Truth be told, my feelings of mercy are such that – after the United States scored four improbable goals in the first sixteen minutes of this match – I switched to The Forsyte Saga on PBS. Not to mention that I picked Cameroon to win.
For the first time since 1999, the FIFA Women’s World Cup is back in the hands of the U.S. Women’s National Team, who defeated Japan 5-2 on Sunday before an estimated crowd of 53,341 in Vancouver, Canada…
They only allowed one goal in their first match of group play, before Japan scored two in the final, making 539 minutes of play between goals allowed. The U.S. also surpassed Germany’s 111 total goals scored in FIFA’s Women’s World Cup history, with 112.
(Huffington Post, July 5, 2015)
I just wish commentators would spare us the claptrap about this victory kicking off transformative interest in this beautiful game among Americans. After all, they’ve been saying the same thing after every World Cup and Summer Olympics ever since the U.S. women won their first world cup in 1991. Meanwhile, more Americans tune in weekly to watch America’s Got Talent than the number who tuned in over the past few weeks to watch World Cup matches.
Frankly, waiting for Soccer’s popularity to play out in the United States, as has been scripted so often, is rather like Waiting for Godot.
Congratulations Team USA!
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* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Sunday, at 10:31 pm