Im conflicted. Of all the people to make the penalty goal they picked Rapino. Do you root aganst your country. ?
Honestly I think that call was pretty questionable. I'm glad they scored a really great goal about 10 minutes later. The Dutch really got a lot farther than their abilities. The USA pretty much dominated the play. The Dutch got most of their goals in the tournament by set pieces, which means as an open field squad they didn't have that much offense. And that showed today Rapinoe is one hell of a play maker.
I don't like it when sports gets political anymore than the rest of you. But please, there's just few players on a big, hard working squad that mouth off. The rest, and therefore the totality of the accomplishment, deserves respect and congratulations.
I just wonder how much longer the U.S. women will be able to keep this superiority. The rest of the world is bound to catch up.
The Dutch showed little imagination or quickness offensively..especially in the box,when they got there..goalie made some great stops keeping it a game..but the pressure finally got to the defense,mistakes were made,ergo score..the Dutch had opps in the box but took time setting/teeing it up,losing it..USA defense a step quicker than the rest,all of’em...fun tournament. CheersRE
I'm not sure about that.... We have a huge pool of talent coming out of schools all across American and good funding. The USA had one or two games where they kinda played lack luster and almost could have lost. But I feel they never really showed their potential in these games because few actually challenged them. The British could have beaten them with a few breaks. Today they dominated the Netherlands.
Totally agree. But when you look at all the private sporting camps - the USA has hundreds of them, if not thousands, kids are in these camps starting at about age 5 - why do we have such a hard time competing with countries with 1/10th the population - or less, and nowhere NEAR the financial resources? You would think the USA would 'own' tennis, golf, soccer, volleyball...
That's because of the alternatives that are more attractive than soccer; American kids play football, basketball, lacrosse and baseball in addition to futbol/soccer. Just think what kind of soccer player Russel Wilson, Kyler Murphy, Steph Curry or Chris Paul would have been if they focused on that sport as a kid?
The success of US women's soccer can be traced to Title 9 and it's impact on the development of the sport at the youth level. Once young girls could get equal access to college scholarships to play the sport, participation in our female youth programs flourished. Our talent pool for the women is very deep as a result. Here's a recent article on the topic: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/06/usa-womens-world-cup-netherlands-title-xi
The reply about Title IX is part of the problem as well. In order to meet the letter of the law, men in college are the victims of reverse discrimination - in order to provide enough women's programs, many men's programs have had to be sacrificed, and I feel that Title IX needs to be rewritten to eliminate that problem. As long as the women have their opportunities, the men should not be deprived of theirs. As an example, my alma mater, the University of Florida, has successful women's soccer, lacrosse and volleyball teams, but the men have to play at the club level, with no scholarships and the need for them to pay their own way, to meet Title IX. The men have never had a gymnastics team, unlike the women, and they had to eliminate a men's wrestling team that had been moderately successful. Maybe if all the universities that have full-fledged women's soccer teams, but not men's teams because of Title IX, would be allowed to have those men's teams, more talented male players would play soccer in college and perhaps develop into world-class players.
How? USA has won Wimbledon or any other major tennis tournament when, last? And by 'own', I mean Team USA should never lose in international competition, be it soccer or volleyball, not with all the 'talent' we have here, and all the sports academies and training facilities we have cranking out athletes....
