At least they handled their loss with class
As you might have heard by now, the U.S. women's soccer team, the best team nobody's heard of (a point the players themselves made frequently even without the ads), got waxed by Brazil, 4-0, in the World Cup semifinal this morning. It was a 90-minute comedy of errors. An own goal. An ejection. Bad offense. Bad defense. Bad coaching. Or so that's what the message-boarders are saying. Plus massive team dissension, because the coach changed goalies before the game.
Here's how massive the dissension is.
That was the goalie who got benched speaking.
Now, ponder all of this on its own merits -- the build-up, the hype, the self-promotion, the ad campaign, the borderline arrogance, the vicious comeuppance and the back-stabbing, excuse-making and selfish post-loss whining. Gather your feelings. Lock them in. Decide whether it bothers you or whether you're shrugging it off, because it's just women's soccer, America's darlings just a few years ago but kind of a pleasant distant memory, and besides, now it's football season and the climax of the pennant races.
Then imagine if this was the U.S. basketball team at any recent international competition doing all the exact same things.
Discuss.
Comments
The womens' U.S. soccer team wasn't "America's darlings" a few years ago. They were American sports media's darlings a few years ago. No one cares about soccer in general aside from a small contigent of diehards, and no one really cares about womens' soccer, especially since Mia Hamm is gone. I'd even argue that the sold out stadiums that greeted (over-hyped, over-promoted) David Beckham were more for his celebrity than his ahtleticism.
Oh, wait. Maybe you were trying to make a point that if this were a group of rich, petulant young black men we'd be outraged. Maybe so, but that's more because (some) people still care about basketball and no one cares about womens' soccer and has little to do with race.
Posted by: brstevens | September 28, 2007 8:24 AM
one player on the entire team complained. As for the rest of the team they did the following
A) Complimented Brazil
B) Abby Wambach IMMEDIATELY congratulated and hugged Marta at the conclusion of the game.
C) Acknowledged their own faults as they have through the entire tournament with comments such as we have not played the best soccer that we want to
Now as for the hype....well with the games playing at 5am, and the main spot for their commercials running DURING the games... sure that's massive hype. Now need I remind you that the vast majority of people have no idea who Kristine Lilly is still?
When she first met her husband he had no idea who she was and thought she was kidding when she said she was going to the Olympics and would bring back a medal if she won.
Why don't you make an effort to promote positive incidents among male athletes instead of making overzealous claims and putting down female athletes in a crappy attempt to neutralize critics?
Posted by: EF | September 29, 2007 2:15 AM