OK, Im in. In for life.
The U.S. womens national soccer team, with its skill and its talent and its professionalism, made me the kind of fan I havent been since Doc and the Sixers.
To be clear: They dont need me. I need them.
I am sure I am not alone in this realization. I am sure there are millions of men like me, but millions of women, too; casual sports fans, or even non-sports fans. We already doted on Delran native Carli Lloyd, but over the last month we invested deeply in Alex Morgan and Tobin Heath and the marvelous Megan Rapinoe (its rah-PEA-no), and in their gritty supporting cast, and we fell in love with the idea of the team and with the spirit of the team and our lives are a little better.
I dont watch sports. For free. Ive covered dozens of big-time events Super Bowl and World Series, Stanley Cups and Olympics, Masters and U.S. Opens, but this is maybe the fifth sporting event Ive watched start-to-finish without being paid to do so. Why?
None of those events captured my soul like this run to a fourth Cup. I have been completely fixated.
How fixated? Well, when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George landed with the Clippers early Saturday morning, all I cared about was whether Christen Press, my choice, would start in the final over Rapinoe. For the record, Rapinoe scored the winning goal Sunday, won the Golden Boot as the tournaments leading scorer, and won the Golden Ball as the tournaments outstanding player; my horrible record as a prognosticator remains intact.
Why this fixation? Because they play beautifully, and they play relentlessly; but also, because they play authentically and speak authentically. And, unlike the men, they dont dive all the time. The women have fewer drama queens. Go figure.
More than anything, though, these women represent more than sport. They represent progress, and in this divided and progressively regressive world they represent hope. And they know it.
Nikes I believe commercial, which ran just minutes after their 2-0 win over the Netherlands on Sunday, gave me chills I havent felt since Apple smashed the Big Brother screen.
Well keep fighting not just to make history, but to change it.
As the ad said: This team wins. Everyone wins.
All of this makes me feel good. Maybe it makes you feel good, too.
If this comes off as patronizing, so be it. The team didnt court me, but I hope it will have me.
As a man immersed in sports by both vocation and choice, womens sports has often been satellite to the more mainstream endeavors; read, mens endeavors. Id watch womens golf (partly because I have a golf problem), and, reluctantly, softball, volleyball and tennis. But certainly not soccer. I played the game, and Ill occasionally peek at mens soccer on TV, but this team made a difference for me.
It wasnt just me, either. The No. 1 article on Inquirer.com on Sunday morning before the game began detailed how to watch or stream it, and it collected twice the traffic of the No. 2 story. ESPN announced Saturday that it will televise 14 National Womens Soccer League Games in 2019, including the playoffs. First up: ballhandling wizard Heath and the Portland Thorns vs. tea-sipping cover-girl striker Morgan and the Orlando Pride next Sunday.
The U.S. semifinal against France on Tuesday averaged 7.03 million viewers, the third-largest U.S. soccer audience regardless of gender since the 2015 Womens World Cup final.
Hundreds of thousands of fans attended World Cup watch parties Sunday, from Philly to Boston to Bethlehem, Pa.
This personal reset button came out of nowhere, but theres something exhilarating about watching strong, confident women develop a game over a 20-year span. This edition of womens soccer is its pinnacle.
