This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/05/usa-japan-final-abby-wambach-winning
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Women's World Cup 2015 final: for USA and Abby Wambach, winning is everything | |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| The words that spill from the mouths of the US women’s soccer players are extreme. Winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing, the whole thing, the biggest thing. For Carli Lloyd the entire value of her 32 years on earth rests on the result of a single soccer match. | The words that spill from the mouths of the US women’s soccer players are extreme. Winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing, the whole thing, the biggest thing. For Carli Lloyd the entire value of her 32 years on earth rests on the result of a single soccer match. |
| “I want to win a World Cup because I have dedicated my life to this,” the US midfielder said. | “I want to win a World Cup because I have dedicated my life to this,” the US midfielder said. |
| To Abby Wambach, her more-famous teammate, the one who will never play in another World Cup, winning is enough to curse. | To Abby Wambach, her more-famous teammate, the one who will never play in another World Cup, winning is enough to curse. |
| “The only thing I give a hoot about and you can use my expletive – the only thing I give an expletive about is winning,” she said last week. | “The only thing I give a hoot about and you can use my expletive – the only thing I give an expletive about is winning,” she said last week. |
| While all players in any championship game talk about victories the rhetoric from this US team has a deeper air of desperation. The need take Sunday’s World Cup final is almost a consumption for them as if a defeat would be a fate too horrible to imagine. | While all players in any championship game talk about victories the rhetoric from this US team has a deeper air of desperation. The need take Sunday’s World Cup final is almost a consumption for them as if a defeat would be a fate too horrible to imagine. |
| Part of this probably comes from the sense of an end. A core group that has been together for three World Cups and two Olympics is aging now. Wambach won’t be the only American star of this recent run to be gone. Many of the names synonymous with the last burst of US success will disappear into international soccer retirement. | Part of this probably comes from the sense of an end. A core group that has been together for three World Cups and two Olympics is aging now. Wambach won’t be the only American star of this recent run to be gone. Many of the names synonymous with the last burst of US success will disappear into international soccer retirement. |
| But a bigger legacy hangs over this team as they prepare to play for their third title in seven World Cups: they are fighting – just an hour from the US border – for their own identity, their own fame and maybe even the future of women’s soccer. Unlike the world’s best male players who return to top teams in a huge leagues, the elite women do not stay in the public glare. They have leagues too, like the National Women’s Soccer League but the NWSL has yet to reach mainstream status, enjoying pockets of success in a handful of cities like Portland. | But a bigger legacy hangs over this team as they prepare to play for their third title in seven World Cups: they are fighting – just an hour from the US border – for their own identity, their own fame and maybe even the future of women’s soccer. Unlike the world’s best male players who return to top teams in a huge leagues, the elite women do not stay in the public glare. They have leagues too, like the National Women’s Soccer League but the NWSL has yet to reach mainstream status, enjoying pockets of success in a handful of cities like Portland. |
| For the US women, Sunday is indeed everything. A victory likely seals their fame as a great world soccer power much like the late 1990s US team that briefly captured a nation’s heart. A defeat will settle them into a less-memorable place, soon lost in the flood of sports that swirl through the daily cycle. | For the US women, Sunday is indeed everything. A victory likely seals their fame as a great world soccer power much like the late 1990s US team that briefly captured a nation’s heart. A defeat will settle them into a less-memorable place, soon lost in the flood of sports that swirl through the daily cycle. |
| The women on this team seem to understand that more than just a trophy is at stake in Sunday’s match against Japan and they have bonded in a way many others would not. | The women on this team seem to understand that more than just a trophy is at stake in Sunday’s match against Japan and they have bonded in a way many others would not. |
| When Wambach says as she did Friday: “Sitting on the bench – and I really mean this – I couldn’t have been happier for Kelley O’Hara scoring that goal as much as if I had scored it,” she does really mean it. | When Wambach says as she did Friday: “Sitting on the bench – and I really mean this – I couldn’t have been happier for Kelley O’Hara scoring that goal as much as if I had scored it,” she does really mean it. |
| Or when Lloyd says she is going to do everything she can to help Wambach to get that elusive World Cup title, she is speaking honestly. | Or when Lloyd says she is going to do everything she can to help Wambach to get that elusive World Cup title, she is speaking honestly. |
| In trying to understand why this group seems to have captured a nation’s attention with television ratings that far exceed last year’s numbers, the selflessness of the players is hard to overlook. Wambach, who has been the US’s top player for years, has not only accepted a reduced role in this World Cup she has embraced it, cheering perhaps louder on the bench than the players beside her. | In trying to understand why this group seems to have captured a nation’s attention with television ratings that far exceed last year’s numbers, the selflessness of the players is hard to overlook. Wambach, who has been the US’s top player for years, has not only accepted a reduced role in this World Cup she has embraced it, cheering perhaps louder on the bench than the players beside her. |
| “As a competitor and as somebody who has an ego, of course, I want to play,” she said last week. | “As a competitor and as somebody who has an ego, of course, I want to play,” she said last week. |
| “But guess what? I know I’m a little bit older and I know that my teammates are at least as good if not better than me in certain aspects of the game.” | “But guess what? I know I’m a little bit older and I know that my teammates are at least as good if not better than me in certain aspects of the game.” |
| It’s hard to imagine a men’s player of similar stature saying he embraced significantly less playing time because it will help make the team better. And yet this World Cup is that important to the players on this team. | It’s hard to imagine a men’s player of similar stature saying he embraced significantly less playing time because it will help make the team better. And yet this World Cup is that important to the players on this team. |
| “It’s like NBA basketball in contrast to college basketball,” said Tom Durkin who coached US player Katie O’Reilly on the Boston Breakers. “Everybody loves college basketball because the players wear their hearts on their sleeves. Everyone sees that with these women. They wear their hearts on their sleeves too.” | “It’s like NBA basketball in contrast to college basketball,” said Tom Durkin who coached US player Katie O’Reilly on the Boston Breakers. “Everybody loves college basketball because the players wear their hearts on their sleeves. Everyone sees that with these women. They wear their hearts on their sleeves too.” |
| A championship game is almost here, one last chance for a team to hoist the gold trophy. This one means everything. And so the words that spill from the American players are extreme now, the rhetoric almost outlandish. Like when Wambach looked at a group of reporters seated around a table on Friday and said that if the US won the World Cup: “I might give you all a kiss on the lips.” | A championship game is almost here, one last chance for a team to hoist the gold trophy. This one means everything. And so the words that spill from the American players are extreme now, the rhetoric almost outlandish. Like when Wambach looked at a group of reporters seated around a table on Friday and said that if the US won the World Cup: “I might give you all a kiss on the lips.” |
| One presumed she did not actually mean that the she did when she said simply: “I want to win.” | One presumed she did not actually mean that the she did when she said simply: “I want to win.” |