The new sporting hero |
I
have to admit that Sunday’s championship game between the United States and
Japan was one of the most remarkable soccer games I ever have seen.
PARTICULARLY
FOR THE play of Lloyd, a New Jersey native and midfielder for the Houston Dash
of the National Women’s Soccer League when she’s not playing for the United
States.
She
managed to score three goals within the first 16 minutes of the match,
particularly that third goal that she kicked from the middle of the field –
carrying roughly 180 feet right into the goal in large part because the
Japanese goal tender managed to lose her footing while trying to block the
ball.
That
probably will be the moment that lives on in televised sports footage for years
to come.
Admittedly,
this match would have been more competitive if the Team Japan of the second
half had been on the pitch for the entire match. But the U.S. team was able to
get overly aggressive (jumping out to a 2-0 lead within the first five minutes)
early on, making it difficult for Japan to seriously come back.
ALTHOUGH
I HAVE to admit they didn’t quit. There was one point when the score became 4-2
that created a feeling in the gut that perhaps some sort of miraculous comeback
was in store.
So
now there is a serious sporting moment that took place Sunday – with the women’s
team getting its third championship (the others came in 1991 and 1999, the
latter at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.) ever. Which is better than men’s
squads from the United States have done – no championship ever, even though
that tourney has been played since 1930.
Will Renee Wronecki (Miss Ill.) get her moment? |
And
you have to wonder, will anything that happens at the Miss USA pageant next
Sunday short of a “wardrobe malfunction” by some unfortunate contestant come close to matching the drama of
what took place today in Vancouver?
-30-
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