CHEERING THEIR GOALS
Soccer champs fill streets with love and hope for a world where women are paid same as men
The World Cup champion U.S. women’s soccer team, fleet of foot and sharp of elbows, enjoyed a raucous Canyon of Heroes return to celebrate their triumphs as athletes — and activists.
Future female soccer stars lined the sidewalks of Broadway to cheer their favorite players Wednesday morning after the team’s second consecutive show of global dominance ended with another title. But there was more to the day than sports: The 23 women were hailed for their fight to get equal pay, for their outspokenness, for their diversity.
“We have pink and purple hair,” declared team co-captain Megan Rapinoe after each player received a key to the city from Mayor de Blasio. “We have tattoos and dreadlocks. We got white girls and black girls, and everything in between. Straight girls and gay girls.”
Air horns echoed along Broadway and the crowd chanted “USA! USA!” when the team members, in sunglasses and matching black championship Tshirts, rolled past aboard floats. Ticker-tape wafted from the skyscrapers above as the players waved to the adoring audience exactly four years after celebrating their 2015 World Cup triumph.
“It means the world to me because they’re my idols,” said 10-year-old spectator Molly Malovich, who came out from Allentown, N.J., with her mom Tracey. The elementary school student, a center midfielder on her soccer team, was inspired to dream that she too would one day play on a World Cup-winning team.
Six-year-old Ellis Colandrea staked out a good spot along the route with her dad Trevor. The aspiring soccer star held aloft a simple, hand-written message to the champions: “You make my future brighter!”
“I had to make them a sign because I like them a lot,” said the happy young athlete.
World Cup hero Rapinoe, who scored six goals, was the last player introduced at a City Hall rally to honor the team once the parade wrapped up. Holding the championship trophy in her right hand, she danced down to join her teammates as DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” blared in the background.
“We all appreciate all that it takes to shut down the biggest, best city in the world for the biggest, best team in the world,” Rapinoe told the crowd. “Thank you, it means a lot to us.”
The crowd then began chanting “USA! Equal pay!” — invoking the squad’s battle to collect the same paychecks as the American men’s team.
Crowds began arriving long before the 9:30 a.m. kickoff on a sticky summer morning, with boosters lined up behind steel barricades the length of the parade route north to City Hall.
Spectator Kelsey Parisi, 29, said the women’s victory was literally a lifesaver after her recent struggle with depression and a suicide attempt. Her recovery included a trip to France to watch the Americans win the World Cup — catching every game through the 2-0 victory in the finals over the Netherlands.
“I’ve always loved this team but being able to follow them through this process is amazing,” said Parisi. “It meant more than soccer.”
The crowd was thick with young women wearing team jerseys, and many expressed their admiration for the players’ success on the field and courageousness elsewhere.
“After watching them dominate, I truly feel I can do any
thing,” said Betsy Wallace, 18, a college student from Iowa.
Team USA star Alex Morgan returned the love while laying claim to a title long held by the Dallas Cowboys.
“Thank you for your chants, your signs and your posters — we appreciate that,” she said to cheers at City Hall. “Thank you so much New York for coming out, over a million people. We have been known as America’s soccer team. But from here on out, we will just be known as ‘America’s Team.’”
High school soccer player Bella Ramirez, 15, wasn’t going to miss the parade despite a torn ACL that left her on crutches. She stopped first at the hotel where the team was staying, and actually met some of her U.S. team heroes shortly after arriving around 6 a.m.
“I saw Mallory Pugh and I started crying,” she said. “Alex Morgan signed my shirt. I though they would be too busy, but they were super sweet and humble. We just talked about soccer and my injury.”
The team made headlines both on and off the field in storming to their second straight title and fourth overall. The U.S. women fought for gender equality in the workplace with a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation alleging they are paid less than the less-successful men’s team.
Rapinoe also engaged in a wars of words with President Trump over her declaration that visiting the White House would not be part of her victory lap. A handful of Trump supporters trolled the crowd by waving signs and flags supporting the incumbent.
“America Hater Megan Rapinoe,” read another sign.
Rapinoe, who shared a bottle of champagne with a fan along the parade route, joked about the controversy at City Hall: “There’s no place I’d rather be — even in the presidential race. I’m busy, I’m sorry!”