• by Joe Curtis, writing from Pembroke Pines, FL

The United States Women's National Soccer team fell short of their third World Cup title today, losing in penalties to Japan. The USWNT arguably played their best game of the tournament, but the soccer Gods had other plans. When Japan scored both equalizing goals there was a familiar feeling. This was a "I cannot believe this is happening" kind of feeling, similar to that of the Gold Cup Final last month. Like the Gold Cup Final, the U.S. started strong but in the end could not keep their opponent from scoring the decisive goals. For the USWNT, those goals led the game to penalties. Penalties decided the USWNT's World Cup fate in 1999. 12 years ago the U.S. scored all five penalties, with Brandi Chastain scoring the one that sealed the victory. Earlier in this World Cup, on the 12-year anniversary of the 1999 victory, the U.S. also scored all five penalties in their dramatic win over Brazil. These two dramatic victories in the past gave fans hope; hope that they will once again come out victorious. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

After the game, I logged on to Facebook. These were the first two posts I saw:

• "As bad as I feel for the U.S soccer team. Let's face it, soccer sucks."

• "Soccer can go back to being irrelevant now."

As a fan of the game this is frustrating. My wish is not for soccer to become "America's Game", but rather that it becomes a respected game. Soccer in America has slowly grown, but it seems that every step forward leads to two steps back. The U.S. Men's team gained the support of the country during the World Cup last summer, but lost to Ghana in the second round. The summer before, in the Confederations Cup, the men's team defeated #1 ranked Spain and led Brazil 2-0 into halftime in the Final. Soccer in America is like sports in South Florida. You are only relevant if you win. Even the mighty Miami Heat fell out of the spot light for casual fans when they failed to win the title. The U.S national soccer team's victories bring them into the national spot light, but once they fail to achieve the ultimate goal they fade right back into oblivion. America loves winners. This is why all major champions in the United State’s major leagues are known as “Champions of the World”. If you are not seen as a winner you are going to have a hard time gaining the respect of the country.

Beyond helping win the respect of the country, the U.S. Women’s team was well on their way to win respect for women’s sports in general. During the world cup I heard at least three people say: “you couldn’t pay me to watch women’s soccer”. For the most part you couldn’t pay most people to watch women’s sports, but this world cup something special happened. Something that Nike and US Soccer probably didn’t expect. Grown men wanted to wear their favorite Women’s national team player’s jersey. This caused a problem mostly because the USWNT jersey did not come in men’s sizes. As a result men began to customize USMNT jerseys with USWNT names. Players like Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, and Megan Rapinoe became household names. Today bars were filled across the nation to watch and cheer on their women’s team. There was even a crowd in Times Square. President Barack Obama became a fan, and tweeted during the game.

Soccer in America won’t happen over night, and it will probably never become “America’s Game” but you cannot over look the missed opportunities to ignite the fire that would lead to a growing love and respect for the game.

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