The Beautiful Game

This past weekend one of the best sporting contests in the history of the Unites States took place.  It did not involve a baseball, a football, a basketball, a hockey puck, a golf ball, a bowling ball, a race car, a track, horses, or water.  Kobe was not in sight.  Michael Phelps was busy.  Peyton Manning was still locked out.

All that was needed was some green grass, a few nets, a round ball, and some amazing athletes.  Many of these people are not household names.  Many of them may never be, but they sure did their best to try and catch our attention.

For those of you that somehow missed it the USA Women's National Team defeated Brazil in the 2011 Women's World Cup.  It was one of the most enthralling contests I have ever had the privilege to watch.  To put this in perspective I am not an avid soccer (futbol) fan.  I appreciate the game.  Its not easy and as Americans many of us don't quite understand it...  Yet.  However, on Sunday, it was the venue for amazing sports theatre.

The American women led early 1-0 due to an own goal by Brazil in the opening minutes as the Americans pressured early.  After that it seemed somewhat sloppy for the next 60 minutes or so, but that's when things got real interesting.  At the 65 minute mark US player, Rachel Buehler, received a red card for a penalty on Marta inside the US box.  This meant that Marta (world's best women's player) received a penalty kick and Buehler was sent off.  For those of you that don't follow soccer there is no penalty box.  The player is gone to Soccer purgatory, and the their team must play down one man (or woman) for the remainder of the match.  Surprisingly, Marta did not take the penalty kick as Brazilian, Christiane, stepped up to try and even the match at 1.  Standing in her way was arguably the best female goal tender on the planet in Hope Solo.  As Christiane prepared to attempt her try, Solo bounced on her line waiting to pounce like a hungry panther.  Christiane fired a rocket towards the post but Solo was there to punch it away in a miraculous fashion.  I let out some type of loud WOO sound and attached a Kirk Gibson fist pump to it.  I turned to my wife and explained how amazing that was.  For the moment it looked like she had made the save of the tournament and that the Americans had avoided disaster.  That was not the case though, as the referee ruled that the Americans encroached on the attempt and Brazil was awarded with another penalty kick.  Brazil did not miss their second attempt and it looked somewhat bleak for the American ladies.  They had just been basically screwed six ways to Sunday and had to play down one man for the remainder of regulation and possibly thirty minutes of extra time.  This horrific call on the Hope Solo save coupled with the red card of Buehler seemed to ignite the American team.  They pushed forward for the remaining regulation time and actually seemed to play better down a man.  They survived regulation and headed into Extra time. 

Extra time wasn't as kind to the Americans as the the last twenty minutes of regulation.  Within the first two minutes Marta scored for Brazil with an effort that even your newest soccer fan would know was incredible.  This put the American ladies' backs to the wall for the remainder of the extra period.  They were now down one goal, down one man, and looked down and out of the World Cup.  Their dream of bringing the cup back to the States for the third time seemed fleeting.

Play continued for 28 more grueling minutes.  It was sizzling hot on the pitch and you could tell that the long match was starting to take its toll on the competitors.  Brazil still led 2-1 as play entered the final three minutes of injury time.  The American women were desperate now.  They had to muster one last run to try and even this game and head to a Penalty Kick shoot out.  They did just that.  With about a minute remaining in their tournament lives the Americans started a run from their own goal.  They moved up the pitch in three touches as the ball found Megan Rapinoe along the far side, about 30 yards from the box.  Megan hesitated for a moment to allow Abby Wambach to get into position in the Brazil zone.  Megan then lofted an unbelievable cross that found the head of Abby as Wambach buried a header into the net to tie the game at two.  It was the latest goal ever scored in a World Cup match.  The Americans had somehow found a way to send the match to Penalty Kicks. 

The rest is history.  Hope Solo made another huge stop in the PK round and the American women buried all of their tries to beat Brazil and move on to the Semi-Finals vs. France.  It was like hitting a grand slam in the 13th inning to tie the game and then having the very next batter hit a HR to win it.  Back to Back walk-off style.  On a sports goose bumps scale of 1 - 10 it was a 10.  It didn't matter that it was only soccer.  It didn't matter that it was a woman's

As the USA Women's team heads into the Semi-Finals tomorrow vs. France I will cheer them on and hope that they bring the third Cup Championship home to the USA.  I will also hope that both the Men's and Women's teams continue to gain momentum and support so that as a nation we will embrace this sport.  This is the world's sport after all and it would nice to have the best nation in the world realize that.