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

As to why 1999 was big -- we like our national teams to win international events. It was summer and nothing else on but baseball. It was here. And it was cool to see a team of women succeed. A lot of that was also true in 2011.

I took my almost 6 year old girl to see US-Mexico at Red Bull Arena in the kick-off match before this WWC. She said to me -- no joke -- "I didn't know that girls could play on a boys field". We watched a bunch of the matches together including the final. She put her US shirt on before every one of our matches, even those we watched on DVR. She cried when we lost yesterday. And she wants to be Heather O'Reilly when she grows up (mostly because my wife is from the same town). This summer will stay with me because of that.

 

The debate over whether or not this was a "choke" has been long and loud. And per Deitsch at SI the game drew about 13.5 million viewers, 6th most for a soccer game all-time.

#1? The 1999 WWC Final, with nearly 18 million.

 

Maybe "ignored" overstated it, but A) there's really no debate, it was a choke and would be labeled as such were it a standard men's professional event; and B) that has been a secondary angle to what it did for the game, how hard they played, the inspiration of a new generation of girls, etc.

 

Futbol analyst Tommy Smyth offered some solid analysis this AM on Mike & Mike.

He criticized the US coach/tactics late, after the 2-1 lead, and he was spot on.

 

I didn't hear him, but I'd wager he used his tried and true "couldn't hit the broad side of a bahrn with a cannun" line.

 

blarney blarney the ol' onion bag blarney corned beef

 

Funny you should mention that. There is a world cup of American football (the final was Saturday)
Team France has a Canadian coach
Team Austria is led by the former Southern Illinois coach.
Germany's coach is from North Carolina and used to work for NFL league offices, but seems to have never been a coach anywhere
The other five teams were coached by native sons

 

Huh, what do you know? There is. I never knew that.

Apparently team USA's QB was Cody Hawkins.

 

Again and again on this thread, I think LTL has hit on what I think annoys me about the way the '99 team, and this team as well, is talked about. (And I realize I'm generalizing, setting up a straw man, etc., etc.). I like my sports straight. No sugar. No cream. And that's not how women's sports are covered or watched in the United States.

 

Yeah I saw someone mention it earlier. Do any of us believe those teams wouldn't be better off with top notch U.S. coaches? We are the expert in American football, we are not the expert in futbol.