Our family has been involved in soccer for many years. We have all participated in various ways - as players, referees, and coaches. Barb and I have been to matches of every level; youth league, high school, parks and rec, inter-mural, college, professional and even to a men's World Cup match with Brazil and the Netherlands. Now we are ardent spectators. Wide-screen high-def TV was invented to show the Beautiful Game, as far as I am concerned.
So this week we watched the US Women beat Brazil in what may have been the best sporting event I have ever seen. USA! USA! And it dawned on me after watching that game that it demonstrated a number of truths that can be life-lessons for all of us. Really.
#1 - When life gives you a red card, play harder. When Rachel Buehler was shown a red card in the 65th minute, the US team had to play the rest of the game with only 10 players to Brazil's 11. Brazil is not a team you want to meet down a player. The US team simply stepped up the level of play. Nobody in that spot where Buehler was? Cover it, as well as your own position. For the rest of the game. And the extra 30 minutes of overtime.
#2 - Never, ever, ever give up. Regulation play ended with the score tied, so 30 extra minutes were added and the teams went back on the field. Two minutes into that extra period Marta scored, putting Brazil up a goal. Remember; the US has been with only 10 players for 25 minutes now. They played 31 more minutes - down a player and down a goal - impossible odds against Brazil.
In the 122nd minute of 123 minutes played, the US scored the tying goal!
#3 - Things not going your way? Keep on keeping on. Abby Wambach, the US team's leading scorer has been in a terrible slump! Coming into the Cup she had scored 1 goal in 11 games! Lifetime, in international play, she has 120 goals in 158 matches. She scored 1 goal in the losing cause against Sweden, so she was 1 for 4 games in the Cup, and had not scored in this game. Abby never pulled back, never quit trying, and in the 122nd minute of 123 played, after running the entire length of the field on a bad ankle, took a long crossing ball from Megan Rapinoe and headed it into the back of the net! Tie game!
#4 - Knocked down? Get up. Quickly. A Brazilian player, Erika (Brazil is a poor country - the players can only afford one name), flopped to the ground near the end of extra time, to run time off the clock. TV replay showed her walking around long after the play was over, then she abruptly fell down and began screaming about her back. The referee sent her off on what has famously been called "Brazils's magic stretcher" (do you think this has happened before?) and play resumed. Once the stretcher reached the sideline, Erika hopped off and ran - ran, mind you - to the official on the sideline to be readmitted to the match. The referee then did a couple of things right; she carded Erika when she reentered, and promptly added minutes 121 through 123 stoppage time to the play. And we all know what happened in minute 122.
#5 - Don't moan about life not being fair. Australian referee Jacqui Melksham botched call after call during the game. Both teams suffered from her inadequate, nit-picking officiating, but USA got the short end of the stick. It would have been so easy for the US team to take the "life's not fair" road, but they did not and today no one remembers the referee's name (I looked it up). They only remember what was accomplished in spite of the referee.
#6 - The best team can beat the best player. Number 10 for Brazil, Marta, is arguably the best woman player in the world. She has been awarded FIFA Women's Player of the Year for the last 5 years running! She has no equal in the game today. But she has never won a World Cup or Olympic gold. Why? It is a team sport. For Brazil there's Marta, and maybe Christiane, and... and... It's a short list. For the US, there are 21 team players. Yes, we know some names better than others, but there is a cohesion there missing in Brazil's team. Abby scored the tying goal, but Megan volleyed it to her perfectly after she received the ball from Amy Rodriguez in the midfield, who received the ball from Christie Rampone, who took the ball away from Marta in front of the US goal. Teamwork. Need help? Get on a team, or get others on your team.
#7 - There is life after messing up. Hope Solo (was there ever a better name for a goalkeeper?), who stopped Daiane's shot in the Penalty Kick phase of the game, setting up the win, was kicked off the US team during the 2007 World Cup! Then-coach Greg Ryan (remember him? Me neither.) replaced unbeaten Solo with Briana Scurry, who had not been in goal in 3 months. Brianna promptly allowed 4 goals and gave the game to Brazil. Hope angrily and publicly criticized Ryan and Scurry - something unheard of, and unacceptable in the world of soccer where teammates are often more family than blood kin. Hope apologized publicly and privately, served her penance and was re-named the keeper for the 2008 team. She is currently considered the best goalkeeper in the world today.
#8 - Be prepared. For each game the US coaches prepare a list of 5 players who take penalty kicks when that becomes necessary. They are all forwards and strikers, people used to placing the ball accurately. Lauren Cheney was on the list, but had been substituted earlier in the game and was not available. Paul Rogers, the goalkeeper coach, spoke to a defensive player, Ali Krieger, about taking the fifth and final kick. She accepted the challenge and made the kick that sealed the win. Later Krieger said "I'm not the best shooter. That's why I play in the back. If you see me in practice, you'd probably wonder why I was in the top five. But I can hit a PK." And she did.
And think about Becky Sauerbrunn. After not having played a single minute in this World Cup, center back Becky Sauerbrunn is starting today in place of Rachel Buehler, who's suspended after her red card. At the time of the carding, a teammate on the bench turned to Becky and said, "Are you going to be ready?" Sauerbrunn said, "If they call my name, I'll be ready." They called her name.
#9 - Play nice. Soccer is a contact sport. By rule, you are allowed to dispossess the opponent of the ball, and if they trip over your clean tackle, or fall down when you put your shoulder to theirs, tough. In this game, the fouls and penalty cards were very evenly matched (though often poorly given). The US gave as good as they got. But Brazil has a way of flopping (see #4 above) and whining and just exceeding the boundaries of "fair play." They learned it from the Brazilian men's team.
There was so much of this over-the-top play that the crowd in Dresden became solid supporters of the US team - and in general the US team is not well-liked in Germany. But chants of USA! USA! rang through the stadium, and shrill whistles (Europeans show displeasure by whistling - not booing) ensued whenever the Brazilians had the ball, especially Marta, who became the focal point of the wrath of an angry, noisy crowd all afternoon. It obviously disturbed her; she began yelling at her own players to give up the theatrics and play the game.
#10 - You cannot rest on your laurels. In fact, no laurels have been awarded yet. The Brazil match was the quarterfinal. Today, perhaps even as you read this, USA is back on the field, facing France. On paper, the US should win, but that's why they play the games. We should have beaten Sweden too, but we didn't. That's how we got to meet Brazil in the quarterfinals and not the championship game. And after France there is Japan or Sweden. Again. It was a great victory, but the fact remains the US has to get up and go back to work. And when this tournament is over, team preparation starts for the 2012 Olympic games.
Those are the life-lessons I saw during this game. What did you see?
Posts
