It was a 55-yard shot that should have been impossible, but it was the shot that gave the U.S. Women’s World Cup 2015 team the game.
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“Our goal is to grow the game and by winning the World Cup we are going to do that”, said Holiday, who scored in the 14th minute of Sunday’s final.
The rating blew past previous records for all televised United States matches: last June, 18.22 million viewers watched the United States men’s team tie Portugal.
That puts women’s soccer in a league previously dominated by men’s sports and makes Fox a victor through to 2026 as exclusive broadcaster of the tournament. But that hat trick by Carli Lloyd in the 5-2 victory over defending champion Japan truly was one for the ages.
The two-time Olympic Gold medalist and 2012 Federation Internationale de Football Association World Player of the Year watched most of the final match from the sidelines.
Twitter says tweets about the soccer tournament were viewed nine billion times, with the US dominating the conversation.
Recently, it was revealed the women’s team will split $2 million for their victory.
The previous high for a women’s match was 17,975,000 on ABC for the United States’ penalty kicks win over China in the 1999 Women’s World Cup final.
That ’99 team captured the attention of a nation like few other sports teams-men or women-ever have but according to USA captain and Golden Ball (Most Valuable Player) victor Carli Lloyd, the success of the ’15ers could be an even bigger leap forward for the game in America.
But when she came on the field as a substitute in the 79th minute, the stadium erupted with the chanting of her name.
Many World Cup games are broadcast on both English and Spanish language networks simultaneously, since the sport is particularly popular among Latino fans. “It’s the best performance I’ve seen in a World Cup, men or women”.
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“I think a lot of people watch because they’re from the US and now that they see all these girls playing they’ll probably get more interested because that was a very interesting game”.
