No longer about haves and have-nots
U.S. trail to the World Cup final shows how competition improved
The taut matches and upset scares along the American team’s troublesome path to Sunday’s World Cup championship game illustrate the evolving landscape of women’s soccer and the challenge faced by the United States to remain a dominant force.
Since women’s soccer was first recognized as a competitive international sport some 25 years ago, no country has enjoyed more success than the United States, which has won four of five Olympic gold medals and two World Cup titles.
But as the gap between standard-bearers and startups narrows, championships are harder to come by. The United States hasn’t won this tournament since 1999 and wasn’t favoured this year; that honour went to Germany, which fell to the Americans in the semifinals. The victory cautiously raised American hopes that their 16-year wait is finally over.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” warned forward Abby Wambach, a four-time World Cup participant and the greatest international goal scorer in men’s or women’s history.
“I know beating a German team is something you want to celebrate, but we still haven’t won (the) World Cup. We can’t stop believing and never doubt it’s going to happen. We’ve been prepping for this for years.”
In fact, the entire U.S. campaign — which will culminate against Japan in Sunday’s sold-out final — has provided both high anxiety and gratification.
For years, the United States was ahead of the curve. But as the sport has grown more sophisticated, the Americans have had to become more tactically astute and defensively sound.
This summer, they slogged through the three-game group stage, were tested by unheralded Colombia, picked up steam against a young Chinese team and then gave their best performance of the four-week competition in defeating top-ranked Germany, 2-0.
The second-ranked Americans have not won the title since the epic 1999 final against China before 90,185, a penalty kick victory punctuated by Brandi Chastain’s jersey-peeling celebration.
Wambach and her contemporaries are seeking to escape the shadow of that squad, which featured superstar Mia Hamm and a band of personalities that lifted the profile of the sport.
The most notable change since 1999 is the competition.
In the World Cup that summer, Japan was outscored 10-1 over three games; it entered this summer’s tournament as the defending champion. France failed to qualify for four of the first five World Cups; it is now ranked third behind Germany and the United States.
England advanced to the semifinals for the first time last week before losing to Japan on a lastminute own goal. A dozen years ago, Colombia lost a South American game by 12 goals; this year, it executed the greatest upset in World Cup history by defeating France. In its debut this summer, Cameroon became the first African nation in 16 years to advance out of the group stage.
Recognizing the sport’s growth, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, grew the tournament this year from 16 to 24 teams. While expansion led to several predictable blowouts — Germany, for instance, defeated debutante Ivory Coast, 10-0 — it also paved the way for first-time participation by Spain and Netherlands, countries better known for men’s soccer excellence.
“Women’s soccer has absolutely exploded around the world,” said Briana Scurry, the starting goalkeeper on the 1999 U.S. squad. “In this World Cup, maybe half the teams had no semblance of a program of any kind in ’99. And if they did, it was terribly underfunded. These are proud footballing nations and they have made inroads in the women’s sport.”