Women's World Cup
Yes it was excruciatingly painful to watch the USA lose yesterday. But in a sense the game and tournament had far larger implications that were more important. For here was truly a superb athletic event-the entire World Cup not just this match-that had you glued to the set and watching these wonderful athletes perform. Here was evidence that women playing sport can be as entertaining as men and maybe more so because of their approach to the game.
I have been a woman's sports fan for a very long time. I take my share of crap from the neandrathal men I hang around with sometimes or sit with at a sports bar. I have to put up with them providing their 1950's commentary on women playing sports and I have to constantly stand alone in arguing that women's sports are much more pure than men's. I mean really, I argue, do you think Naismith intended for the game to be played with giants stuffing the ball down each other's throats or setting up behind the arc for a jump shot (actually it was a two handed push shot)?
Surely the Women's World Cup is a showcase for this. (And by the way, it pisses me off that they call it the WOMEN'S World Cup. They don't call the men's event the MEN'S World Cup do they? I have the same problem with names like Lady Vols. This too is the WORLD CUP; if it's the Women's World Cup the other one should be the Men's World Cup.) In this two weeks of soccer we saw some of the most fundamental and fun soccer ever. And we saw women play as strong and hard as the men without flopping all over the place or feigning injury after injury (except the damn Brazilians), and providing some of the most powerful shots and perfect passes I have seen in the game. They played the game the way it was intended to be played, I think.
The world fell in love with Hope Solo. (I still have problem with an athlete that threw her team and fellow players under the bus, but the women's game is also about forgiveness. Few remember that Brandi Chastain, who won the '99 WC with the bra exposing penalty kick also once crossed the picket line when the women's team was holding out for better conditions.) The world also fell in love with Homare Sawa who just plugged away and plugged away and kept the US on its heels the whole game. (She said "when the US scores they stop moving their feet. We saw that.") And the world enjoyed watching players picking each other up off the pitch after knocking them down in a show of sportsmanship, and tapping each other on the head after contending with another player and falling to the ground, things men find un-manly (and something in the NFL that will result in being ostracized by your teammates).
Truth is not only do I hope more girls take to sport and more men wake up to the beauty of their games, but I also believe the world of sport needs more women running the joint. Do you think for a minute that the NFL and NBA would be in the condition they are in if women were running the leagues? Never happen. They're too smart and they don't have all the ego baggage to carry around.
I love soccer and watching the international events is as close as I come to having jingoistic feelings about my country. I always want us to win and always watch us play, even in friendlies (Maureen and I scheduled our life last year for the MEN'S World Cup matches on TV). And I love watching women compete because they do so without all the junk we men bring to everything we do like that clown Harrison in the NFL and Dennis Rodman in the NBA. They have their characters, I know and they aren't perfect (there have been a few bad ones in the WNBA and we did have the Hope Solo incident) but all in all they just play the game and I love that.
I wish men could do that. Just play the damn game and stop spending time with stupid celebrations in the end zone or high fives (my Cubs...the stinking, lousy Cubs, lead the league is elaborate silly high five dances in the dugout, which, of course, they only get to do about once a week because they lose every game). Stop worrying about changing your name to get more attention. Just play...like women do.
Hated that we lost yesterday but loved that women from every team in the tournament showed what sport can be like. Women do that you know.
I have been a woman's sports fan for a very long time. I take my share of crap from the neandrathal men I hang around with sometimes or sit with at a sports bar. I have to put up with them providing their 1950's commentary on women playing sports and I have to constantly stand alone in arguing that women's sports are much more pure than men's. I mean really, I argue, do you think Naismith intended for the game to be played with giants stuffing the ball down each other's throats or setting up behind the arc for a jump shot (actually it was a two handed push shot)?
Surely the Women's World Cup is a showcase for this. (And by the way, it pisses me off that they call it the WOMEN'S World Cup. They don't call the men's event the MEN'S World Cup do they? I have the same problem with names like Lady Vols. This too is the WORLD CUP; if it's the Women's World Cup the other one should be the Men's World Cup.) In this two weeks of soccer we saw some of the most fundamental and fun soccer ever. And we saw women play as strong and hard as the men without flopping all over the place or feigning injury after injury (except the damn Brazilians), and providing some of the most powerful shots and perfect passes I have seen in the game. They played the game the way it was intended to be played, I think.
The world fell in love with Hope Solo. (I still have problem with an athlete that threw her team and fellow players under the bus, but the women's game is also about forgiveness. Few remember that Brandi Chastain, who won the '99 WC with the bra exposing penalty kick also once crossed the picket line when the women's team was holding out for better conditions.) The world also fell in love with Homare Sawa who just plugged away and plugged away and kept the US on its heels the whole game. (She said "when the US scores they stop moving their feet. We saw that.") And the world enjoyed watching players picking each other up off the pitch after knocking them down in a show of sportsmanship, and tapping each other on the head after contending with another player and falling to the ground, things men find un-manly (and something in the NFL that will result in being ostracized by your teammates).
Truth is not only do I hope more girls take to sport and more men wake up to the beauty of their games, but I also believe the world of sport needs more women running the joint. Do you think for a minute that the NFL and NBA would be in the condition they are in if women were running the leagues? Never happen. They're too smart and they don't have all the ego baggage to carry around.
I love soccer and watching the international events is as close as I come to having jingoistic feelings about my country. I always want us to win and always watch us play, even in friendlies (Maureen and I scheduled our life last year for the MEN'S World Cup matches on TV). And I love watching women compete because they do so without all the junk we men bring to everything we do like that clown Harrison in the NFL and Dennis Rodman in the NBA. They have their characters, I know and they aren't perfect (there have been a few bad ones in the WNBA and we did have the Hope Solo incident) but all in all they just play the game and I love that.
I wish men could do that. Just play the damn game and stop spending time with stupid celebrations in the end zone or high fives (my Cubs...the stinking, lousy Cubs, lead the league is elaborate silly high five dances in the dugout, which, of course, they only get to do about once a week because they lose every game). Stop worrying about changing your name to get more attention. Just play...like women do.
Hated that we lost yesterday but loved that women from every team in the tournament showed what sport can be like. Women do that you know.
I watched the games, but I never heard about any buses. Where'd they come from and where'd they go? I guess Hope was driving, but if she ran over her whole team, how'd they recover so fast? I dunno,
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm just out of touch and slow....