The team arrived at Los Angeles worldwide Airport aboard a chartered jet around 6:20 p.m. Monday, one day after beating Japan, 5-2, in the final of the Federation Internationale de Football Association Women’s World Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia, avenging their loss to Japan in the 2011 final on penalty kicks.
Advertisement
Nor for a lack of name recognition: Popular players such as Wambach, Mia Hamm and goalkeeper Hope Solo have laid the foundation for rising stars like Carli Lloyd, who on Sunday netted the first hat trick in a World Cup final, for men or women, since 1966.
I will be the first to admit that soccer, particularly the women’s game, still has some more growing to do in the USA For the women, they need a strong pro league to help raise their profile when they aren’t representing their country in the Olympics or World Cup.
Wambach scored just one goal through the entire World Cup tournament – during the team’s 3rd game against Nigeria in the group stage.
“They epitomize what it is to be a team”, Ellis said.
The U.S. Women’s soccer team returned home last night as champions of the World Cup.
The United States Women’s National Team is continuing to celebrate their first World Cup since 1999, but are doing so with a scandal looming in the background. That’s less than a quarter of the $9 million the United States men’s team got past year for getting knocked out in the round of 16.
The business of this year’s Women’s World Cup saw some big gains over the 2011 tourney. “We played 30th (men’s) World Cup in 2014 and we are playing the seventh women’s World Cup, so things can grow step-by-step”.
The general feeling of the anti-soccer crowd: “Who cares?” (Football remains the king of sports TV, and the World Series used to draw more than 50 million viewers.). The screen showed highlights of the team’s performances in Canada above a banner that read, “Thank you to the best fans in the world”.
Advertisement
Most of us have been socialized to accept men’s sports as dominant, and somehow automatically more interesting. An updated 25-year study in the journal Communication & Sport last month, titled “It’s Dude Time!”, found that women’s sports were featured in about 2 to 5 percent of all sports coverage past year, less than even in 1989. The organization doesn’t break down the revenue between the men’s and women’s tournaments, but the men’s tournament collects far more in sponsorship and television rights revenue. But for now, players and boosters of the sport may have to continue to fight for cash and recognition off the field.
