Sunday was the grand finale of the 2015 World Cup for Women's Soccer which saw the USA defeat defending world champion Japan with a score of 5-2 to win the whole damn thing! Oh yeah! Way to go, Oosah!*
*Weird way I pronounce "USA".
Full disclosure: I don't know squat about women's soccer. To be blunt, I don't know anything about soccer. Hell, I don't know anything about women. So who am I to get all excited that this team of remarkable women have accomplished this amazing goal?**
**Pun not intended. Unless you think it was clever. Then it was totally intended.
Sports fans sometimes tend to be a bit proprietary about whatever sports or teams they support with little or no patience for those on the periphery. In a way, I understand that mind set. You may be a dedicated fan who has sat through every game, great wins and devastating losses alike. Then someone like me comes along to go "YAY, TEAM!" upon the victory in a final championship game.
But I don't pretend to be anything other than what I am, someone cheering from the bandwagon. But while I may not know much about the sport and the people who play it, I can still appreciate this victory for the USA Women's Soccer team for a variety of reasons.
1) As a person with not athletic abilities whatsoever, I recognize not just the skills but the superior skills of playing and winning a sport that I will never, ever master.
2) As the father of a daughter and a supporter of women's rights, I rejoice to see women on a big stage showing how great they can be, particularly in areas too often dominated by men, such as sports.
3) As an American, I will not deny the pride of seeing our country represented so well and yes, to win the big prize in a major international competition.
So kudos to the US Women for winning the 2015 World Cup for Women's Soccer. You are awesome!
And to the loyal fans who keep this and other sports alive through the lean times, the dark times, the hard times when the rest of us aren't paying attention, I salute you as well.
_______________________________________
Before Sunday night's championship game, I was intrigued by this story from the semi-final last week between Japan and England.
- EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Laura Bassett scored into her own net during second-half stoppage time, giving Japan a 2-1 victory over England in a Women's World Cup semifinal.
- The decisive goal Wednesday came when Japan's Nahomi Kawasumi drove up the right side and sent a cross into the middle for Yuki Ogimi. Bassett reached out with her right foot and caught the ball flush, inadvertently sending it toward her net. The ball struck the crossbar and bounced in just before goalkeeper Karen Bardsley could get across.
By all accounts, Laura Bassett was virtually inconsolable, her misstep costing her team a chance to advance to the final game.
And besides my lack of an actual athletic ability, its things like this that make me not cut out for sports. The idea that a single step, a single shot, a single catch or a miss can change the flow of a game and change victory to defeat.
Whenever I watch college basketball and I see a player on the free throw line with a game on the line, I think, "There is no way in hell I could handle that kind of pressure." Just the right move in the right place at the right time can win the game. Change just ONE of those "rights" to a "wrong" and the game is lost.
But people in sports do it all the time. Sometimes when things don't fall the right way, there are players that don't comport themselves well, giving in to sulking or displays of temper. Others manage a stoic manner in the face of defeat.
And then there are the players who cry. And who can blame them? There's a lot of heart, a lot of emotion that goes into giving your best and striving to achieve success and victory. To have that high level of emotion brought down so devastatingly fast by a single error, one small lapse. God knows any one of us would fall down to our knees and weep. And we would need to. For tears not shed lead to pressure builds and builds until the results can be disastrous.
There was a lot of support for Laura Bassett in the aftermath of England's loss to Japan. Because the world could see that she was bearing a large burden upon her shoulders and no one needed to pile any more on that. Not everyone was so forgiving; internet trolls, like the poor, are always with us. But the overall picture was one of support and understanding. Oh Laura, you will probably kick yourself about that one small movement that changed the destiny of your team for a long time. But this was also the moment when you knew that, for the most part, the world had your back.
Be good to one another and I'll be back here with another post tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment