The
Games: When and where to watch
Civic Stadium: It may not be Wembley, but
it's ours.
Abby Reuler, age 15: living proof that soccer
beats the hell out of cross-stitching
Eight
Nations in One Uni-Cultural City
: the competition
It's one hell of a coming-out party.
This summer, women's soccer checks out of finishing school,
dons its finest and sashays out to meet the world. And about
1 billion TV viewers in over 70 countries, not to mention
half a million people packed into stadiums across the United
States, will be watching.
The 16-nation soccer tournament that began in New Jersey
on June 19 and visits Portland's Civic Stadium on Wednesday
and Thursday, June 23 and 24, may technically be the third
Women's World Cup, but you probably didn't notice the previous
contests. In Sweden in 1995, about 100,000 tickets were
sold for the entire tourney, a total this year's championship
will eclipse after two or three games. The formidable marketing
forces that sent the men's game cresting on a supernova
of hype in this decade have turned their attention to soccer's
distaff branch, and no matter who wins the championship
match in Pasadena next month, sport for women will surely
have entered a new arena.
Indeed, the exponential growth of the women's game seems
to demand marquee billing. In the scant three years since
the United States won Olympic gold in Atlanta, women's soccer
has come to grip the nation tighter than a Martha Stewart
flower press. Grassroots women's soccer culture is blossoming
in the United States as top-notch players like Julie Foudy,
Briana Scurry and, especially, Mia Hamm shoulder their way
into the national consciousness. In Europe, Latin America
and elsewhere, age-old macho prejudice against the women's
game is slowly crumbling. World Cup promoters are certainly
mining the warrior-princess angle for all it's worth, trumpeting
a slogan fairly dripping in late-'90s self-actualization
marinade: "Watch Me Play."
As those who turned out for the United States' June 3 pre-Cup
dismantling of Canada (4-2) at Civic Stadium can attest,
there is ample reason to heed that oh-so-empowered credo.
Simply put, the women of the '99 World Cup kick ass. And
they do it with finesse, not force.
The strategic complexity that sends dedicated men's soccer
fans into ecstasy spices the sport's female equivalent as
well. But the women's game unfolds at a different tempo
and is marked by a distinct tenor. For starters, there's
more scoring.
As U.S. coach Tony DiCicco has pointed out, female goaltenders
lack some of the height and reach of their male counterparts.
In effect, the goal is higher and wider in the women's game.
Also, there's less emphasis on the raw speed and defensive
savagery that dominate top-level men's soccer. The creative
players of the midfield, who provide the so-called "beautiful
game" with most of its beauty, have more time on the ball,
which allows for more meticulous, passing-oriented tactics.
This all plays right into the hands of the superb American
squad, which showcased its assaultive yet elegant style
in its warm-up game against Canada. Led by scoring ace Hamm,
the United States relentlessly pressured the goal, playing
with just enough reserve to keep almost constant possession
of the ball. The less-skilled Canadians fell into a scrappy,
opportunistic style. In the second game of the exhibition,
Australia attempted the same tack against Brazil, trying
to disrupt the South Americans' trademark free-jazz flow
with raw physical aggression.
The doubleheader was refreshing for idealistic soccer fans
who yearn for the glory days of Pelé--when artistic
attack was more important than burly defense. Equally refreshing
were the legions of young girls, obviously fanatics, who
dominated the crowd of more than 23,000. Throughout Team
USA's warm-ups, they lined the edge of the field, decked
out in red, white and blue, splashed with face paint, screaming
for Mia, Judy and the rest with a fervor their mothers might
have directed at the Beatles. Their presence, more than
anything, demonstrated the true revolution behind the Women's
World Cup: Girl Power. Or more specifically, girl empowerment.
Soccer's Spice Girls of '99, with their obscene quadriceps,
wholesome ponytails and precise athleticism, expose Sporty
for the fraud she was. Adolescents who fawned over the U.K.
fab five last year now worship at the altar of Mia Hamm
and Tiffeny Milbrett--emulating women who possess stunning
skill and selflessness, not just brassy sassiness. The U.S.
women's team is a genuine example of teamwork, and it's
that synergy that charges fans and distinguishes the women's
game from the men's. While any club--male or female--must
cooperate and communicate to achieve success, that mysterious
ability that enables chicks to have deeper friendships and
get emotional is at work on the field as well. Women naturally
have a mental advantage in a sport that rewards intuitive,
improvisational play.
Will this year's World Cup revolutionize women's sports,
irrevocably smashing the cut, "You play like a girl?" Will
it lead to a homegrown pro league? Who knows? And for now,
who cares? For the next three weeks, just in time to relieve
the post-NBA sports doldrums, scores of feisty female athletes
will be in the spotlight. On July 10, in the Rose Bowl,
someone gets the tiara.
The
Games:
Four Women's World Cup first-round matches will
be played at Civic Stadium (1844 SW Morrison St.):
Japan vs. Russia at 6 pm,
China vs. Ghana at 8:30 pm Wednesday, June 23;
North Korea vs. Denmark at 6 pm,
Germany vs. Mexico at 8:30 pm Thursday, June 24.
Call (800) 992-8457 for tickets, $20-$48.
The 32 games will be broadcast by ABC, ESPN and ESPN 2.
Good places to watch are:
A&L Sports, 234-7607
The Cheerful Tortoise, 224-3377
Claudia's, 232-1744
The Horse Brass Pub, 232-2202
Kells, 227-4057
The Kingston, 224-2115
Scoreboard Tavern, 233-2971
It
May Not Be Wembley,But It's Ours
Civic Stadium has a secret. The supposed baseball
park is really a classic soccer ground gussied up in all-American
drag. The stadium has played host to dramatic U.S. national
team games. Pelé played his final professional match
there. Now, the temporary grass pitch is about to be consecrated
as bona fide World Cup material, an honor the stadium deserves.
Here are a few reasons why:
First, there's the roof. Classy hardwood arches over
the main grandstand, lending the Civic something of the look
and sound of an English stadium, amplifying crowd noise and
making the stadium seem even more intimate than it is.
Did I mention intimacy? With 30,000 seats arrayed
in a cozy horseshoe around the field, Civic makes a far
better soccer venue than cavernous stadiums designed to
hold 80,000 NFL fans eight times a year. Civic's downtown
location (it even has its own MAX stop) should be
the envy of city planners everywhere, especially in a country
where metro-area stadiums are all too often exiled way the
hell out by the airport.
Finally, in an age of overblown, luxury-box-ridden monstrosities,
Civic's blessed with a no-frills charm. A throwback
to the days when sports were for the masses, Civic's spartan
wooden benches hark back to soccer's proletarian heritage.
This is the game English TV's legendary football fan Alf
Garnett called "working-class ballet," after all.
--ZD
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|
Q&A
Abby Reuler, age 15, competes in varsity soccer, basketball
and tennis at Cleveland High. She's been playing organized
soccer since kindergarten and is living proof that the
sport beats the hell out of cross-stitching. |
How long have you been playing soccer?
Nine years, since kindergarten. I played on a coed team.
My friend's dad was the coach, and all my friends were on
the team.
What position do you play?
Sweeper.
How do you like it? Is it a tough position?
Yeah, it is. Being the farthest-back defender, it's pretty
stressful. You have to keep everyone in line, tell them
where to be. I didn't want to be yelling at the defenders
who were juniors, telling them to mark up their man. It's
intimidating sometimes.
Are you going to any of the World Cup games in Portland?
I really want to. The last one, my first one (U.S. vs.
Canada, June 3 at Civic Stadium), was so awesome, so fun
to watch. Watching the females rather than the males is
so inspiring. It's great to watch females out there dominating
the sports.
Any players you look up to?
Not before now, but watching Mia Hamm play was absolutely
awesome. She was so good; she totally blew me away.
How about sweepers?
I didn't get a program [at the U.S. game]. I feel really
terrible that I don't know who she [the U.S. team's sweeper]
is, but she did some great key defensive plays.
What do you like best about playing soccer?
I kind of like how everybody works together to make one
major thing happen. In basketball, everyone's scoring the
points, but in soccer it's all working up to this one moment.
Everything is important in that game, every position.
And what do you like the least?
What I don't like is how most of the time the forwards
are always the most well-known because they score the goals--and
I totally give them credit for that. But the people in the
middle and back put just as much effort forward; they just
don't happen to specialize in goal-scoring.
Compared with, say, basketball or tennis, how popular
would you say soccer is at your school?
Soccer is very, very popular even though there's not a
lot of girls who will come out. Basketball for the girls
isn't very popular--we're not very good. The boys are good,
but people come out for soccer. Everyone's blown away by
the sport because it's so intense to watch.
Can you pinpoint any differences between the way guys
and girls play soccer, or sports in general?
I really hate to say this, but guys might be more aggressive
than girls are. Some girls are really tough, but the [men's]
game is a lot quicker, and there are a lot more yellow cards
and red cards and just a lot more force. I think the reason
people like to watch girls is that it's so graceful and
smooth. And it looks like they might be thinking a little
bit more than the guys do. Watching that [U.S.] game, everything
was placed just perfectly; there weren't a lot of stops
because people weren't pushing each other out of bounds.
It flowed perfectly the whole time.
Will you be crushed if the U.S. loses the World Cup?
No, because I'm really just happy that I was able to see
them play.
--CM
Eight
Nations in One Uni-Cultural City
CHINA
|
|
U.S. archenemy--dangerous but has never
realized full potential. Goalie Gao Hong is said to
be best tender in the world. |
|
DENMARK
|
|
Ultra-progressive Scandinavians started program in
1972. Bruisers. Husky defender Lene Terp played every
minute in 1995 World Cup and 1996 Olympic games.
|
| GERMANY |
|
Dour but determined, they ain't pretty
to watch. Steffie Jones, voted top defender at 1997
European Championships; Doris Fitschen puts up intimidating
defense. |
| GHANA |
|
Speed-demons. The never-seen
Black Queens. No one outside of Africa has glimpsed
the team. Striker Vivian Mensah, the Golden Girl, is
a national hero. |
| JAPAN |
|
Too much Hello Kitty, not enough samurai.
Midfielder and key playmaker Homare Sawa is Japan's
all-time leading scorer at age 20. |
| MEXICO |
|
NAFTA works: Many Mexican-American
collegiates are on the team. Getting better but will
beat a quick retreat south of the border. Midfielder
Laurie Hill "The Thrill" was a three-time All-American
at UC-Santa Barbara. |
| NORTH KOREA |
|
Mysterious. Steamrollers, they play a
very physical game but often come up short. Kim Sun
Hui, team captain, named one of top defenders in Asia.
Team formed in 1993. |
| RUSSIA |
|
Hard to develop a consistent team when
you can't develop a consistent currency. Still, it doesn't
pay to mess with the bear. Midfielder Tatiana Egorova,
at 5' 10", is a punisher. |
--ZD and CM
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Willamette Week | originally
published June 23, 1999
|
