NEW YORK — You were thinking it and you were tweeting it, apparently at a record pace. As Japan’s final penalty kick splashed the back of the net Sunday to clinch the Women’s World Cup title, the U.S. team’s feel-good story of the summer was reduced to the nastiest question in sports.
Did they choke?
This was the conversation much of the country around Sunday night and yesterday, and it was a legitimate one. America’s soccer darlings had brought a bandwagon of millions into the championship game and twice they appeared poised to deliver, leading 1-0 late in regulation and 2-1 in extra time. But by the time the U.S. team had missed three penalty kicks, allowing Japan to celebrate an improbable title, public sentiment had turned.
They blew it. They didn’t get the job done. They choked.
By now, you probably don’t need more reasons to like these women, but let me go ahead and offer one anyway.
The power of social media is such that many of them were aware they’d been called chokers, even before they landed back in New York to begin a media tour yesterday. And you know what? They weren’t offended. Not in the least.
“In sports, you always take the criticism with the praise,” defender Christie Rampone said. “It’s part of it. It shows people are watching. If you’re getting reported on like that, it shows you’re going in the right direction. We have to take it, absorb it and move on.”
There are few subjects in sports as touchy as choking. To put that label on athletes is to accuse them of crumbling under pressure, of failing to meet the moment they train their whole lives to achieve. It’s a harsh indictment, but we use it a lot, almost to the point of being a reflex.
Maybe the U.S. women’s team choked against Japan, and maybe it didn’t, but by Sunday a popular narrative had emerged. If women’s sports had indeed earned long-sought equality, we had to treat this loss the same way we would have treated a men’s team in the same situation. That ostensibly meant harsh questions and blunt critiques; if we had it in us to call this a choke job, perhaps women’s soccer had truly arrived.
“I think we want to be treated just like any sports organization out there,” midfielder Heather O’Reilly said.
Which isn’t to say they agreed with the choker label. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe, in fact, argued that the U.S. team played its best game of the tournament against Japan, dominating the play early while failing to convert precious scoring chances.
“I definitely don’t think we choked,” she said. “If you say we choked, it takes away from Japan.”
But they wouldn’t have even had to answer the question if their loss didn’t matter.
Phil Mickelson can choke in a U.S. Open, but is anyone really going to notice if he blows the Honda Classic? When the Women’s World Cup started, interest in this team was probably closer to Honda Classic levels. But by the time the the Americans beat Brazil in the quarterfinals, this began to matter in a way that no soccer event had mattered in the U.S. since 1999.
“We created such a buzz,” midfielder Carli Lloyd said. “We enabled people to believe in themselves.”
Now, of course, the question is how long it will matter. Twitter announced that a record 7,196 tweets per second were sent during the game’s finish, and overnight television ratings were better than last year’s World Series and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
But only 16 months ago, the Olympic hockey final between the U.S. and Canada was one of the most-watched sporting events of the year, drawing 27 million viewers. Today, interest in hockey is not much different than it was before the Olympics.
Women’s soccer will probably experience much the same phenomenon. Until next summer’s London Olympics and the Women’s World Cup in 2015, interest will be almost impossible to measure.
“We are disappointed we let Japan come back, but we have so much to be proud of,” O’Reilly said. “I think our fan base grew tremendously. I got tons of feedback on Twitter and Facebook, people who never watched soccer saying they want to jump on the bandwagon.”
It’s been a long, hard fight for women’s sports to build an audience, but this team set a new standard. They’d rather have come home as World Cup champions, but being relevant enough to be called chokers might be the next-best thing.
Did they choke?
This was the conversation much of the country around Sunday night and yesterday, and it was a legitimate one. America’s soccer darlings had brought a bandwagon of millions into the championship game and twice they appeared poised to deliver, leading 1-0 late in regulation and 2-1 in extra time. But by the time the U.S. team had missed three penalty kicks, allowing Japan to celebrate an improbable title, public sentiment had turned.
They blew it. They didn’t get the job done. They choked.
By now, you probably don’t need more reasons to like these women, but let me go ahead and offer one anyway.
The power of social media is such that many of them were aware they’d been called chokers, even before they landed back in New York to begin a media tour yesterday. And you know what? They weren’t offended. Not in the least.
“In sports, you always take the criticism with the praise,” defender Christie Rampone said. “It’s part of it. It shows people are watching. If you’re getting reported on like that, it shows you’re going in the right direction. We have to take it, absorb it and move on.”
There are few subjects in sports as touchy as choking. To put that label on athletes is to accuse them of crumbling under pressure, of failing to meet the moment they train their whole lives to achieve. It’s a harsh indictment, but we use it a lot, almost to the point of being a reflex.
Maybe the U.S. women’s team choked against Japan, and maybe it didn’t, but by Sunday a popular narrative had emerged. If women’s sports had indeed earned long-sought equality, we had to treat this loss the same way we would have treated a men’s team in the same situation. That ostensibly meant harsh questions and blunt critiques; if we had it in us to call this a choke job, perhaps women’s soccer had truly arrived.
“I think we want to be treated just like any sports organization out there,” midfielder Heather O’Reilly said.
Which isn’t to say they agreed with the choker label. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe, in fact, argued that the U.S. team played its best game of the tournament against Japan, dominating the play early while failing to convert precious scoring chances.
“I definitely don’t think we choked,” she said. “If you say we choked, it takes away from Japan.”
But they wouldn’t have even had to answer the question if their loss didn’t matter.
Phil Mickelson can choke in a U.S. Open, but is anyone really going to notice if he blows the Honda Classic? When the Women’s World Cup started, interest in this team was probably closer to Honda Classic levels. But by the time the the Americans beat Brazil in the quarterfinals, this began to matter in a way that no soccer event had mattered in the U.S. since 1999.
“We created such a buzz,” midfielder Carli Lloyd said. “We enabled people to believe in themselves.”
Now, of course, the question is how long it will matter. Twitter announced that a record 7,196 tweets per second were sent during the game’s finish, and overnight television ratings were better than last year’s World Series and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
But only 16 months ago, the Olympic hockey final between the U.S. and Canada was one of the most-watched sporting events of the year, drawing 27 million viewers. Today, interest in hockey is not much different than it was before the Olympics.
Women’s soccer will probably experience much the same phenomenon. Until next summer’s London Olympics and the Women’s World Cup in 2015, interest will be almost impossible to measure.
“We are disappointed we let Japan come back, but we have so much to be proud of,” O’Reilly said. “I think our fan base grew tremendously. I got tons of feedback on Twitter and Facebook, people who never watched soccer saying they want to jump on the bandwagon.”
It’s been a long, hard fight for women’s sports to build an audience, but this team set a new standard. They’d rather have come home as World Cup champions, but being relevant enough to be called chokers might be the next-best thing.
