Women's World Cup Final - USA vs. Japan

Let me begin with a big congratulations to the nation of Japan. Their country has had an extremely rough last couple of months (I should know since I spent most of my time on Newswaves reporting on their earthquake/tsunami/radioactive spinach) and their women's national team showed a tremendous amount of heart, grit, and determination throughout the entire World Cup. In fact, if the USA could have played any opponent in the final, I'm glad that it was the Japanese. Japan should be proud all around.

Now to the USA: You disappoint me. It wasn't enough that we had this game in the bag TWICE, but that we squandered numerous chances in front of the goal (most in the first 30 minutes of the game) and then figuratively (and quite possibly literally) sh*t ourselves during the Kicks From the Mark. That's just not good enough...at all.

It's bad enough that the US managed to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory (see what I did there?), especially with all the last minute heroics that we demonstrated against Brazil and France. But this could have been a watershed moment (at the very least a small one) for women's soccer in the United States. Hell, for soccer in general! Americans would have remember that we can actually be good at soccer and could have started to give more of a damn. But it wasn't meant to be, I guess. Now we'll just go back to stressing out about whether the NFL will resolve its stupid lockout (which you know it will, duh) or why Tiger Woods isn't playing golf anymore (I mean, who cares?) while our nations women's professional soccer league, the WPS, slowly crumbles to the ground.

I'm sad for players like Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, and Christie Rampone...team leaders who couldn't lift the trophy after playing well and coming in clutch throughout the entire tournament. I'm not sad for players like Shannon Boxx and Carli Lloyd, who just didn't play well enough in central midfield and had horrible efforts during the penalty kick phase. (Note to Boxx: You were just out-matched throughout the entire World Cup. You're 34-years-old. I think it's time for you to hang up your boots and do something else for a living.) I am happy for Lauren Cheney, who really showed some great skill out on the pitch and most likely gained many fans because of that.

And finally, while I'm a little sad and a lot pissed off that my team could pull out the victory, I am feeling hopeful, thanks to the poised play of Alex Morgan, that team USA can find it's way back to the World Cup final. And maybe, we can bring the Cup back to where it belongs...in A-MUR-CA!