American Women Athletes at the Cross Roads of Sports and Society

Less than three months ago the FBI and US Attorney General indictments for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering of senior CONCACAF and FIFA officials, essentially forced Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, to announce he would retire by the end of the year. So afraid that he might be forced to crown American players he delegated what has traditionally been the President’s responsibility to FIFA Senior Vice President Issa Hayatou from Cameroon. At sixty eight the former track star, Hayatou’s choice is probably a backhanded slap in the face to the US authorities. Although Hayatou is the head of the African Soccer Federation and was not indicted by the US, he was reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for his part in an alleged bribery scandal in 2011, as well as a $100-million kickback scheme between 1989 and 1999.

I’m sure that Blatter would have preferred that instead of a Gold, Silver, Bronze line up of USA, Japan, England that Germany take the place of the USA; but in sports as in society, you don’t always get the winners you want. But it isn’t just winning that can be important sometimes how you do it is just as important. Four years ago Japan had just been devastated by a tsunami, the same two teams were in the final. Neither could get the best of the other. But in soccer and in life sometimes you must have a winner and a loser. Penalty kicks were taken and Japan emerged victorious. Team USA was out.

So this time around the USA team was prepared. There would be no repeat. Everyone knew that the likelihood of whoever scored first being the eventual victor was high and so both teams charged out of the gate trying to impose their will on the other. Carli Lloyd came through for team USA. In one of the quickest goals in a World Cup final ever she scored in the third minute. The team and the players were exultant. Lloyd and the team’s second goal came just two minutes later. The third goal for team USA chipped in nine minutes later. And two minutes after that the fourth goal and Carli Lloyd’s third goal popped in from half way across the field.

Japan had to do something to stop the bleeding. It would not do for the final to be a repeat of one of the games in the first round: Germany vs. Cote D’Ivoire with a final score of 10:0 for Germany. Finally Japan found its footing and scored a goal. Then it was half time.

Half time came and went. The players were back but the feeling and the momentum were different. A deflected shot towards the goal resulted in a US self-goal, by defender, Julie Johnston. However instead of the devastation and sadness that flooded the field when thirty seconds before the end of the semi-final between Japan and England, English defender Laura Bassett, did the same thing and scored a self goal allowing Japan to move forward to the final, the US team self-goal was a perfect example of a mistake when mistakes don’t make a difference.

As in life it isn’t that successful teams don’t make mistakes it is just that they don’t make them at critical moments. Team USA still had one more goal in it. Even though it wasn’t necessary it did reinforce the team’s total mastery of the game. Congratulations to Team USA. You worked hard and you won. Now back to reality.

Although this is the third time the US Women’s National team has won the World Cup it is still the case that the players if they can find a team to play with make a pittance in comparison to the men’s team. It is also the case that although the women’s teams are getting more attendees at their games and better viewership on TV, the numbers are still much lower than for the men’s games. If we just compare US Men soccer team players vs. US Women soccer team players, the difference isn’t quite as stark. But if we compare the salaries and opportunities of the players in the top ten men’s World Cup teams vs. the top ten women’s World Cup teams; then the effects of Title IX in the US almost disappear.

Team Blatter’s reign is almost over but one of the things that Blatter regardless of the money and corruption in the sport (by the way not unlike the money and corruption in American football, baseball, volleyball and basically every other sport out there) did well was internationalize the sport beyond its original European and South American borders. Here is hoping that whoever takes the reigns continues that broad international approach and also supports the growing women’s game.