If sports reflects society, then nothing better illustrates the nation’s current condition than the performance and behavior of the United States’ team during the Women’s World Cup, which ended Sunday, and the overwhelming reaction unexpected elimination.
For Americans, the tournament and its aftermath featured the toxic combination of “woke” politics, narcissism, entitlement, pervasive popular fatigue with all of the above and the accompanying politicized schadenfreude.
Since the Women’s World Cup began in 1991, the United States has dominated women’s soccer. The Americans won four championships — more than any other nation — finished second once and placed third three times in the eight previous tournaments. This year, the United States hoped to become the first squad — male or female — to win three successive World Cups.
But after winning only one of three group games and scoring just four goals in the process, the Americans lost to Sweden on penalty kicks in the Round of 16 on Aug. 6 after 120 scoreless minutes of regulation and extra time, soccer’s term for overtime.
Some soccer analysts attributed the defeat to the Americans’ inability to maintain possession or generate offensive creativity, let alone score. Some criticized coach Vlatko Andonovski’s unwillingness to change tactics or lineups. Some cited a roster that combined spent veterans with inexperienced young players.
But Carli Lloyd, a midfielder who won two Women’s World Cups and two Olympic gold medals for the United States, noticed a more disturbing cause.
“It is no longer we want to win because we want to win,” said Lloyd, whose 134 career goals ranks fourth internationally. “No, we want everything that comes with winning, and we think we can just roll out and win games. That’s not the case, and teams see that. They see the arrogance in the U.S. and see that they’re not this unstoppable team. They see that (the United States is) able to be broken down and beaten.”
Lloyd, working for Fox Sports as a commentator, used the Americans’ behavior after ending group play with a scoreless tie against Portugal to prove her point.
Several players danced, sang and took selfies with adoring fans, as Fox Sports showed. But if a late shot from Portugal’s Ana Capeta found the net rather than a goal post, the Americans would have been eliminated in group play for the first time.
“There’s a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing, to be smiling?” Lloyd asked. “I’ve never witnessed something like that. You’re lucky not to be going home right now.
“There’s too many distractions. There’s too much emphasis on ‘How many followers do I have?’ or doing photoshoots and doing this and doing that.”
The frivolity included midfielder Megan Rapinoe, one of the best players in American soccer history yet the dominant factor in alienating the fan base by turning the team into her own political toy.
In 2016, Rapinoe joined former quarterback Colin Kaepernick and began kneeling during the national anthem as a form of protest. She soon broke protocol by refusing to sing the anthem, and convinced teammates to join her. As a result, players refused either to sing or put their hands over their hearts as the anthem played at the Women’s World Cup or the Olympics. In other competitions, players wore shirts or warm-up jackets emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter.”
One former teammate last year said Rapinoe would intimidate anybody who disagreed.
“I’ve seen Megan Rapinoe almost bully players into kneeling because she really wants to stand up for something in her particular way,” said goalkeeper Hope Solo, who amassed a world-record 102 shutouts. “But it’s our right as Americans to do it whatever way we’re comfortable with, and I think that’s really hard being on the main stage right now with so many political issues for athletes.”
Rapinoe embraced and promoted all the “woke” causes, despite Americans’ growing contempt for them and their imposition. She openly opposed President Donald Trump and called herself a “walking protest” of his policies. A Lesbian, Rapinoe openly advocates gender ideology, including the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. In the process, Rapinoe demonstrated contempt for parents concerned about the consequences to their daughters:
“I would also encourage everyone out there who is afraid someone’s going to have an unfair advantage over their kid to really take a step back and think what are we actually talking about here. We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sorry, your kid’s high school volleyball team just isn’t that important. It’s not more important than any one kid’s life.”
By becoming a “woke” activist, Rapinoe sabotaged team morale.
“The culture has changed,” said Lloyd, the only American to stand for the anthem before the bronze-medal game at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. “It was really tough and challenging to be playing these last several years. I wanted to win and I wanted to help the team, but the culture within the team was the worst I’ve ever seen. To be quite honest, I hated it.”
Solo agreed.
“Every time I left for camp, I didn’t want to go,” she said last year. “I just wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to be cutthroat and I wanted to win. But you have to play the political game and the social game sometimes. I don’t think people really understand how difficult emotionally and mentally that is.”
Rapinoe also destroyed the team’s status as one of the most respected and admired groups of athletes in the country. These fans’ comments from the team’s victory parade in New York in 2019, as FrontPage Magazine reported at the time, demonstrate the disillusionment:
“I despise these women. I cheered for Mia Hamm and her team the first time the USA had a competitive women’s team in the World Cup, but not this team. … Not one of these players has said THANK YOU to the U.S. taxpayers who subsidized their little fantasy lives. Instead, they step all over our Flag, insult our Commander-in-Chief, and refuse to respect our National Anthem. Karma is going to come down hard on these people.”
“Our family have been big fans. It was a slow tumble to my indifference. Yesterday at parade didn’t help. My daughter attended 2 US women’s games this year…and had four US jerseys and other natl (sic) team. Instead of me taking her to NWSL games, we will be avoiding all women’s soccer, at least until things change.”
The NWSL is the National Women’s Soccer League, which means that Rapinoe’s uncompromising politics could endanger the growth of professional women’s soccer. The next comment succinctly describes the level of popular estrangement.
“I don’t like them because they clearly wouldn’t like me, either. They’re not the U.S. National Team because they hate what half the U.S stands for. They’re the Democratic Party National Team.”
No wonder that after the United States’ defeat, conservatives took to social media and online outlets to express their utter joy at seeing the team lose and seeing Rapinoe embarrassed by badly missing her penalty kick.
“Americans would’ve liked to pull for this team,” a fan calling himself “superwolf” said. “But every time that we tried to embrace them, they spit back in our faces. That said, I am so glad they lost & even happier that she lost it for them.”
A commentator named “Dump the Uniparty” defended Americans rooting for Sweden:
“They weren’t rooting against the US. They were rooting against that collection of reprobates representing the US. Wearing the nation’s uniform is an honor. If you cannot appreciate that — or refuse to acknowledge it — then you shouldn’t get the privilege. Rapinoe insulted the nation’s backbone. Those who comprise it have every right to rejoice in her failure.”
Alexi Lalas, who represented the United States in two World Cups, engaged in uncharacteristic understatement when describing the polarized relationship between the team and its fellow countrymen for Fox Sports.
“This team runs some Americans the wrong way,” he said. “I just hope going forward that this team is able to unite so we can all celebrate the incredible players and the incredible things to come.”
Yet Lalas also issued a stern warning to the players.
“This #USWNT is polarizing,” he tweeted. “Politics, causes, stances, & behavior have made this team unlikeable to a portion of America. This team has built its brand and has derived its power from being the best/winning. If that goes away they risk becoming irrelevant.”
In other words, the most successful national team in American sports history risks becoming another casualty of the country’s accelerating cultural decline.