The Greatest Team We’ve Never Heard Of?

One day after writing about Manchester United’s embarrassing loss to Coventry, another story of embarrassment has made its way to the headlines. The United States Women’s National Team suffered a humiliating defeat to Brazil, ending their World Cup hopes once again. I do not know much about women’s soccer, but from what I’ve heard, Brazil is a very one-dimensional team led by a superstar named Marta. The United States were expected to win based on depth, experience, and fitness. Obviously this didn’t quite happen.

Over the past month or so, Nike has been aggressively shoving the U.S. women down our throats, with the advertising slogan of “The Greatest Team You’ve Never Heard Of”. I even tuned in to watch some of the early round games, specifically the 2-2 draw with North Korea and the 2-0 win over Sweden. The Americans’ play in those two games wasn’t particularly eye-opening, and they didn’t seem to be very dominant at all. I still remember the World Cup team from 1999, which was anchored by the likes of Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, and Kristine Lilly. Of those four, only Lilly remains, and she has seemed like the only true athlete on the current team. Brianna Scurry is still here too, but her role has been extremely limited, with the notable exception of this recent 4-0 shrubbing at the hands of Brazil.

This year’s team came across as very confident, too confident in my opinion. They really seemed full of themselves, and many members of the team went so far as to claim that they were even better than the 1999 team. Maybe they are more talented, but they certainly lack the teamwork and attitude that propelled their predecessors to championships. Perhaps now that the Women’s National Team is expected to win, they go into tournaments with a systematic approach of “we’re just better than everyone else”. Even though the 1999 team was very skilled and expected to achieve positive results, they still held a bit of an underdog status since nobody before them had achieved very much.

The general vibe going into this World Cup was essentially this: “Nobody likes us because we don’t have Mia Hamm anymore, and that’s unfair because our team is even better than we were before”. Well, maybe a championship would’ve justified that claim, but something seemed horribly wrong with the team from the get-go. It started with head coach Greg Ryan putting the team in half-ass mode by stating that “our goal is to reach the semifinals” (source). So congratulations Greg, you’ve achieved your goal. Why doesn’t it seem like anyone is satisfied?

Even worse, goalkeeper Hope Solo has recently decided to open up the blame game by criticizing Ryan’s decision to go with veteran Brianna Scurry for the Brazil match (source). Really Hope? You could’ve singlehandedly led your team to victory? You would’ve made all four of those saves that Scurry failed to make? Yeah, and I bet you would’ve scored the goal to give the U.S. a 1-0 victory, too.

Don’t expect this team to be remembered for anything at all. Everything that was good about women’s soccer in the late 90’s and early 2000’s is just gone, maybe to never return. With all this bickering, blaming, and blundering, the members of the 2007 U.S. Women’s National Team have truly lived up to their name; they are and will always be the greatest team we’ve never heard of.