Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The Third Star

Yes, I'm a day late on the final World Cup post.  I got a little caught up in the All-Star Game stuff.  Sue me!  Because what happened on Sunday night was more than amazing.  It was glorious.  The perfect ending to Fourth of July weekend.

More people watched the game than any women's sporting event ever.  In fact, FOX's overnight ratings trumped the NBA Finals and more than doubled ESPN's highest-rated game for the U.S. men last year, which was that Sunday afternoon game against Portugal.  (Speaking of the U.S. men, FOX is sure hoping that the success of the women's team leads to more interest in the Gold Cup, which, not coincidentally, starts right on the heels of the Women's World Cup.)

And with good reason.  Because that wasn't a championship game.  That was a coronation.  The celebrating began early.  There was no doubt with this one.  No one expected the game to be so non-competitive, but I don't think anybody minded either.  For a team and a nation that was ready to celebrate, a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes in a virtual home game gave them every reason to start that party early.  Even after Japan made it 4-2, Tobin Heath made sure it wouldn't become a game and the last 20 minutes were just a countdown to zero.  And once the clock showed 90:00, it was official.  After 16 years, the United States women were finally World Cup champions again.

So what does this mean?  Well, that's a loaded question.  Because it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  Perhaps most importantly, new generation of girls has a team to look up to just like so many on this year's team idolized Mia Hamm's 1999 bunch.  In the grander scheme of national politics, where gay marriage was just legalized in all 50 states (that includes you, Texas), how great was it to see Abby Wambach embrace her wife after the game?  Wambach and Megan Rapinoe are members of the team.  No different than any of the others.  Which is exactly how it should be.

For the team, of course, we can't even fathom what this means.  How many of them weren't able to put whatever they were feeling into words during FOX's postgame show?  They've won three Olympic gold medals since 2004, but, other than Christie Rampone, none of them had been a World Cup champion, which will always be the ultimate in the sport.  Can't say that anymore.  They won it for themselves.  But they also won it for each other.

Just like the World Cup is the gaping hole in Lionel Messi's resume, it was the one thing Abby Wambach was missing.  Everyone knew that this was Wambach's last World Cup, and her days on the national team itself are probably numbered.  She's their leader, and, more than anything they wanted her go out a winner.  Mission accomplished.  Even though Wambach had been reduced to a bench player by the end of the tournament (which I think was the right move, for a number of reasons), everyone knows she was the heart and soul of the team.  That's why Carli Lloyd gave her the captain's armband when she came into the game.

There are no egos on the U.S. Women's National Team, which is part of what makes them so likable.  From the respect that Carli Lloyd showed Abby Wambach in that moment to the ovation Christie Rampone, the actual team captain, received when she was subbed into the game for the last minutes.  Fittingly, Wambach and Rampone were the last ones on the podium, and they accepted the World Cup together before passing it around to everyone like the Stanley Cup.  There were 23 players on the roster.  Only 20 played in the World Cup, but it took all 23 to win it.  It was a team effort in every sense of the word.

The '99 team hasn't been replaced, either.  In fact, the '99 team is as happy about this as anyone.  It's not possible to "replace" '99.  It's because of '99 that '15 happened.  And the next U.S. Women's World Cup win, whenever that is, will be because of '15.  A 10-year-old Alex Morgan and a six-year-old Morgan Brian were inspired back then.  Sixteen years from now, they'll be the inspiration for a whole new generation.  (Hopefully it won't take that long for the next one, though.)

They got that third star, becoming the first women's national team to do so.  And in so doing, they had the nation's attention for a month.  The tremendous national pride that came from watching a group of 23 women play soccer north of the border.  They're getting a special issue of Sports Illustrated.  They're nominated for the "Team of the Year" ESPY.  They're even getting a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes, the first women to receive that honor since 1960.

What this means for the future is anyone's guess.  There'll probably be some carryover into next summer's Rio Olympics (the U.S. is the three-time defending Olympic champions), but then there isn't another major women's tournament until the 2019 World Cup in France, so the attention they receive will likely wane until it amps up again four years from now.

But hopefully it opens some doors domestically.  They've tried a national professional women's soccer league several times (they're currently on, I think the third incarnation).  Maybe now it'll finally catch on.  These women deserve it.  More importantly, the young girls who've been inspired over the past month deserve it.  And if that does happen, it will be the greatest legacy of the 2015 Women's World Cup.

Congratulations ladies.  I believe that we will did win.  And I do mean all of us. You did your country proud.


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