With all the blood doping, inept judging, and disappointing Dream Teams souring these Olympics, I must say that I had the pleasure of watching the US Woman's soccer team go out and put the toe to yet another Gold Medal.
I hope you all got to see this Machine in action. For most of the 1990s, it was Our field- the others were just playing on it. They got Norwayed and Sydneyed in 2000, so the 2004 gold medal was somewhat of a vindication for some people who were getting called "old" in several different languages. They won't be there the next time we Olympicize, and we will own less Gold because of it.
Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain- these are names that get heard even in non-soccer circles. Mia even got herself a shortstop hubby(the female equivalent of taking Brandy to your prom) with miggidy-millions to spend on her. That happens when you dominate a sport for over a decade. America isn't supposed to win soccer...it's the complete sports focus of a realm that spans continents. We're the Punk kids, the White Trash...and we tore through Europe, Asia and anyone else who wanted some. We were like General Patton, but with better legs.
When speaking to the men he would send howling for blood into Europe on D-Day, Patton reminded them that "America loves a winner." While the girls kept feeling the love after Sydney, they have been around long enough to know that they are playing a fringe sport that is a decade of medal-less teams away from Team Handball status.
Instead, they justified the Soccer Mom. A few generations of S'Moms have reared a progeny unsurpassed at kicking ball and taking names. All those inept kids running amok after a ball on the village green have gone from virtual arrivistes in the sport to being the straw that stirs the drink. You just know the Europeans can't stand it. That's the best part.
Best Part II is that the soccer medal is sort of a Reverse Dream Team....only here, we've figured out their sport. It takes about twenty years, at least in the case of a huge, rich suburban/urban/rural nation with a nifty ethnic mix. For Europeans, it seems like a 100 year plan, with much less imported talent...at least judging by (coughmen'scough)hoops.
Soccer began to rise in Yankee prominence when legendary Brazilian star Pele (everybody's screaming Mayday ... cause Ren is kicking like Pele) signed to play in a US professional league in 1975. Millions of American kids began to play the sport, although professional soccer has yet to really catch on. For all that divides us, American whites and blacks are united in rarely finding occasion to say "I can't make it Thursday...I gotta see that Soccer game on TV."
Still, the sport exploded in American Suburbia. Kids were ushered to the field every weekend, and the Soccer Mom evolved. By the 1990s, we ruled the sport...at least from the female perspective.
The gang that seized the Gold today was a unit that may have been enjoying their Last Hurrah. They are going their separate ways, and a totally unfamiliar group will defend the Gold in China. They have a lot of kicking to do before the equal the bunch who rode off into a Golden sunset today.
Don't tear your shirt off, hun....it's been done.
2 comments:
I haven't watched too much of the olympics this year, but I have found, is that I've been drawn to the women's events a bit more than the men's, and I think it is because they seem to play and compete with more intensity. At any rate, I was glued to the tv watching and cheering our women's soccer team win the gold! Congratulations to all our athletes for being there, win or not, and way to go Girls!!!
I'd love to be a fly on the wall the next 100000 times a WNBA Olympian chats with an NBA Olympian.
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