I am not a proponent of the everybody wins mentality. Not only in sports, but not everybody wins in life either. All I am saying is that the more subtle and considered view you have taken is likely not the one that many impressionable kids will grasp. Maybe they should, but for many the lesson will be kick them when they are down.
I found certain celebrations (like Rapinoe's for goal #9) extremely gauche, particularly for a team that is the most achieved and experienced in the women's game going up against literal newcomers. The "rareness of the event" excuse doesn't hold water for me, precisely for this reason. Nobody on this team trained their whole life to demolish women literally half their size, so why are they celebrating like it? It is something the vast majority of men and women players have managed not to do at their respective World Cups. So I don't think it's unreasonable to expect these women to act like they've won the World Cup more than any other country. It was corny and small-time, IMO. It certainly doesn't significantly change my opinion of these women or my willingness to root for the team, but it garnered an appropriate amount of criticism, IMO. The doubling down, IMO, is more damning.
In my opinion, respect for the game and respect for your opponent requires that you play your hardest and don't stop because they are weak. I believe this should happen at all competitive levels of youth sports, although not at the very young ages or the rec leagues like AYSO. Players should also be taught good sportsmanship toward their opponent, which the women exemplified. And Thailand taught about grace while losing. :| I do understand the criticism, and I think people would be just as ready to jump on the men if they did the same, maybe even more so. Maybe. Cadaver, they are both competitive players at the very top and also role models, but they are not perfect, that can't happen. The scrutiny of their every move, like Rapinoe's (not) singing of the national anthem, must be exhausting. I think our women did the right thing and they were not cruel to or mocking the Thai players. Not comparing, but...Did you see the celebration from Thailand when they scored a goal in the next game? That was really joyful.
I now want to fly MPNumer9 to Paris and direct the USWMNT players to celebrate all goals directly in front of him.
First, I will admit that I never played soccer and the culture may be different. But I played hockey in beer leagues for more than 50 years. Sometimes I played goal for very weak teams. I have to admit, when it reached the stage we were behind by 8 to 10 goals and obviously not at the level of our opponent - we were clearly beaten - and the other team kept pouring it on, my reaction was not "Oh boy, they must really respect us." Bullpuckey. As more goals poured in I kept thinking, "What the hell are you bozos trying to prove?" Pad you individual stats? Now I don't begrudge the USWNT scoring as much as they could in a tournament where goal differential is determinative. They had to. But be honest about why and don't feed me that respect malarkey. And a guy who over celebrated in that way was likely to find a stick shoved in his ribs the next time he skated a shift. As I said, maybe a different culture.
I think like in most things the truth is in between the extreme - it wasn't a "terrible Ugly American display" but imo it could have been handled a bit better. In either case it wasn't a big deal either way. Now if these were "in your face" celebrations directed toward their opponents (like we see in the NBA and NFL all the time) that would be different. But the celebrations all seemed about supporting their teammates and themselves. I think they may have gotten a little carried away in the moment and in retrospect probably could have toned it down after the 8th goal or so. Partly out of respect for the opponent but more out of respect of their own abilities. Scoring the 9th+ goal against a minnow just isn't that big of a deal. But my "hot take" was that it just wasn't that all that. Media pumped it up, because that's what they do. And of course people in comments care 100 times more than Thailand's players appeared to care. And don't get me going on the fact that this trivial incident got 100 times the front page coverage of the demolition of Sudan's peaceful movement toward democracy, with 100's of demonstrators being raped/murdered by their own military in the last month. No, let's get upset by a bunch of soccer players hugging and dancing after goals. That's what we need to focus on...
Now, now, don't be upset with yourself Berks. It's all ok. You are doing the best you can. In fact you should probably make yourself a nice little plaque for the effort. Did that help?
Having watched Argentina vs. Paraguay, it's a little bit hard to watch Mexico vs. Canada. It's now half time and I just don't see how Canada is gonna overcome Mexico.
😏 @AntunaUriel pic.twitter.com/QW1GGuaONz— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) June 20, 2019 JDS and Antuna started
I would happily accept my fate. The only reason I haven't switched to my Carli L10yd avatar is it didn't work out so well for the last guy. Unfortunately, the USWNT is under a spotlight for other various reasons, so every tiny thing they do gets magnified. But that's also the price of being da best.
Antuna at it again... 🇲🇽 @AntunaUriel gets @miseleccionmx’s first goal!...omg he does backflips?!?! pic.twitter.com/DyFKcRjuf0— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) June 24, 2019
Yay Antuna! The guy is having a hell of a tournament. But I also have to say that was some sad goalkeeping.
I agreed with the celebration criticism but the level of ire and the coverage it got was just absurd to me. Getting carried away with a celebration is in no way close to the level of disrespect and unsporting conduct shown when a player pretends to be fouled or worse still, a player blatantly seeks to hurt an opponent with a reckless challenge or cynical hack. Those things go on every game with barely any coverage. However, I don't think the respect in toning down celebrations is mutually exclusive from the respect that also exists in playing the game to the best of your ability. Even if goal differential wasn't a factor, it's a tad patronising to adopt the attitude of "It's okay... we've got 5 goals... you've lost... we'll stop scoring now... you're welcome!"
JDS with the winning goal of the Gold Cup final. 😱💥 JONAAAA 💥😱Our man @jona2santos gives @miseleccionmxEN the lead 👀 pic.twitter.com/I5zUWLQVdm— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 8, 2019
Congrats Jona and Antuna. I thought Jona was their best player overall. Antuna looked dangerous, but I dont think he was that dangerous at all. Too many bad final balls. He regressed to his earlier time with us, sprint to the end line and whiff the cross.
Anyone who told me, "Mexico doesn't care about this tournament" just needs to watch that celebration. Welcome back US-Mexico rivalry. It's been a long time. But it feels good.
Agree. Despite the lack of effort in the first part of the second half by us, that felt like a battle between two relatively equal teams, with ebbs and flows, and we had the better of the chances in the beginning it was a very fun game to watch, and I don't feel as bad losing that one because of the way we played.