Sunday, July 17, 2011

Women's World Cup

Since the women's world cup wrapped up earlier today I thought I would write a few thoughts I had about the tournament as a whole. First of all congrats to the Japanese they played a fantastic tournament and played well when it mattered most. Also our hearts and prayers go out to them in their time of need as they are still recovering from that terrible earthquake/tsunami that struck them in March. The USA played fantastic through out the tournament and captured the hearts of many Americans including myself. From their dominating performance against Colombia to the dramatic and stressful penalty kick win over Brazil this team embodied the American spirit and made me proud to be an American. Unfortunately they came up just a little short, but that should not diminish the legacy this team leaves behind. It also showed me how Americans seem to only get excited for soccer when it's either on the world stage or when something exciting like the Brazil game happens. Then we as Americans either forget that we sat riveted to the television these last two weeks or we settle back into our normal habits of hating soccer because it's "boring" or "slow" well as shown in these last 2 world cups soccer can draw our attention, and the excitement is there. American players such as Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo now become household names, and are beginning to change how Americans see soccer. If there was one thing I want everyone to take from this world cup experience is that soccer is a very exciting sport and just because people aren't getting crushed every 5 seconds doesn't mean the game isn't physical, and just because a game ends 1-0 or 0-0 doesn't mean it's not exciting or entertaining. Soccer is a sport the world embraces yet we still hold back. If we embrace soccer now not only will we see what the world sees, but our teams can become more competitive through out the world. With more young kids in soccer than ever before our national teams can compete and someday we can be partying in the streets with a world cup title to show for our efforts. Soccer is fun and enlightening please embrace the international movement that is the beautiful game.