each World Cup city (there are nine in all, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Dresden) in the weeks ahead. The goal is to sell all of the 800,000 available tickets, and Germany is close to doing that.

"We have to have this atmosphere and say that each team deserves a full crowded stadium and they all play the world's best soccer," Jones said.

The host nation is also the two-time-defending champion, making the pressure on the team to perform even greater. Its opening match against Canada on June 26 in Berlin is expected to be a sell-out, and the July 5 first round matchup against neighbor France (scheduled in Moenchengladbach, conveniently near the French-German border) is also said to be close to selling out.

"It's important that our team goes far as the host, but also that all the other teams play well, score goals, and show how good women's soccer is," Jones said. "We want to be a good host. That's what we had in 2006 with the men's World Cup, and now it's the Women's World Cup and we want to have this same atmosphere."

Only once has a host nation won the Women's World Cup (the U S. in 1999), but no host nation has been the two-time defending champion.

"I think definitely Germany is going to be at the top of [its] game, in their home country, tons of fans supporting them," U.S. women's national team co-captain Rachel Buehler said. "It will be really exciting to watch them and see how that all goes. They've got some amazing players."

Jones says she expects most of the fans to be from Germany, with a few other European nations represented. For the U.S., and other non-European teams, that could mean a mostly hostile environment as the home crowds roots against the other contenders.

"There's going to be tons of fans all rooting against us most likely for a lot of the games," Buehler said. "German fans, it sounds like they're really gearing up for this World Cup. It gets your adrenaline going already because you think about what it's going to be like and the support and all the people that are going to be there."

Team USA, ranked No. 1 in the world, is one of two teams considered to have the best shot of ousting Germany. Despite recent struggles, including a shocking loss to Mexico that put their World Cup qualifying hopes in serious jeopardy, the Americans are still the most decorated team in the sport and draw much international attention.

Rounding out the so-called "Big Three" is Brazil, led by the world's best player, Marta. Brazil finished as the runner-up in its last three major international tournaments. In 2009, Brazil visited Germany for a friendly match, drawing a European-record 44,825 fans for a women's game. Marta is expecting a similar atmosphere this summer.

"Germany's known for organizing events. I know that the German league federation is already putting a lot of effort into this,'' she said through a translator. "There's a lot of buzz going around the tournament. I think we're going to find a very good environment & and the crowds behind it to support what a major tournament such as this demands."

U.S. defender Ali Krieger, who is on track to make her first World Cup roster, has been playing club soccer the past three and a half years for FFC Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Her team features the German captain and one of the world's most prolific goal scorers, Birgit Prinz. Krieger recently left Germany to focus on the U.S. women's national team training camp.

"Germany is my second home,'' she said. "Being able to show the girls where I have lived for the past three and a half years, why I love Germany so much and why I was so happy there, is going to be amazing. Obviously, football is the No. 1 sport in Europe and the DFB (German Football Federation) president really focuses on female football there in Germany, which helps it to become a little bit more popular and more interesting to the fans."