A Sports Dream

I bet your wondering where my post about the game was.

How often can you say "the game" and have people know your talking about the US Women's Soccer Team?

I didn't see or follow the 1999 team, so this yesterday was the big USWNT moment for me.

Yesterday was Women's Soccer's Dream. Sports like women's soccer, which are not in the mainstream like Men's Soccer, NFL, NHL, NBA, NASCAR, MLB etc. only have a few opportunities every once in awhile to catch the Nation's conscience.

(We saw that with Women's Basketball this year when UCONN brought attention to Women's Basketball for the 90 game win streak)

Women's Soccer gets the opportunity twice every four years, during the Women's World Cup and the Summer Olympics. During these two opportunities the sport must take advantage of the attention it gets on the big stage. This is very hard to do because it's not easy to tell two teams that they have to go play an amazing, competitive and riveting game. The hardest thing to control in sports is the actual playing of sport. You can control your halftime entertainment, but not the outcome of games.

Women's Soccer got a huge break yesterday and could have arguably over time generated more interest or as much interest than the 1999 team did. For me the 1999 Women's Team made me aware of the sport of women's soccer on the big stage. I think it brought awareness of it to the National Stage, and made those already aware more vested in the game, but as evidenced by the failure of the WUSA, it did not make it a sustainable professional sport that we follow everyday.

Yesterday's game was another step. People were aware of the game because of the 1999 team, and now they will probably show some more interest in women's soccer from now on.

Now social media is a big deal, and peer pressure has great influences. Twitter and facebook will help women's soccer because when people log on they will see their friends say "GO USA" or "Abby Wambach you've made me a fan" etc. All of their friends who have no idea what they are talking about will google those things or ask about those things to find out what they are talking about.

Now with ESPN.com and the greater prevalence of cable people will be able to consume the game easier. Once you hear about the amazing plays you can tune in and watch sportscenter to see the highlights, or log on to espn.com and do the same thing. Sports fans in general, always watch sportscenter, and today they will get a good dose of Women's Soccer.

ESPN has done a fantastic job covering the game and has given it the justice it deserves as the lead story on sportscenter. It made it's top 10 "dramatic moments" because of yesterday's game.

Women's Soccer got so much publicity from yesterday's match it's impossible to put dollar figures on it right now.

Hopefully the interest in this World Cup only goes up.

Yesterday's match itself was a marketers dream for several reasons. Emotions were really stirred because it was an international soccer match. Everyone in America had a rooting interest because their team was playing.

You had two great teams playing which made the game interesting. You had the world's top players, Hope Solo, Marta and Abby Wambach playing, so you had the best talent. You ended up having a great and close game that kept people on the edge of their seats. You had villians that further stirred emotions and made people emotionally invested in the game and it's outcome. People hated the referee (like me) and people hated Marta, and Erika who just fell down to waste time...then got right up and started playing. I cursed at the TV screen and threw my sandal after they took away Hope Solo's PK save. Then at the end you had an amazing and dramatic end to the game with a late game tying goal and then the drama of Penalty Kicks.

All of that emotion makes the game so interesting, riveting and watchable. This game for many American's could have been what the 2008 UCONN vs Yale game and UCONN vs WVU BIG EAST TOURNAMENT game was for me.

As for the game, I love Hope Solo and her confident attitude. I love Abby Wambach because she is a winner (And now people know who she and Solo are, the way people knew about Hamm, Chastain, Lilly and Foudy). Megan Rapinoe played a fantastic, fantastic ball to get the game winning goal.

Yesterday's game was a fantastic moment in US Sports History. It remains to be seen what kind of impact it has, but I'm sure it has already had a big positive one.

Winning the whole thing for the American's will make no mistake, be very important. The game will be somewhat forgotten and not have as great of a long lasting effect if the American's don't win. People, like it or not, don't remember things as well if a team doesn't win a Championship.

The 2011 Women's World Cup team might have the whole nation's attention right now, and it's very hard to get their attention, so good has already been done with yesterdays game. But winning the whole thing will help a lot more.

I had a lot to say in a short amount of time, hope it's easy to understand.

I'm excited, more than I expected to be honestly. GO USA!!!