Worst Thing That Ever Happened is Good for Women's Soccer, Says Nancy Armour: "For much of the game’s infancy – and, make no mistake, with the first World Cup not played until 1991, infancy still applies – the USWNT has been soccer’s equivalent of an eclipse blocking out the sun," writes USA Today columnist Nancy Armour. "It's one thing to aspire to greatness, and invest accordingly, and quite another to know it's within your reach. Countries that might have been reluctant to increase their spending or devote resources to a domestic professional league, feeling the World Cup or Olympics was going to end the same way, anyway, might reconsider when they know the USWNT is no longer keeping the keys to the trophy case."
I refuse to enjoy the women's game opening up until the men reach a World Cup final. Fair is fair.
posted by rcade at 03:49 PM on August 20, 2023
If you look up "solipsism" in an online dictionary, it links to this article.
posted by owlhouse at 09:39 PM on August 20, 2023
The best thing that has happened to Spain since 2010 might be the worst thing that could have happened to the Spanish women's program, based on the prior reporting of the ills and woes going on with the national football federation.
The ways of the coach and his overlord have been justified and delivered. How will players' complaints be heard now?
Spain joins the heralded line of programs across various sports in multiple eras to achieve greatness in the face of internal strife.
Is England manager Wiegman now more available to move to the USWNT after two successive WC Final campaigns, or does she have unfinished business with the Lionesses?
All in all, the tournament has been, as Armour said, a gateway to the opening up of the women's international game. Not quite as revolutionary an opening as the 1983 America's Cup, but welcome all the same.
posted by beaverboard at 09:29 AM on August 20, 2023