Although the win wasn’t pretty, the USWNT is through to the quarterfinals in this year’s World Cup, defeating Colombia, ranked 28th in the world.
The second-ranked U.S. came into the match after “struggling” with seven points during group play, while Colombia seemed to be hot after their upset over France.
It actually shows a lot of growth in women’s soccer that analysts are disappointed with the USWNT supposed difficulties and the high expectations that follow the team.
In the short life of Women’s World Cups, the winners have expectantly come from the few countries who have embraced some level of equality in women’s sports. In this year’s cup, an expansion of the women’s field allowed several debutants to world cup soccer.
Many teams, such as Colombia, a team without a previous world cup win, hail from strong international soccer nations for men.
Colombia didn’t let their newbie status stop them from talking smack before the first whistle. But what followed was a performance Meryl Streep would envy. Taking cues from the men’s game, the Colombians utilized the flop at nearly every contact.
Literally. Never. Touched. Your. Face. #USA pic.twitter.com/N1CWjJZuS5
— Richard Farley (@richardfarley) June 23, 2015
Many European and South American fans consider the flop part of gamesmanship, but Americans are horrified by the practice and it’s been relatively unseen in women’s soccer.
Unfortunately for Las Cafeteras, the excessive calls only ignited the Americans (and probably the ref) into the game and the team finally showed a fiery spark not seen all year.
Many women’s teams, such as Australia, are utilizing the opportunity to train with male teams to prepare for the physical challenges of the world cup. It’s important for the women’s game to absorb from the men when discussing training and tactics, but they need to filter out the BS.
Research has shown that men have twice as many fake injuries as the women during international play.
In yesterday’s game, some of these flops resulted in yellow cards for the USWNT and the loss of players (Holiday, Rapinoe) for the quarterfinals. While Colombia probably doesn’t care about the result, they should care about the perception of everyone involved in game from referee decisions to coaching.
Flops will ultimately end up driving fans away and keep the women’s game in second class. If fans want to watch the men’s style of play, there are plenty of opportunities at all levels. The women’s game needs to differentiate itself in order to attract fans bored with the theatrics from the other half.
Colombia is a young and promising team who will no doubt be present in 2019. Hopefully by then they will shake off the drama they learned from the boys and continue playing like girls. The Women’s World Cup and women’s international soccer will be better for it.
