The First Time Sports Have Ever Been Played!

This is a headline from ESPN.com today, in regards to the US Women's Soccer team heroics.

Call it Team Destiny. After Sunday's theater, it's hard to see the U.S. not winning it all

Um. What?

I don't really feel like any thinking person needs a rationale why that's insane, but I submit to you the 2001 World Series, a series in which basically the entire country was rooting for the Yankees. The heroics of Jeter & Brosius were insanely storybook, and BH Kim did all he could to script an emotional story, resulting in WS rings for the Yankees, but that little thing called reality got in the way.

Why is the American press acting as if nobody has ever played sports before? As if no single game has ever been amazing, followed up by a disappointing loss?

Another example - the Celtics win game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals in the greatest comeback in NBA Playoff history.  With game 4, at home, on the horizon, they're poised to take a 3-1 lead in the series at home v. New Jersey, and head to the Finals against the Lakers - a series we had to wait 6 years for, but a series we all wanted.

But guess what? It didn't happen. Kidd & Martin destroyed the C's in 3 consecutive games, and it ended in 6.

Listen, I'm thrilled the US Women's team had a victory that was neat, and I like Soccer and want it to succeed in this country purely b/c the other sports are becoming too much to bear from a financial perspective, but I think part of the reason we hate on soccer a bit in this country is because we almost refuse to get to know it, to take the time to massage the relationship and understand nuances of the game.

Last night Tony DiCicco, former US coach and current ESPN analyst, was calling the victory yesterday a "Triumph of the American Spirit".  That leads to so many questions, like:
1. If they lose, did the American spirit fail?  Or can this only be a positive thing?
2. Doesn't that inherently downplay the athleticism of a victory like that?
3. Could the win simply have been great execution down the stretch?

Simply put, what we saw yesterday was sports at its finest - nothing more nothing less. It wasn't World War II, no fascist regime was toppled, and it wasn't the next introduction of Women's Soccer as the National Sport of the future. It was a (miracle?) victory over a Brazilian team that executed poorly. There is no script, there is no destiny, there is just sports - and nobody knows what will happen.