USA. Women's soccer team is the world's best

[redstateblues]

On the July 4th weekend. Very appropriate.

[redwitch]

1. It was a great game!

Very exciting!

[mcar]

2. The women were so strong

A well deserved win!

[shenmue]

3. Huzzah!

Lot of mistakes by Japan early on. A good game overall, though.

[joshcryer]

4. So awesome.

[Texasgal]

5. What a wonderful bunch

of athletes! GREAT game!!!!

[mcar]

6. So classy of the US women

to form that honor tunnel for the Japanese team.

Well done!

[lovemydog]

22. Yeah, that was super cool.

I love all that kind of stuff involving sportsmanship. Classy. I felt sorry for the Japanese team, especially seeing so many of them crying. They really played a great tournament.

[asturias31]

7. Unforgettable!

The players in my family - ex-husband, son, daughter, and her teammate - watched and cheered the whole way through. I know what my kids are thinking tonight: "A few more years and that's gonna be me out there!"

It makes me realize: my mother was pushed out of sports, sixty years ago, because she was female. Most of the world still limits girls' dreams, but the US has changed for the better.

I love this country.

[lovemydog]

13. So true! Title IX changed everything for the better.

I love watching women's sports. Especially soccer since that's the sport I played the most and love most. All the teams in the world cup this year competed exceptionally well. And USA women's soccer has just gotten so great. They've inspired both young girls and young boys, who don't even see it as a women's game so much as just fabulous play all around!

[asturias31]

21. Yeah it's great to see society changing

sometimes with a great leap forward and sometimes just one mind at a time.

When my daughter was born and I teased my then-husband that she would someday play as well as he did, he frowned and explained that soccer was too rough - a sport for boys, not girls (I should explain he's from a different country.). Now whenever I see him cheering her from the sidelines I wanna remind him what a dumbass he once was .

[lovemydog]

23. LOL. If I had a dollar for every time my dad said something

stupid and sexist a long time ago that he would never even dream of saying now well I'd have a lot of dollars.

[asturias31]

24. Haha hooray for dads! NT

[Evergreen Emerald]

8. That was fun to watch!

They were very impressive today.

[DemocraticWing]

9. USA! USA! USA!

I only do that for soccer.

[nilesobek]

10. There is nothing we cannot do

if we just set our minds and decide to do it. Pure willpower.

[lovemydog]

16. Heck yeah.

I'll drink to that!

[SunSeeker]

11. It was so cool seeing a bunch of tween boys watching the game!

They were so into it, cheering and arguing with referee calls--just like they do with any men's pro league game. Growing up I never thought I'd see female team athletes celebrated this way. Now I see it in my own home, by my son and his friends. So cool.

[lovemydog]

14. Yeah! One of the announcers mentioned that after the game.

Younger boys are super into it too. I'm so glad. These women are so fierce. So special. They play with their hearts and souls. They also play for each other. They all have each other's backs. That's fantastic to watch and learn from, whether you're a girl or a boy. As a guy, there's some sports where I prefer watching women play more than the men. Because it just feels more realistic to me, like how I remember playing. Soccer is like that for me. I love it!

[lovemydog]

12. What a great game.

Congratulations USA Women's Soccer!!!

[3catwoman3]

15. That was absolutely...

...exhilarating! Lloyd's 3rd goal, as my 22 and 25 yr old soccer laying sons would say, was a ROCKET!!!

[lovemydog]

17. Oh yes. Lloyd's third goal was a ROCKET!

One of the greatest goals of this tournament, one of the greatest goals in world cup history. One of the greatest goals OF ALL TIME!!!

Here it is. I could watch it over and over!

[3catwoman3]

18. I think it is time for these tournaments be called...

...Men's World Cup and Women's World Cup - not THE World Cup, when the men are competing.

[trinidad]

19. FIFA more or less rigged the Women’s World Cup bracket to ensure healthy ticket sales, TV ratings

My country does not rank very well in the world, be we do have the record for the men's team that is the smallest in the world. Now we just need to move up. LOL.

Germany and Argentina are No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the latest FIFA world men’s soccer rankings. Now imagine if FIFA rigged the World Cup draw so that those two soccer titans met not in the semifinals or final, but prematurely in the quarterfinals.

They’d never be that dumb, right? But FIFA sure has no problem doing it in the Women’s World Cup, where making sure the stadiums are filled takes precedence over ensuring any sort of compelling competition.

When asked why FIFA would do that, a spokesperson told Wahl that it’s all about avoiding the bad optics of empty stadiums (more on that in a minute) and low television ratings.

Basically, FIFA feels like it needs to put certain teams in certain cities to sell tickets and in certain time zones to help with TV ratings back home.

Wahl also asked why FIFA couldn’t randomly determine where the group winners were placed in the knockout-round bracket instead of pre-determining their landing spots. The spokesperson didn’t provide an answer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/06/12/fifa-more-or-less-rigged-the-womens-world-cup-bracket-to-ensure-healthy-ticket-sales-tv-ratings/

[yallerdawg]

25. USA beat #1 Germany.

They won the toughest bracket.

And they faced the team that knocked them out 4 years ago!

Amy Lawrence of CBS Sports Radio echoed Bennett, saying the final match is what Team USA has been competing for.

"There is the revenge factor for Team USA. Thirteen members of Team USA were part of that team four years ago that lost in penalty kicks including all four women who took the penalty kicks for Team USA," Lawrence said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/womens-wold-cup-final-match-usa-japan-dream-matchup-says-roger-bennet/

If FIFA managed this -- they ARE good! (but we also know they aren't)

[trinidad]

26. Group F was tough.

USA played Germany in the semi-final. They played a very good Japan in the final. That set-up boded well for ratings.

No, you can't control outcomes, but their match-ups were clearly geared more to world time zones and audience than competitive pairings. I don't blame them for doing this. Women's soccer does not have the draw of men's soccer.

In the end, they got exactly one of the 2 or 3 matchups they wanted.

[lovemydog]

20. This video, Carli Lloyd talks about how she loves excelling during high pressure situations.

Boy does she ever!