Chasing the World Cup

From dream, to all in

I rarely sat back in the stadium chair the entire first half. Just 30 or so feet from the pitch U.S. players took corner kicks and tried hundreds of attack combinations in hopes of putting one in the net.

The second half switched sides, our U.S. defenders solidly holding the backfield, preventing Netherland’s offense from scoring. Then a Megan Rapinoe penalty kick crossed the line, releasing the American crowd’s collective tension from a 0-0 final World Cup match in front of 55,000 fans that were thinking this game may go into an even hotter, stress-filled overtime.

Then forward Rose Lavelle’s thread-the-needle shot hit the back of the net. U.S. fans on their feet swirling U.S. National Team scarves and flags – pure elation, deafening cheering. Watching her team dogpile the World Cup first-timer’s goal in the final was so powerful – so empowering – a proud moment in a time where women’s soccer has come so far in the 30+ years since I last played. You could sense the passing of the torch to the next generation of female soccer players in that moment.

It’s nearly impossible to capture a week of chasing the World Cup, from taking an overnight flight from Portland to Paris just in time to arrive at the stadium for the U.S. vs France quarterfinal match to a week later watching our team defeat the Netherlands team in Lyon to capture its 4^th World Cup title.

Deeper connection
It’s not just that I was celebrating a milestone birthday at the World Cup – already a big deal – it’s that I was there at the beginning of this nascent idea of forming a women’s national team back in the late 1980s.

Building on post Title 9 legislation that opened up college opportunities for women, the Olympic Development Program (ODP) was launched to select the best women’s players through state and regional teams, then ultimately a national team.

It’s why now we have a more than 30+ year pipeline of players and remain highly competitive, looked up to by every women’s team in the world. We’re very lucky – and we’ve earned it – overcoming drastically uneven support between the non-winning men’s team national soccer team and needing day jobs to support professional soccer dreams.

Back then, I was in the right place at the right time. I had suspended disbelief – similar to every soccer game I’d ever played in – to even think I couldn’t make the first women’s Olympic team and then go pro. None of that even existed, but I had that confidence in my skill and decade+ of disciplined training that you need to trust and follow instinct.

But my dream would be cut short. A very narrow doorway closed when as a Washington State ODP player I broke my big right toe at a practice game just before the regional tryouts. The injury aged me out of contention. The national team at that time was Under-20 (later it expanded). That first national team would go on to win the first Women’s World Cup in 1991 was filled with greats like Mia Hamm, Brandie Chastain, Julie Foudy and more.

That kind of dream dies hard.

The awakening
I wouldn’t have gone to this year’s World Cup had it not been the local connection that got brought me back into the soccer stadium in 2007, watching Megan Rapinoe and Christine Sinclair at the University of Portland.

Watching them so many years later brought such appreciation that not only had I benefitted from Title 9 to even begin playing soccer when I did – I looked around the stadium and young girls had jerseys with Mia Hamm and other national greats’ names on them. They were sparked by the first team’s win more than a decade before. They too had hopes and dreams and weren’t even thinking they couldn’t do it.

The realization: I could support women’s soccer by simply going to the games – getting to know the players through their fantastic talent. Joining in with others to show our collective pride for your team. Buying and wearing team jerseys, shirts and scarves. Flying the team flag.

Going all in.

I’m now a Portland Thorns season ticket holder, thanks to good friends who also planted the seed to fly to France for this year’s World Cup nearly a year ago. Nine Thorns players went to play on their respective national teams during this World Cup. Post 4^th World Cup win, Thorns fans broke not one, but now two, and I hope many more fan records.

We’re so lucky that Portland soccer fans support both the Portland Timbers and Thorns teams. Here and at the World Cup, you now see all genders and whole families sporting female players’ jerseys at games that draw 20,000+ fans – unheard of in other parts of the country. We collectively cheer, some dreams gone and some just beginning – being fed with every game.

We’re all in.