If Rachel Maddow can talk about the Woman's World Cup and star goalie Hope Solo then so can I, because I am far more connected to Hope than Rachel can ever dream of being. My ex-boyfriend Grant was in Hope's 5th Grade class in Sajawea Elementary School 20 years ago, so he knowing her and me knowing Grant makes the connection I have with Hope the strongest I've ever had with a famous athlete, and intrinsically bonds she and I forever.
Soccer is the only sport I have ever liked. It was ideal for kids born with flippers instead of hands and for other kids like me who just couldn't catch a ball. Mind you, when I say I like soccer, it actually means I don't hate soccer like I hate other sports. It certainly didn't mean I was willing to play it with Grant, who plays soccer very well. This is not to say that Grant would have ever been willing to play soccer with me. He knew how bad I was at anything involving grass and a ball, even if it just required kicking. He would have looked like a coach for The Special Olympics if he tried to teach me even the most basic soccer ball footwork.
Never having been interested in sports at-large, I have always kept my ears open for news of Hope Solo. Grant first told me about her when he heard she had made the US Olympic Team in 2004 and has kept me posted on more recent news of this Goalie Goddess. Between her very memorable, strangely ironic name, her outspokenness in interviews and on the Internet, and her beauty to boot, she's become quite a sensation, heading towards icon.
I was at work in the hospital two days ago and all of the sudden I heard a group of women scream. Screaming is not uncommon in a hospital but it's usually accompanied by sobbing, not clapping. I ran to where the commotion was and found five Latina women of varying ages in the Surgery Waiting Room watching the match between the US and France on the TV there, and on the screen was a replay of no other than my own Hope Solo, making an amazing save.
When I hear a group of men scream I always immediately know no matter where it is that they are watching or listening to either a touchdown, a home run, a knock-out, or a full court basket. These moments and when a man is behind the wheel of a car are the only two times when it is socially acceptable for him to get carried away by his emotions. Hence the ever growing popularity of road rage and deadly stadium rioting. Everywhere else the man must stay stoic and let the woman's emotions run amok. I have seen groups of females scream about everything from seeing George Clooney to seeing a mouse running on the floor, to getting an all expenses paid-for spa day on Oprah to catching the bouquet at a wedding, and during protest marches against the government and on abortion lines against each other, but until that day in the Surgery Waiting Room, I never witnessed a group of women screaming over a sports event. I've come find out that women were screaming in groups all over the country at that same moment, turning it into no less than a national phenomenon.
The Finals for the Woman World Cup is tomorrow and needless to say, a lot of Americans who never watched soccer before, along with a lot of European women who never watched either, will be tuned in. Has The US Woman's Soccer Team stirred something in women and in men in this country that promoters have failed to do since Pele 's heyday in the 1970's? Can Hope Solo, a woman who is as talented an athlete as she is outspoken and beautiful with a name as memorable as Tiger Woods, do for soccer what he did for golf?
The biggest question of all is can Hope Solo do the impossible by making me actually enjoy watching a soccer game? If you can do this Hope Solo, you are truly the greatest athlete in the world.
