Tag Archives: Megan Rapinoe

USWNT out early at World Cup 2023: no one cares

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Is anyone going to miss these bitches? Megan Rapinoe misses a PK that would have won it (she didn’t even put it on-frame), and then she smiles & shrugs it off during the post-match presser. Is that a leader? Is that a role model? She’s too chicken-shit to put a GW PK on-frame [!], and then none of her teammates call her out for her shit. This USWNT totally mailed-it-in for World Cup 2023. This is so far from 1999, it’s pathetic.

This is what happens when a MeToo campaign takes over an institution. Megan Rapinoe is a LGBTQ+ activist, a pawn of the CIA Democrats. This 2023 USWNT had no soul, because their appointed ‘leader’ is soulless.

Her Subway ad campaign (which has been scrubbed from YouTube) goes down in marketing history as perhaps the most disastrous commercial blitz in TV/internet history. In 2021, loyal customers STOPPED going to Subway until corporate pulled all their Megan Rapinoe advertising spots, as they were killing local franchises EVERYWHERE. Subway needed Steph Curry again, and QUICK!

People just don’t like her, and it’s not because she’s a lesbian– it’s because she’s unappealing. She’s not nice, honest, or brilliant, and she’s certainly not pretty. It’s a universal male fantasy to turn a hot lesbian straight, but I (like many others) have no such desire towards her. I only mention that because it’s important to women. It’s a different standard when measuring women athletes. It doesn’t matter how many titles you have, if you are marketable, then you’re shit.

I was a soccer player in middle school & high school when the sport was in its infancy in the US. Boys & girls played together on summer league teams and in high school– on JV & varsity. I was a soccer step dad in the late 1990’s, and I remember our then-family watching the 1999 Women’s WC final, USA v China, live on ABC. It was maybe the most dramatic sports contest ever, with the US winning in PK’s.

Like many, many others, I still remember the players on that team because they are worth remembering. In 1999, a group of determined under-appreciated young women changed the sports world forever. This 2023 USWNT wasn’t a group of women coming together as a team for a greater good, but a bunch of self-serving bitches wearing the same-colored jersey. That’s why they lost.

I mention my personal history because that’s how girls soccer started in the 1980’s. Boys had to play with girls, and we had to play nice– even in high school. All the girls who stuck it out were better for playing with boys. It wasn’t easy (on all sides), for sure. Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, etc, all had to deal with those circumstances. It pushed them, in a way girls can’t be pushed today, because there are now girls soccer leagues everywhere– as it should be. It’s all part of global sports progress.

Postscript: So where does the USWNT rank globally now? They finished 2nd in their Group, and lost in the Round of 16 in Australia 2023. That objectively means they are anywhere from 9th to 16th globally. The competitive edge the USWNT has had over their global opponents, starting from the inaugural women’s World Cup in 1991, has been completely eroded. What is the cause? Politics is always a factor in big money sports, and women’s soccer is clearly no exception. The wrong choices are being made for the wrong reasons, and this is what you get. I leave it to the experts analyze the details– that’s what they’re supposedly paid for.

No longer can the USWNT waltz onto the World Cup stage & dominate, or even win. They couldn’t even score this time around. Lack of skills, creativity, chemistry & poor player development are the reasons. Too many egos need to be massaged all the time, and that creates resentment for team players. This drains a team, and it’s almost always the reason a team loses, at any level. You might not expect this ugly pettiness from the USWNT, but then you would be giving them too much credit.

The resources the US sporting establishment has poured into girls/womens soccer since the 1990’s have helped keep the US women ahead of everyone else– through World Cup 2019 which they won. The USWNT had a huge head start by the process I described above in my personal experience. There were hundreds-of-thousands of other boys like me who played fair and (unknowingly) helped develop the original USWNT. I only mention this because I’ve never seen it written anywhere else, yet it surly had the impact I’ve described.

Now that it’s all-girls leagues, US soccer is going to struggle to recapture the glory of its early years. How are you going to make players better when it’s favoritism, enabling & cynical politics at every level? This is the reason why the men’s national team always sucks. I don’t ever see the USWNT team returning to prominence on a world stage. Other counties such as Sweden & China are far better organized at this point. The processes that have undermined the quality of women’s soccer run too deep in American society, and are also part of a global revolution to come.

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USWNT Wins 2019 World Cup

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The USWNT won their 4th women’s World Cup beating the Netherlands 2-0 in the finals in Lyon, France today. Megan Rapinoe (PK) and Rose Lavelle scored in the mid second half, eight minutes apart to settle the match.

Rapinoe who plays professionally for the Seattle Reign FC won the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer & the Golden Ball as its top player. Alex Morgan (below) of the Orlando Pride won the Silver Boot.

There have now been 8 women’s World Cup events since its inception in 1991. The US has won four times (1991, 1999, 2015 & 2019), Germany twice (2003 & 2007), Norway (1995) & Japan (2011) once.

There were many new trends in this tournament worth discussing from a sporting & social perspective. First, was former women’s players being allowed to dominate the broadcasts, lead discussion of rules disputes, and provide needed commentary where required. Most of it was spot-on, and much better than the hysterics & apologetics we get regularly in men’s FIFA. A pleasant eye-opener.

The women’s WC 2019 was also another advance for sports science, in that Video Assisted Replay (VAR) was given a chance, competently managed, and used effectively. There were issues early-on, for sure, but the women stuck with it and learned from their mistakes. They needed to, because there were a lot of blown calls by officials & lines-women in WC 2019.

The stat at the beginning of the Fox broadcast was 32 VAR’s as a tournament total before the finals, with 28 resulting overturned calls, and only 4 confirmed. As we can see, VAR certainly helped make up for really bad officiating, which is endemic in the women’s game, because it’s so much newer than men’s competition. To their credit, it takes courage to stand in the middle of the pitch, with headphones tuned-in to a replay booth and being overturned repeatedly, but that’s what it took for this tournament to be legitimate.

In the end, the best team won on their merits, and there is no controversy about a blown call costing a team a critical match. When the officials get overturned over & over, they review those mistakes, and learn from them. That’s what I saw in the end. As the final match began, there were a few seconds when a second ball was in the field-of-play, and the official & lines-woman didn’t blow their whistles– until it got embarrassing.

It was in the midfield, and it didn’t affect the match, but it’s worth noting the competence level of even the best women’s officials. There’s definitely room for improvement, and VAR can be helpful as a training & accountability tool. It always helps to get the call right, and that’s what VAR can do, so there are no more “Hand of God” goals ever again. That is the main takeaway in the women’s World Cup 2019 for men’s fútbol.

In the US_Netherlands finals, the woman official was excellent. There was a hard foul early-to-mid first half, which was immediately whistled and correctly yellow-carded. Making that correct call, at the correct, time gave the referee control of the match from there on. The players respect that call, and from there on she’s essentially coaching both sides equally to play the game fairly & competitively.

Lots of flops weren’t whistled, leaving wanna-be’s & fakers on the turf looking foolish, as they should. It was under control on both sides, which is the point of officiating. VAR got them there, with a steep learning curve. You have to respect that.

Here’s another one. The 23 players on the USWNT consider themselves to be a family, and stick up for each other. Their motivation was to win back-to-back World Cups– the right way. This isn’t a brutal hacking or flopping USWNT team. They probably take more than the give but they have to, being the overwhelming favorites going in, that’s what you have to deal with.

By the end, the USWNT was clearly the best, but with the caveat that the world has very much caught up. The US-England semi-final was a 2-1 squeaker without their captain & playmaker Megan Rapinoe. Only a blown penalty kick prevented that from being 2-2, and likely OT. With that said, championship teams need to be able to handle injuries & adversity, and they did it without coming off arrogant in the end. They respected their opponents & the game.

The USWNT did a fantastic job of pulling themselves back, especially after their perceived over-exuberance in their 13-0 thrashing of Thailand in their opening match. They apparently learned that winning is important, only if you do it in a way that lets people like you when it’s over. No one likes loudmouth showboats, no matter how good they are.

No one like cowards either, so when Donald Trump tried to inject himself into the narrative and grab himself some glory he doesn’t deserve, Megan Rapinoe spoke for the USWNT and took the media heat without backing down. She didn’t sing a word of the US national anthem as it was played before the finals, and she wasn’t alone on the US team. I respect that. The USWNT will not be visiting the White House for a ceremony, photo-ops & congratulations from the US President.

Rapinoe who is lesbian, has already said she will visit House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. My thoughts on that? When people back up their confident talk, then you have to give them their stage & let them speak, even if you don’t like what they’re going to say. The US has a president who doesn’t acknowledge that it is his sworn duty to defend the Constitution, whose First Amendment is free speech. The USWNT winning the 2019 World Cup the way they did, is a blow to Trump’s brand of fascism.

Standing cheers here for the USWNT!!!!

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