It looked like Alex Morgan's night.
With the United States women playing in the final of the World Cup, Morgan twice appeared poised to emerge as a hero. First, she raced ahead of three defenders to receive a pass and scored on a riveting shot into the corner of the net. But in the 81st minute, Rachel Buehler and Ali Krieger combined to give the Japanese team an equalizer that sent the match into overtime. I haven't played soccer competitively since high school, but I'm pretty sure you don't try to clear a ball by crossing it in front of your own net, and I'm equally confident that you don't knock down your own teammate's clearing kick. Especially in front of the net.
Anyway, it was 1-1 now, and maybe that was fair, since Japan had a breakaway nullified by a very close off-sides call in the 64th minute. But in overtime, Morgan sped a half-step in front of the defender and fired a perfect pass to Abby Wambach. It was never even a question — you knew before Wambach even hit the ball it was going in. Wambach made the big play, but once again, Morgan's speed was critical. She's only 22, she's pretty, and here she's scored and assisted on the U.S. goals in the World Cup Final. We could be witnessing the birth of a star here, right?
In the 117th minute, with about five minutes left before a U.S. victory, Japan scored on a corner kick to tie. And somehow, everyone knew that the U.S. was now in big trouble. I can't explain it, but in my decades as a sports fan, I've seen it too many times — with too few exceptions — to believe it's coincidence: when a dominant team lets the other hang around too long, it loses. Almost always. It's not enough just to play well; you have to put points on the board. The U.S. team dominated the first half against Japan, really controlled the action to a stunning degree. But it didn't score. Following Morgan's goal, Japan tied the game on a fluke.
The other three goals — Morgan's, Wambach's, and Homare Sawa's — illustrated why soccer is called "The Beautiful Game." But Aya Miyama's tying shot in the 81st minute, while a good, opportunistic play by Miyama, wasn't in the same category. This was the linebacker making an arm-tackle, the fielder forgetting which out it was, the soccer defender blocking a teammate's clearing kick (that last one especially). This was a chess master losing his queen simply because she was unprotected, not through some brilliant strategy by the opponent. Yes, Japan put the ball in front of the net, and Miyama made the play when it was there. But this wasn't play-making like Morgan's.
That was the difference in the game. The Japanese made the most of their opportunities, and the U.S. team didn't. When you dominate an athletic contest, you have to make it count, have to put your opponent away. The basketball team gives away a late lead because it can't sink its free throws and the opponent hits a couple of threes. The boxer or mixed martial artist dominates round after round but gets knocked out just before the final bell rings. The dominant football team settles for field goals all game and loses on a pair of late touchdowns. And so on. But in no sport does this happen more than soccer.
I know that for some fans, this is part of the appeal: upsets are easy in soccer. When many games are settled 1-0, or 2-1, or on shootouts, all it takes is one lucky play or fluke for David to beat Goliath. Let's be clear: the Japanese team wasn't David, and the U.S. wasn't Goliath, and the U.S. didn't deserve to win. Was the U.S. visibly the better team? Yes, especially in the first half. If this were a seven-game series, would the U.S. win? Probably. Did the Japanese win fair and square? Absolutely. Their conservative, defense-oriented strategy, combined with opportunistic offense and superb goal-tending, especially in the shootout, won the day.
Looking at the scoring summary — Morgan 69', Miyama 81' — my uncle who watched the game with me quipped, "Morgan got robbed out of three minutes," referring to everybody's 15 minutes of fame. It was a clever remark, and I laughed, but Morgan probably isn't going anywhere. She's not an established star who has proven herself time after time; she didn't even start Sunday's game. But this weekend, she played brilliantly at the highest level, and she did it front of a huge audience. She's talented and good-looking and young and marketable, and she could easily be a star for the next 15 years.
It's players like Wambach, who will be 35 the next time the World Cup is held, and team captain Christie Rampone, who's already 36, that may have watched the window close on Sunday. The United States hasn't won a World Cup since 1999, when Brandi Chastain hit her famous penalty shot and Mia Hamm inspired a new generation of young players. The team has won two Olympic Gold Medals since then, but the World Cup is its own creature.
Players like Amy Rodriguez, who has owned the Japanese team in previous competitions, and who didn't play on Sunday after starting the rest of the tournament, have to be awfully upset today. So does Morgan, who went from hero to afterthought. Everyone connected with U.S. soccer does. But the two who stood out for me were Wambach and goalkeeper Hope Solo. Wambach, who created several scoring chances, was the professional on Sunday. Always in the right place, yet always an inch away, she was the one American to make a penalty kick in the shootout, and for Wambach, it was just business as usual, but it wasn't enough. Solo fought through an injury to stay in the game, and in the coming days she may take heat for that, but her competitive drive can't be doubted, and for most of the tournament she was great.
The announcers at one point said that the U.S. did everything right except score. Unfortunately, that meant they did everything right except the one that actually counted. "You don’t explain this," head coach Pia Sundhage said after the game. "You can’t. We could have put it away and we didn’t. We created a lot of chances and we could not put them away. It is a final and there are small differences between winning and losing so you can’t afford that."
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