Sport is funny. If you are paying attention to a sport, it can appear everywhere. But the minute you tune out, it's just a thing that exists that occasionally enters your line of sight.
I don't watch NFL or NBA anymore. NBA made itself too hard to watch via their TV strategy, and if I'm going to spend one day a weekend watching football, it's going to be college ball. But y'all know I also spend a ridiculous amount of time watching the Cubs and now Austin FC.
Way back in '99, I somehow got wrapped up in watching Women's World Cup. And, honestly, it's hard to top the excitement of that WWC win. But I don't really even remember how I tuned in, I just remember being very onboard watching the team playing a sport I fundamentally didn't understand except for "ball goes in net gets you points".
It's not that I didn't play soccer as a kid. We all did. But the rules for kids were different, and I played defense, so the "strategy", such as it was, was to stop whomever was driving the goal from doing so. It wasn't brain surgery. But once you start watching soccer a lot, you realize how *hard* this game is, how much strategy is in play as an absolute constant. But I also know and understand how to folks watching, it can just look like 20-odd people in matching shirts running around a field of grass.
Anyway, I've watched some or part of the Women's World Cup since 1999 every four years. I've tried to watch the National Women's Soccer League with minimal success inbetween, mostly because coverage was spotty, and we had no local team for me to follow. But... then I got Paramount+ recently to watch my crew on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and found out NWSL is on Paramount. Horrible timing for 2023, as I was only going to gear up for the World Cup, but now I know! Also, I need to pick a team, I guess, til Austin gets one.
ALSO: Austin's Q2 stadium is only occupied every other week, and is a great stadium, and, I'm just saying... we could use a team.
Because, honestly, having a team to care about changes everything. I knew nothing about MLS four years ago, soccer culture, etc... and now it does take up a part of my life that the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, Packers, Cowboys and other teams and sports once occupied. I can't dedicate the time to it of the serious or hardcore fans, but I am following the team, fan groups and whatnot, and watch most matches either live or as soon as I get home.
And, I have been tracking what news I could cobble together on the USWMNT, pretty much following the end of the last World Cup, through the (wildly misogynistic) pay discrepancy lawsuits, team selection and watched some matches this year - you'll note how many movies I've been watching has dropped a *lot* as sport fills in the spots.
Anyway - the World Cup has started, and I've been watching matches. They're showing on Fox Sports in English, and the coverage is honestly really good. If you can tolerate Alexei Lalas. Which I cannot. But I persevere.
The US looked pretty good in their first match versus a Vietnam that looked insane out there, and I think nerves got in the way of better play. We have 14 players who were not on the last squad. But we do have some key veterans (Crystal Dunn, Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, Julie Ertz, Alex Morgan etc...) and I expect we'll settle in next match.
This is the push for a third World Cup title for the US, and it's easy to say "well, US programs for young women are way ahead of the rest of the world, of course we'll do well" but NO. I mean, yes, it's true. But it's also true everyone else is catching up. China has been good for years, Japan won a while back. And I'd argue England looks like a problem for our team.
The competition should be tough, and from what I'm seeing, the play is really good.
Anyway - I don't know if I can get folks to watch something they otherwise wouldn't - but the next match is Wednesday the 26th against the Netherlands. It should be well worth your time. And keep in mind, soccer matches are about 2 hours all told, so you won't lose your full evening.
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