The FIFA Women's World Cup has been upon us since the beginning of June and has not been getting the coverage it should have. They have been playing the world cup games on channels like Fox Sports 1 which many people do not have. My question is why is that the case? Why is Sports Center playing highlights of baseball games, which happens almost every night, but not highlights of the women's world cup that comes around once every four years?
The US Women's National Team has an extremely good shot of winning the World Cup and bringing it back home to America. Why are they not getting the attention they deserve? They, unlike the men's team, have won a gold medal and won the Algarve Cup. They are the number two team in the world and the news is treating them like they are a rec team.
These women have been training so hard for this World Cup and not a lot of people care because "it's not worth watching." Comedian Seth Meyers, from Late Night with Seth Meyers got a little heated about this subject. He reunited with fellow comedian Amy Poehler to talk about the subject. He calls this segment "Really!?!" and although it talks about women's sports in general i believe they are making very good points. Here is the link to the video.
I would like to see this Sports Illustrated editor run up and down a soccer field, which in the Women's World Cup is 105 meters in length and 68 meters in width. A football field is just a tad larger than that in length but shorter in width, and in football teams have a huddle to take a little bit of a breather. These women are running up and down these fields for 45 minutes with barely any breaks except for a throw in, which if you watch the US Women's National Team (USWNT) play they are rarely not moving.
Soccer not only takes a lot of endurance but it takes a lot of skill. Not everyone can strike a ball across the field of play so that another play could use their head to make the ball go in the goal like Carly Lloyd and Julie Johnston of the USWNT did in their match against China on Friday the 26th.
Women's soccer is a contact sport so yes people are going to get hurt. Abby Wambach played with a broken nose, Ali Krieger has to wear a concussion headband now because she got hurt in past games. Soccer is a physical sport in which some women have career ending injuries. It is just as physical as men's soccer but people are not as concerned with it because it is a women's sport.
The athletic ability some of these women have is unreal. Kelley O'Hara, another player on the National Team, has not started in any of the games thus far in the world cup. But the game against China on Friday she did start and made a huge impact on the game. She played a right midfield position which meant she had to get up and down the field not only to contribute to the attacking part of the offense but also to come back and help on defense. She did all of this, but she did so at one point with a bloody nose from a collision off a corner kick. She knew however just because she was in pain she had to help her teammates. It was not until the ref saw O'Hara that she came out of the game.
All in all, I believe that women's soccer needs more attention than it is getting. Not only do the women have a professional league of their own now they are sometimes at a higher level then the men playing the same sport. I myself had played soccer ever since I was three years old, I played competitively until college and miss it everyday. I wish that I could be in Canada cheering on the women and I wish more people could hop on their bandwagon.
If you want to hitch a ride on their bandwagon, the USWNT plays Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup Tuesday. The US is ranked #2 in the world and Germany is #1 so it will be a good game!
