Women's World Cup Ends; Japan is a Deserving Champion

There's no doubt the U.S. played the better game, but in the end it came down to the fact that while the U.S. was more dominant, Japan was more poised. When you can beat Germany, Sweden, and the United States, you are absolutely a deserving world champion. Homare Sawa put in a ridiculous goal with just a few minutes remaining in the match to show why she is one of the greatest players in the history of the women's game.

Homare Sawa, the Japanese captain, stunned the United States.

I'm not one to dog any one player or team. Both teams handled themselves with absolute class when the match was over. The U.S. was a gracious loser, and Japan was exceptional in thanking the world and acknowledging the brilliant match they had just finished with the U.S. But, I knew as did the Japanese goalkeeper, that Shannon Boxx was going to her right on the penalty kick. I kept saying, "Go left, go left!" Instead, she went to her right, and I'm sure the Japanese keeper knew that based on Boxx's two penalty shots earlier in the tournament against Brazil. Boxx set the tone for the penalties for the U.S. and they could not recover from that shock.

A few more points that I need to get out of my system: I carried that loss with me for a while, just as a casual fan, I was still thinking about the loss as I went to bed. This women's team was proud to represent the United States and you can tell they weren't doing it just for themselves. They were playing for country pride, much in the same way the U.S. men's basketball team did at the 2008 Olympics. It hurt to see them lose, I mean, it really hurt. I can't describe what it was, but the pain of knowing that these women will forever be haunted, in one way or another, by this loss made me hurt for them.

Another thing: For all those people out there saying, "it's a bunch of girls kicking a ball around," or "watching women's sports is watching a substandard version of the sport" are just plain stupid. Those people need to shut up and come with a better, more creative argument. It's not cool any more to make fun of women's sports, that was never cool actually, but you might have received a few laughs about 10 years ago. If you're a sports fan and you like watching athletic competitions with athletes that have trained their entire lives to win on their sport's biggest stage, then you couldn't have asked for a better competition than the Women's World Cup. While the men's game can be a beautiful and impressive game, the women's version was much more entertaining and well-played (for one thing, there weren't anywhere near as many flops as in the men's game). This final was absolutely epic and was a completely better played and executed game than the Spain-Netherlands final in last year's men's final. After this tournament I'm an even bigger fan.

Let's hope Abby Wambach comes back for the 2015 World Cup in Canada (if anyone wants to make plans to go to those matches, let me know, I'm game). There isn't a more dominant or imposing player in the world. She was an absolute beast down the stretch for the U.S. through this tournament. I'm hoping her body holds up. Her game isn't predicated on speed, but on sheer physical dominance, so hopefully she can stay healthy and lead the U.S. once again four years from now.

Where does women's soccer go from here? For the United States, they ironically played their most technical and dominant game of the entire tournament in the final, but just could not find ways to put the ball in the net. This team is still one of the best in the world, and they should be the favorites for the 2012 London Olympics. A gold medal in London would be huge for U.S. soccer to redeem itself from its disappointment in the World Cup final. For the rest of women's soccer, hopefully the Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) can capitalize on this year's World Cup, where a number of the best international players play. WPS needs to be able to capture a specific market interested in women's soccer, specifically young girls. Hopefully this World Cup legitimized the women's game to men who can take their daughters and sons to these sporting events.