My first post: Women's World Cup?

So what better of a topic to launch my blog with than...women’s soccer? What can I say? I’ve never been accused of being conventional.

Regardless, today’s U.S.A. vs. Brazil Women’s World Cup Semifinal game will without a doubt go down as one of the most exciting and riveting soccer games (yes, soccer games in general, not just women’s soccer,) in recent memory, if not ever.

Let me first start off with an honest admission of how I came across watching this game: by accident.

Of course I knew the World Cup was on, but to say it was on my list of daily priorities would be a lie. Browsing ESPN.com, I came across a reminder and said, “Oh why not? It’s not like I’m up to anything important.”

Now, as you’ll undoubtedly find out over the course of my blogging “career,” (assuming coming across my blog wasn't some freak accident) I’m a huge fan of soccer. MLS, La Liga, EPL, World Cup, all of it. I love the culture around it and the passion behind it.

Having said that, women’s soccer has never been something I’ve been able to latch onto. Not because of it being a women’s league, for those sexists out there, or because it’s a slower pace than the men’s game, but because it’s impossible to catch on TV. Aside from replays of the Boston Breakers on some local channel at a ridiculous hour, there are never televised games, thus my lack of passion.

Anyway, I turned the game on approximately 20 minutes in, only to hear that the only goal of the game was an own goal by a defender. Sure, not the prettiest of ways to score, but against a powerhouse like Brazil, the US will take anything they can get.

Now I’ll save the play-by-play analysis for ESPN, but for those who don’t know what happened, here’s an abbreviated version.

Marta and U.S. defender Rachel Buehler were shoulder to shoulder just a couple feet from the goal, Marta leapt awkwardly, swung and missed at the ball, turned to the referee screaming, and ended up getting the penalty kick. An unbelievably bad call but the first in what would prove to be many on the day. In addition, Buehler received a red card for committing a penalty on a goal scoring opportunity.

All-World goalie Hope Solo dove and saved the PK, only to hear the news that she’d moved prior to the shot (which, according to soccer law, is only a no-no if she moved forward, which she did not. Game changing call #2 for those keeping score at home.) Solo was unable to save the second attempt, so the U.S. was tied 1-1 with approximately 25 minutes left while also being down a player.

With the fuel of a bad call flowing through their veins, the U.S. actually played better with 10 players than they did with 11 and were able to finish regulation time still tied 1-1. Unfortunately, that was short-lived because Marta put her second goal of the game shortly into the first extra time period (off a cross from a player who was offside’s, bad call #3).

With talks of controversy already rampant (oh come on, when has FIFA ever been anything but commendable?) Abby Wambach buried a header in the 120^th minute off a beautiful cross from Megan Rapinoe that would have made David Beckham blush to send the team into PK’s.

The U.S. team went on to win in PK’s 5-3, but that’s not the story. Nor is the story the fact that karma came around to bite the Brazilians in the end. The story here is the amount of support gained from an event that the U.S. team never wanted to happen—losing a player and getting the shaft from a referee multiple times in a game.

Brazil travels as well as any national team in the world in terms of fan support due to the type of exciting soccer they play. Up until that red card/pk/pk redo, the neutral Germany crowd were on the fence with who they were showing their allegiances to, but you could bet they would move a little closer to the edge of their seats every time a Brazilian forward got the ball with space. Once the U.S. had the series of terrible calls against them though, it all changed, and for a simple reason—the world loves underdogs. The U.S. weren’t underdogs in terms of their abilities, but underdogs in the sense that they may have been prevented from accomplishing a feat they set out to achieve due to things out of their control. Playing a woman down to one of the best soccer teams in the world, on the sport’s biggest stage, and coming back to win despite the refs continued efforts to make sure that didn’t happen is something fans of all sports can get behind. In fact, it’s the stuff movies are made of.

And get behind the fans did, mercilessly booing and whistling at Marta every time she touched the ball. Seemingly willing the referee to hand a yellow card to a Brazilian who went down with a fantom injury, milked three minutes off the clock waiting for a stretcher, then (literally) hopping off said stretcher and jogging away as soon as she was safely off the field. 

When Wambach put that header in the back of the net, you almost knew the U.S. team was going to come back to win in the end. Not because they were better, but because they had to. They deserved it. I’m a believer in karma and today was a huge indicator that it does exist.

The best part of the day, aside from the U.S. winning obviously, is the change in stance from pessimistic viewers of the game. People were unanimous in thinking that this game was one of the best they’d ever seen. Facebook was filled with celebrations from people whom I didn’t think even knew soccer existed, let alone women’s soccer. Three of the top trending topics on Twitter in the U.S. were women’s soccer related. All of a sudden, this team went from a blip on the radar to something people were excited to rally around, which is going to work wonders for the game in the future.

I, for one, won’t be missing another game of this World Cup, and I sincerely hope others follow.