The agony of defeat.
Those four words could be the biggest cliché in all of sports.
But anyone who watched the U.S. women’s soccer team lose in the World Cup Final to Japan saw it etched on the face of every American player.
It doesn’t matter if you watched every game in the tournament or just the last game. Everyone understood what happened. All who watched saw the vacant stares of the three U.S. players who missed penalties.
The only other game that was this hard for me to watch was the Cardinals and the Bears way back in 2006, the game that spawned the phrase, “They were who we thought they were.”
But this was different. This was a team that clearly had the talent, the drive and the lead twice before it was all snatched away.
The ladies played a heck of a tournament.
And to those who expressed disdain for the “bandwagon” fans: sports are universal. Everyone has the right to cheer for whomever they like.
And besides, die-hard fans have to start somewhere. Even though the Americans lost, the world got to see how talented the U.S. is.
I’m not saying women’s soccer is about to take off. But from now on, every four years, we’ll be watching.
