U.S. women's team is favorite to unite us

The U.S. women’s soccer team is my current favorite team in all of sports.

This is a somewhat surprising development in that A) I know next to nothing about soccer beyond the pre-school level and B) I know the names of only a couple of players on the team.

I’ll learn more. I didn’t realize my sudden devotion until Monday morning, when I thought they were going to lose.

They wound up winning 2-1 in the Women’s World Cup over Spain, a rather dirty team if you ask me. (Lots of penalties, one of which led to the game-winning score.) I watched the second half with an intensity I hadn’t enjoyed since … I don’t know, rooting on Wofford College in its first-round NCAA basketball tournament win.

It made me realize a couple of things.

One is that I’ve been taking the women’s team’s success for granted. While I don’t know much about soccer, I do know that the U.S. women have been great for years. I know it’s an ugly-American cliche to care about soccer only once every four years, when the World Cup rolls around, but in my case it’s true. Sure, you see Alex Morgan in a lot of ads and such, and Megan Rapinoe’s admirable activism keeps her in the news.

But frankly, I just flipped over to the game Monday morning to see how bad we — ha, “we,” as if I were a player, but more on that in a moment — were beating Spain.

We weren’t. It was tied, 1-1, and the announcers were talking about how tough the Spanish team was playing (while noting how rough they were playing, as well).

I panicked. I realized that to the extent that I cared about it, I figured the U.S. women would cruise through and win the World Cup. Maybe I’d catch up then.

But this was most troubling. All of a sudden, I hung on every pass, every shot, EVERY DIRTY PLAY BY MARIA LEON. (Rooting for our national team always carries just a hint of xenophobia. Sorry.)

We had to win. And no, I am not in the habit of saying “we” about a sports team unless I am, in fact, on that team’s roster.

This is different. This is the U.S., so at least in some way, this is US.

That’s important, too. The nation is so divided at the moment that you can’t say 1 and 1 is 2 without somebody calling you a leftist idiot for believing the fake media, or some such.

But this, this team, this is something we can all get behind. The U.S. women’s team isn’t bi-partisan. It’s non-partisan (no matter how you feel about Rapinoe’s activism).

They’re our team. All of us. That’s why, when Rapinoe scored her second goal, I leaped from my seat and yelled, “Yes! USA!”

OK, it sounds kind of silly when you type it out like that. But boy, in the moment, it sure felt good.

It’s about time we had something like this to bring us together. This is a great team — that much was clear. And they’re playing another great team Friday when they meet France. (I gleaned this from the post-game coverage.)

And they are really fun to root for. See you Friday. USA!

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Source: Azcentral.com

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