Our Only Hope

There's something you should all know about me.  I'm a man of the people.  When my readers request a post on a certain subject, I make it happen.  "My First Baseball Post" was a response to a committed reader/Pittsburgh Pirates fan and tonight's subject matter was actually suggested by more than one follower.  On that note, if you're reading this and there's something you want to hear my opinion about, simply let me know.  Text me, facebook me or comment on here and myself or one of my part-time contributors will do our best to oblige.  Now that we got that out of the way, lets get down to business.

If you had told me that I'd write about soccer twice in as many weeks when I started this blog, I probably would have asked you if you were sick in the head.  However, you would have been correct.  In case you missed it, the USA Women's Soccer team took on Brazil yesterday (Sunday, July 10th) in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals.  I've recently made my opinion on soccer pretty clear, but there were a couple of variables that resulted in my watching of the game:  It began around 11:30 a.m. EST and considering it was a Sunday, the only other thing I could have been watching is "Backwoods Angler" re-runs.  Not a bad option...if you're 90-years old and weird.  Also, I was bartending at the time and the scene was slow, so I was able to focus my attention on the game.

 It didn't take long for our countrywomen to get on the board as just 74 seconds into the contest they scored on a Brazil own-goal.  The rest of the first half was scoreless and the US led at the break, 1-0.  In half number two, things heated up.  In the 66th minute, Brazil's Marta, the three-time defending World Player of the Year, made a run into the US box and was tightly defended by Rachel Buehler.  Marta goes down, Buehler gets a red card, and the Brazilians are rewarded a penalty kick.  I'm no soccer expert, but the referee's ruling was controversial to say the least.  But that was just the tip of the iceberg.  On the ensuing PK, everybody's favorite female athlete (or at least just mine), US goalie Hope Solo stopped the first attempt from Christiane.  [Tangent:  Why do Brazilians only have one name?  I really don't get it.]  The US celebrations quickly came to a halt when the referee called "encroachment" on one of the American players, meaning that she moved before the ball was snapped...er, uh, kicked.  Sorry, for a second I thought we were talking about real football.  Anyway, that allowed Brazil a second chance at the PK and this time Marta took it.  The chances of a soccer goalie stopping two penalty kicks in a row are about as high as Todd McCullogh's vertical:

Needless to say, Marta buried the second chance and tied the game.  Even worse, as a result of the red card, the US was forced to play a woman down for the rest of the game.  Things were not looking good.

At this point, I found myself doing things I never thought possible.  I was yelling at the TV, heckling refs, and basically acting like I cared about soccer.  I was almost embarrassed.  Nonetheless, from then on I lived and died with my girls.  The game would go to extra time as regulation concluded with the scoreboard reading USA 1, Brazil 1.  In the first half of extra time, it was Marta again making magic happen.  Just three minutes into the overtime, while US defender Shannon Boxx was busy petitioning for an offside call, Marta was busy scoring a redonkulous goal to put her team up 2-1.  I have two problems with this:  The first is that the referee missed the call.  Replay clearly showed that the play should have been stopped as a Brazil player was indeed offside.  And it wasn't the first missed offside call of the game.  But my other problem is with Boxx.  Once you see that the referee's flag has not gone up, maybe you wanna try to defend the world's best player?  Or you could just do what she did and rip my heart out of my chest.  All hope seemed lost.  No pun intended.

But on the 12-year anniversary of the USA's penalty-kick win over China in the '99 Women's World Cup final, it was only appropriate that a miracle happen.  In the extra time of extra time (I have no idea how to say that), the Americans had one last chance and it was up to arguably the world's second-best player, Abby Wambach.  Megan Rapinoe played a flawless cross to Wambach and she showed why she's widely considered the best in the world at using her head.  Yeah, I said it, she has the best head in the world.  She did the unthinkable and tied the game with no more than a minute and a half left to play.  That meant the game would come down to penalty kicks, or, in other words, it was up to Hope Solo to make something happen.  And she did exactly that.  With her team leading 3-2 in PK's, Solo made an acrobatic stop on Daiane's attempt and simultaneously captured the hearts of millions of men around the country, mine included.  The US would go on to win the game and advance to Wednesday's semifinal against France.

But the moral of the story is that I love Hope Solo.  As if her physical appearance, her play on the "pitch," and her name weren't attractive enough, check out her reaction four years ago when then coach Greg Ryan started back-up goalie Briana Scurry in the World Cup semifinal against Brazil.  Oh, by the way, the US would lose that game, 4-0.  Great decision, Greg:

Love it.  She calls out her coach AND her teammate and four years later she's the starting keeper again and Ryan and Scurry are eating potato chips watching her dominate.  What a bad-ass chick.  I'm naming my daughter Hope Solo Brusko.  F*ck it, if I have a son, he's getting that name too.  I can only hope he's as much of a beast as she is.

"The person that said winning isn't everything, never won anything."  -Mia Hamm

-Brusk Dollas