Brief WWC Synopsis Capped by a Penalty Shootout Rant
The Women’s World Cup final Sunday afternoon in Frankfurt, Germany between the United States and Japan was, in similar fashion to each side’s previous elimination games in the tournament, a thrilling affair.
Japan’s run was special because they were underdogs playing to lift the spirits of a nation all but washed away by the tragic tsunami that hit the country’s shores just over four months ago. To even reach the final, the Japanese had to outlast tournament host and heavy favorite Germany in a quarterfinal match-up that remained scoreless until forward Karina Maruyama broke the deadlock in the 108th minute, shocking the German side which hadn’t lost to Japan in their previous eight matches.
For the American side which came into the World Cup boasting the FIFA designation of top-ranked squad in the women’s game, the run to the final was not at all surprising, but no less packed with drama and intensity. Their victories over Brazil and France in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively both featured late goals, most notably Abby Wambach’s 122nd minute header which propelled the U.S. to a penalty shootout victory over a Brazil squad featuring Marta, who is widely regarded as the best player in women’s soccer.
Much was made about the never-say-die attitude of the American women. Their ability to pull out games in the late stages, all the while facing more than their share of adversity, rightfully drew comparisons to the American men who, just last summer in South Africa, won over our hearts with a World Cup run that included a draw against England, a late two-goal comeback to draw with Slovenia, and of course, an unforgettable last-second victory over Algeria.
So it was fitting, then, considering the emotional roller coasters endured by both sides previous to competing in the final, that the eventual World Cup champion would seem down and out, only to rally back, twice; in regulation, where they tied the game in the 82nd minute, and in extra time, where they surmounted a second one-goal deficit in the 117th minute. In this game, it was Japan constantly fighting back, undeterred by their apparent height disadvantage, and refusing to quit despite being outshot 27-14 during the 120-minute epic.
With the late extra time goal and some desperation defending (which led to a virtually meaningless red card), Japan pushed it’s way into a penalty shootout. There, they looked confident and composed, slotting three of their four shots past Hope Solo, while the United States failed to convert their first three attempts, rendering a fifth round of shots irrelevant.
As I, along with millions more Americans, had invested emotionally in the American women during this World Cup more than ever before, the loss was certainly hard to take. And though Japan admittedly deserved the victory, and yes, they would have been easy to root for had the United States not been playing against them, the way that they won was, in a word, cheap.
The penalty shootout is, in essence, a lottery. I’m not whining about it just because my team didn’t win. I wasn’t a fan of it when the U.S. defeated Brazil in this year’s quarterfinals, and had I been old enough to care, I wouldn’t have been a fan when it decided the 1999 World Cup final, even if it provided us with the iconic Brandi Chastain moment.
It seems like a shame to decide something that is so significant to so many people by what basically amounts to a guessing game, requiring minimal skill and focused on individual performance rather than that of an entire team. Is soccer not a team sport?
After Brazil won the 1994 World Cup final in a shootout at the Rose Bowl, Ian Thomsen wrote a column in the New York Times in which he compared a World Cup being decided by penalties to a first-place tie after 72 holes at The Masters being decided on a miniature golf course. Even Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, after Italy defeated France via the shootout in the 2006 World Cup final, called the use of penalties to decide a game of such magnitude “a tragedy”.
Hard to say it better than that.
Tags: abby wambach, hope solo, japan, penalty shootouts, sepp blatter, tsunami, women's world cup