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| Women's win topped men's loss locally |
For
this Sunday saw the women’s national team play for the World Cup – and WIN!!!
Team U.S.A. beat the Netherlands 2-0 in a championship match played in France,
which also was quite the feat because this is the second consecutive World Cup
the U.S. women have won.
IT
REINFORCES THE very notion that when it comes to women’s soccer, the U.S.A.
rules. Our women are better than the women of any of the other 200 or so nations
of the world that play soccer.
But
later in the day, the men’s national team had their own championship to play
for – as in the Gold Cup, the every-other-year tourney for bragging rights
across North America and the Caribbean.
Our
men took to the pitch, and right here in Chicago. As the Gold Cup championship
match this time around was scheduled for Soldier Field. Where the other Team
U.S.A. tried to win bragging rights – only to lose 1-0 to Los Tricolores of
Mexico.
Which
feeds off of one of the most intense rivalries in the world of soccer, as much
of the political tension that exists between the neighboring nations spills over
onto the pitch.
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| In L.A, Mexico tops all |
DON’T
DOUBT THAT for the sizable Mexican-American population of Chicago, they were on
hand to see the Mexican nationals issue a symbolic whomp over every nitwit who
tries to use the red, and blue as some sort of evidence of their natural
inferiority. One-time soccer star Landon Donovan pointed out during the
broadcast of the match that the crowd in Chicago seemed to be leaning toward Equipo
Mexico.
While
a lot of the people chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” every chance they got were hoping
for a men’s team victory as further evidence of superiority – and perhaps
evidence that Donald Trump isn’t a total whack job every time he shoots his
mouth off.
Which
is a totally different vibe than one got from people whose interest was in watching
the women’s team take on the World.
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| For the women's team, it really is! |
I
was at a “watch party” where people gathered to see the Women’s World Cup final
who were eager to see a U.S. victory as further evidence that Trump is the
ultimate whack job for all his rhetorical nonsense.
FOR
TRUMP HAS engaged in his own comments being critical of the women’s national
team, because he thinks some of its players don’t conform to his ideal of what
an “American woman” ought to be.
Especially
forward Megan Rapinoe, who has taken her own pot shots at Trump and even got quoted
in the New York Post as saying her presence on the team is an “F You” to our
president.
Which
the Post tried to write up as evidence of those whacky, soccer-playing broads,
only to find many people followed the World Cup specifically because they liked
the idea of someone standing up to Trump.
Of
course, this whole Soccer day must be miserable for those of us who actually
take anything Donald Trump says seriously.
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| Donald Trump's nightmare front page? |
BECAUSE
NOT ONLY did the women win (and one of the players managed to drop a U.S. flag
on the ground), the men lost – AND to Mexico!!!
Which
was actually a happening I enjoyed seeing – the goal in the 73rd
minute by Jonathan dos Santos must have been as agonizing to the ideologues as
that of Rapinoe being the hero of the game. And winner of the Golden Boot!
I
don’t doubt those people are going to go into overtime with the rhetoric about
how soccer is an abomination and how it really doesn’t matter. They weren’t
watching anyway. Which means they missed a heck of a show – particularly the
portion that occurred at Soldier Field and saw people paying hundreds of
dollars per ticket for the right to watch (I had to view on television).
Or
perhaps many were like one woman I encountered at a watch party, who while viewing
the women’s team going for the glory on behalf of the United States could only
generate a great big raspberry for the evening’s activity by the men.
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