Editorial

Three cheers for U.S. women's soccer!

Posted

For soccer fans, Independence Day weekend carried extra meaning this year. While many showed their American pride by wearing red, white and blue to celebrate the nation’s 239th birthday, on Sunday there was more cause for celebration, as the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup.

It was an inspiring run for a squad of 23 superb athletes, led by captain Abby Wambach, veteran goaltender Hope Solo and forward Alex Morgan, which went 6-0-1 in World Cup play, outscored its opponents 14-3 and thrashed Japan 5-2 to secure its third championship, its first since 1999 and the most by any team since the women’s tournament began in 1991.

How dominant was the U.S. squad? After allowing a first-half goal in its opening match against Australia on June 8, the Americans held opponents scoreless until Japan scored 27 minutes into Sunday’s final — a streak of 540 minutes, which tied the record set by Germany in 2007.

Sunday’s result was never in doubt, as the U.S. scored four goals in the game’s first 16 minutes, three off the leg of Carli Lloyd, the last one a miraculous blast from midfield. It was the first hat trick in a women’s World Cup final. Lauren Holiday and Tobin Heath scored the other two American goals.

The team’s spirited and determined run not only united millions of their countrymen and women around a sport that is often perceived as underappreciated in the U.S., but may very well inspire another generation of athletes — girls and boys — to take up the world’s most popular game.

We also must note that the team had representation from right here in Nassau County: Crystal Dunn, an alumna of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, while not on the 23-women active roster, is a reserve.

It takes 11 athletes working in synchronization to succeed on the soccer pitch. For the past month, the U.S. women’s national team did just that, and now it has a World Cup to show for it.