The '99 women's World Cup team: Why the appeal?

Dick, I'm pretty sure if you look hard enough, you'll find a strawman somewhere that you haven't set up for yourself to knock down on this thread.

 

If I have one quibble with the way the women's tournament was portrayed, it is that the harsh "choking" angle was ignored, which is one of the things that often happens in coverage of women's sports. There were three breakdowns by three different defenders on Japan's first goal, and the PKs were a joke. But for the most part what we got was a "you did your country proud, girls."

That actually was one of the more encouraging things about the men's Cup last year and thinking they had turned a corner -- not that they made the elimination round but that people were upset about how they lost and were forming semi-intelligent questions about what could have been done differently with the lineup or the tactics.

 

All due respect, Dick, but

A) it's sports, not the history of social violence in the US. So the categories, are, yes, almost entirely arbitrary, and

B) you framed your original post in such a way as to imply individuals were saying these things, not

C) some giant sports information company. ESPN inflates things, as do all media companies, and as should be well known by now.

 

Good to see that our running series, "Explain The World To Dick," hasn't been canceled.

I wish I could say the same for "The J Game."

 

It was Brandi Chastain's unbroken line from hip to hem that really won Americans over.

 

"The J Game" (NBC, Wednesdays, 9 PM ET) Dabney Coleman, Marg Helgenberger, Kelly Osbourne

Disaster strikes when Roger substitute teaches at the community college; Lois strikes out with guest star Meadowlark Lemon; Teeny sleeps in. (Rerun; CC)

 

Solid. And glad Teeny found work!

 

Mia Hamm has PM'ed Mark and asked him to request that we not out her on this thread.

 

i believe i either made this point -- or tried to, poorly -- earlier on this or another thread: we'll know women's soccer in particular has 'made it' when it is covered and analyzed with the same critical, cynical eye men's sports are. 'kid gloves' barely describes the treatment sportswriters, tv analysts, most fans use on women's sports, which i'd imagine the women resent. or, if they're too thin-skinned to resent it, they should.

 

This. WFW.

According to this ESPN sportscience vid,

, goalies have to guess in advance where the ball might be headed because of the speed of it all. If you're the one making the PK, you've got anywhere from a 75-85% chance of scoring against the goalie in net.

But when your first PK is a weak dribbler and your second one sails into the cheap seats, you don't do yourself any favors, especially after the aforementioned lapses on D. It's almost inexcusable if you don't ring up 4-5 goals in PKs at that level.

 

I liked the 99 team better because they weren't so fucking arrogant. I got really sick of Solo and Abby all but guaranteeing that they were gonna win. If they'd had a more carefree attitude like Megan Rapinoe, perhaps it would've served them better.