U.S. women’s soccer team inspires confidence at home
BY DAVID J. NEAL
DNEAL@MIAMIHERALD.COM

United States' Abby Wambach celebrates scoring her side's 2nd goal during the semifinal match between France and the United States at the Women’s Soccer World Cup in Moenchengladbach, Germany, Wednesday, July 13, 2011.
Martin Meissner / AP Photo

Here’s why we cared about what happened on a patch of German grass Wednesday.
Days after our annual swaggering celebration on the Fourth of July, we’re back to wondering what “U.S.” means anymore. Not so much the ethnic change, bothersome as that is for some. Assimilation happens. So, the Lavi kid plays football, the Fernandez kid plays hockey and they live in a Midwestern suburb on either side of Smith and Jones, who just wish all the kids would turn down the hip-hop.
But we can’t seem to stop wobbling. We don’t make much anymore, so we’re not sure what “Buy American!” means. We wrench a squeaky cheer out of every barely positive economic indicator as every poll reflects our true pessimism. Our games provide no diversion. The NFL lockout continues. The NBA lockout sides look as intractable as the Democrats and Republicans posturing in Washington with a debt deadline looming. Just as they can agree only that the president is wrong, the only thing we can agree on about our public education system is that it’s broke and broken.
But who do we want to be? We know that when we see it. That’s why we watched, texted, refreshed and Tweeted for two hours Wednesday afternoon as the U.S. women’s soccer team again did at the World Cup what we would like to do as a nation: recover, endure, prosper.
Lucky to be up on a marvelously skilled French side 1-0 at half, the U.S. women reached the second half drained. France tied the score. The United States clearly wasn’t replenished from Sunday’s miracle over Brazil and malodorous officiating. Weary prey.
“We lost our legs. But we picked up our heart,” U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said on ESPN after the game.
Sundhage inserted Megan Rapinoe at midfield and moved Abby Wambach back to midfield. Wambach, again owning the air like Eddie Rickenbacker once did, headed home the first of two second-half goals that took out the French.
But it’s the heart part that made Wednesday the perfect follow-up to Sunday.
The U.S. women’s soccer team found a way. While we as a nation and as individuals search for a way to move forward out of so much muck, the team did so successfully. Enervated by recent events, they didn’t give in to the tangible feel that they were no longer surfing the game’s waves so much as trying to avoid being drowned. We want to believe we’ll do the same. We want to believe it’s still what Americans do.
Pluck and this country didn’t get married at the first Rocky movie. Pluck is in our foundation. Our Revolutionary War matched a rag-tag bunch against the No. 1-ranked nation’s army. The outgunned spinoffs won on guts and brains.
We’re not giant fans of intellect. Call it “ingenuity,” and we’re on the bandwagon. From the light bulb to the rope-a-dope, that’s America, we smile. Now, we look for the next culture-curving better mousetrap, not entirely sure it will come from us or that we will be able to perfect it. Back in 1979, we called it a “crisis of confidence.”
That’s the era into which blew the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, The Miracle on Ice bunch. We love remembering how a bunch of U.S. college kids knocked off the mighty Soviet Union, the best team in the world.
Comparisons of that to 2011 U.S. women’s soccer aren’t fair to the women. It’s not the Olympics. There’s no two-week buildup to the big game (which, in 1980, was a medal-round game, not a championship game). We were considered long shots to even medal going into the 1980 Olympic hockey tournament while the U.S. women were ranked as contenders for the World Cup. And unless Japan changes its politics in the next three days, the opponent Sunday won’t be our current Big Bad as was the case when the United States faced the Soviet Union.
But the setup is similar. Through general bleakness comes a bunch of athletes with too much gumption to stay down and making us point to them with, “Yeah, that’s America the beautiful.”

United States vs Japan – Women’s World Cup Finals Preview
Thursday, July 14, 2011- ProSportsColorado.com


Hope Solo has outplayed opposing goaltenders all tournament. She and her American teammates need one more great game to reach the heights of women's soccer


Before the United States takes on Japan in the Women’s World Cup Final this Sunday, Abby Wambach’s head will become a full-blown celebrity. Hope Solo’s contagious smile will be burned indelibly into the American sports audience’s consciousness. Homare Sawa will become an even larger celebrity in her home nation of Japan where she is already its most revered female sports figure.

These are the stakes of the suddenly wildly popular Women’s World Cup. In America, the heart and unrivaled joy displayed by the US women is a welcome reprieve from the sickening labor battles that cloud pro football and basketball. In Japan, this maiden voyage to the World Cup Finals is a symbol of hope for a nation ravaged by earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout.

The plot lines run deep for both teams, and the US sprint to the finals became a potent symbol of American perseverance following Saturday’s epic defeat of Brazil in the quarterfinals. Now these stalwart women have run on weary legs through a dangerous French team that dominated long stretches of a grueling semifinal match. That rousing 3-1 win over the rising French has given the 2011 American Women a chance to achieve such soccer immortality as is enjoyed by the legendary 1999 World Cup Champion US team.

Japan also won twin battles against stacked odds when they downed the home-nation Germans in a shocking 1-0 quarterfinals match. The undersized Japanese turned around and beat a similarly tall, physical Swedish side in Wednesday’s semifinals. Japan has only graduated from group play twice, and it was the United States that sent them packing last time via a 4-0 quarterfinals defeat in 1995. In fact, the Japanese have failed to score on the Americans in their only two games against the US at the Women’s World Cup. A 3-0 Japanese loss to the United States in 1991 group play rounds out historical World Cup matches between the two sides.

To be sure, though, this Japanese team has displayed more toughness on defense and more offensive dynamism than any before it. Led by the cagey veteran Sawa, Japan is playing its typical brand of technically brilliant soccer but with more confidence and creativity.

That could be trouble for the United States, who have struggled all tournament to control the ball through its midfielders. Japan’s midfield moves the ball so concisely that their American counterparts will be challenged to keep pace. While the Japanese have always struggled to make good on their long-lasting precision possessions, they are well known for their ability to play keep-away through quickness and crisp touch-passing.

Meanwhile, the Americans will come to Sunday’s Final with superior defense, goaltending and height. Perhaps most importantly, the US will come to fore with Abby Wambach on a striking tear and a handful of other American forwards capable of finishing opportunities. What the United States lacks in mid-field possession dominance is more than made up for with their dearth of scorers and by goalie Hope Solo.

In the end, it will be on Solo to keep a clean sheet long enough for the US to generate a lead. Whispers before this tournament suggested that Hope may be the best female goaltender in the world, and she has been making a very convincing case for that opinion throughout this World Cup.

With another strong showing between the pipes, Solo’s strength could catapult these American women to legendary status. Just one more win and the new guard will finally find themselves equals to the exhilarating 1999 US team that first brought women’s soccer to the hearts and minds of America.

Women's World Cup 2011, USA Vs. Japan: USA's Run Awakens Country's Interest In Soccer

by Charlie Wilmoth

Monte Poole of the Bay Area News Group writes that the USA's run through the 2011 Women's World Cup has awakened the United States' interest in soccer, a sport to which it often seems ambivalent. Poole compares the team to the USA's last World Cup winner, the 1999 team:

Indeed, the '99 team cut an impressive figure, like the perfect big sister. The '11 team simply is driven to create its own footprints, to remind the world that the U.S. still matters and to inform an indifferent country there is more to women's soccer than anything that happened a dozen years ago ...

Given the increased discussion of the World Cup, nearly all of it since Sunday's mesmerizing final minutes, it appears the team is succeeding.

After beating good Brazilian and French teams, the U.S. will face Japan in the finals on Sunday at 2:45 PM Eastern. The U.S. has beaten Japan repeatedly this year, but Japan just beat Sweden, which had defeated the U.S. earlier in the World Cup.

The resurgence in USA interest in soccer is well-timed, since it should help the USA-based league Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) stay solvent. The team's run through the World Cup could have lasting implications for the future of soccer in the U.S.

I know David Neal. Nice guy.

Of course he is wrong.

You could have read a similar article regarding Soccer becoming big time in the USA during every World Cup since the 1970's

When the US hosted the World Cup Soccer was going to explode.

When the US women's team won it would be huge.

After the US/England match at the last World Cup NFL fans would become FIFA fans.

Soccer is played by a lot of young boys in the US because their mothers think it is cool and, more importantly, SAFE. Once the boy's testicles grow a bit they tell their mom's to forget it and they play more manly and interesting sports.

The only reason Soccer is so popular around the world is because any malnourished, idiot from any 3rd world country or lower class, lout can play it. All you need is a ball and some open ground. Not much brain power or equipment needed.

anthonyc remarks

The only reason Soccer is so popular around the world is because any malnourished, idiot from any 3rd world country or lower class, lout can play it.

in the event that any low class idiot and lout can play it, that should make you Pele.

You could say the same thing regarding, many other sports. Soccer teaches tactics, discipline and aerobic fitness, unlike baseball, tennis, golf, or other sports.
What about yachting, that is an elitist "sport" that takes very little physical effort, and only available to a tiny minority.

Please Dread, I met Pele and he is a gentleman and an athlete even in his later years. Tony just wants to get some attention, he doesn't get any at home.

[QUOTE=generoso]
Guys please be careful what you post, my last thread was evaporated, probably because of the blatant nude photos. Remember that DT is not Playboy, and certain "decor" has to be maintained because of international copyright arrangements, and DT's own nudity policies. Have fun but do not stretch to the limits prudent behavior.
Posting photos like this one are OK
[IMG]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRCX-BVYqNIkIn6VimtIbtmboVtFr2h58csoJTLlJTNutQsdRFrJw[/IMG]

And photos like this one are probably OK too, maybe
[IMG]http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/955glo.com/files/2011/01/sexy17.jpg[/IMG]
[/QUOTE]
Crap,

I really was enjoying the thread, and many of the pictures were great and refreshing. Those skin-fitting uniforms were great [hah, hah, hah, ha] and most revealing; i hope someone patented the material!!!

SOCCER??? Discipline? Tactics? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

More than Football or baseball? More than Yachting or Autoracing?

You must be high!!!

Check out the discipline



Great sport to teach the kids.

[QUOTE=glomarexplorer]

Crap,

I really was enjoying the thread, and many of the pictures were great and refreshing. Those skin-fitting uniforms were great [hah, hah, hah, ha] and most revealing; i hope someone patented the material!!!
[/QUOTE]

The girls with the "painted" uniforms where OK, what turned the tide and was that maybe, some female visitors did not like the "unfair competition", and started throwing darts at the thread