by Joseph Landini
High Heat Network
http://highheatnetwork.com/?p=390
We sit here three days after the USA Women’s soccer team lost in the finals, and say what? Nothing. It has only taken three days for the loss of the World Cup to blow over. Why do you ask? Well it is simple, the United States of America does not care enough like other countries do.
Both women and men’s soccer struggle with the same problem. Kids at a young age love to play soccer, because they are more then capable of kicking a ball around. The problem is as children grow older, they grow the strength to take a hit, reach a ten foot hoop, and have the hand eye coordination to hit a baseball. Soccer becomes bland to many. In other countries, soccer is the main sport, and the one kids grow and train for. The sport that everyone plays their entire life. Places such as Brazil and Argentina are perfect examples. Now answer this question. What team is known for being THE soccer team of the world? Brazil.
Now just to get this out of the way, if anyone was thinking that I thought no one cared about this loss because it is a women’s team, then you are ridiculous. Women’s sports, although sometimes lacking flash and pazaz, show the world how sports are suppose to be played… with team work. Look at basketball. The men’s game is all about the stars and the flash, while the girls game is about team work and making everyone on the team better. Gender is a non issue in this case. Enough said.
Coming into the World Cup, could you name five players on the team? How about three? Could you even give me two? No. Yes as the rounds went on, and the USA won games, the names of Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, and Abby Wambach became the heroes of the nation it seemed. If you do not know your team though, then it really is not that important. This is exactly why we sit here three days later and ESPN did not mention the loss at all, or yesterday for that matter. If it was mentioned, it was most likely just a minute spot for filler in the program.
Everything above has a snowball effect to this point. How many people jumped on the bandwagon on Sunday? Look in the mirror, because I guarentee 75% of Americans did, then another 10% went for Japan, and finally the category which I fall in.
The 5% of people who really could care less, because they knew it would not matter at the end of the day. In all sports, when it comes down to the final two teams for the championship, everyone picks a side. Maybe not a die hard fan, but everyone acts like a fan of a team in some sort of way. The Dallas Mavericks went from a good amount of fans to the majority of the world rooting for them, because of the hate torwards Lebron James. The NFL saw fans running torward Green Bay, because everyone wanted a cheese head and to act like they were wearing a championship belt. My problem with the World Cup is that everyone jumped on board the band wagon, WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE TEAM. At least in the professional sports you know certain players to root for or against, but you are telling me most Americans actually knew Hope Solo, let alone the game of soccer? NO. Now for the people who will argue that it is different because it’s more relevant then just a professional championship (NBA, MLB, etc…), you are just lieing to yourself. No one is still crying or verbally upset that USA lost the World Cup. South beach is still in an uproar that Lebron and company could not bring home the title, while in Pittsburgh there are still excuses being made why they lost to Green Bay and could not get the job done. If something major in sports is being talked about after time goes by, then it matters. We are three days removed from a penalty kick finale, and it is less then an after thought.
Finally, the last point is that when you look around blogs and social media and people comment on the World Cup, what do you see? Most comments are something like, “Well good for Japan, they needed it after all the disasters.” If all of the band wagon jumpers, and all of AMERICA actually cared so hard for this team, then they would be up in arms three days after. I am happy for Japan too for that same reason, but I was not on the wagon at any point. I am not saying that NO ONE cares that USA lost, or that NO ONE in America is a true fan, but the truth is the majority of Americans woke up Monday morning without a tear or shed of heart break.
-Joseph Landini
Highheatnetwork.com
Josephlandini.blogspot.com
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