Watching Sophia Smith dominate in the Women鈥檚 World Cup is like seeing a unicorn prancing through your backyard: What鈥檚 she doing there?
Sophia鈥檚 from Windsor. It wasn鈥檛 that long ago that she was appearing daily at Fossil Ridge High School. If you timed it right, and if she liked doughnuts, you might have stood in line behind her at Mr. Yo鈥檚 Donut, on Main Street in Windsor.
I鈥檒l have what she鈥檚 having: The international awesomeness doughnut, and a World Cup of coffee.
In her World Cup debut, Sophia smoked in a goal at the 14-minute mark, and a little later, bounced one through the legs of Vietnam鈥檚 goalie. In the second half, she threaded a sweet assist to fellow Coloradan Lindsey Horan, who rammed the ball home. In game two, against a much tougher Dutch team, Horan got royally pissed off about rough play, and then retaliated with a vicious header to tie the game.
That鈥檚 the Colorado connection, baby!
We live in the epicenter of female football greatness! Maybe it is the doughnuts?
Our next-door stars are only the most recent ballers who have been making the U.S. great on the soccer pitch. It began in the inaugural Women鈥檚 World Cup in 1991, as Colorado鈥檚 own April Heinrichs formed part of the famed 鈥淭riple-edged Sword鈥� that cut down Norway in the final. Then in 1999, Brandi Chastain bulls-eyed a championship-game penalty kick and ripped off her jersey in an iconic celebration.
It was the sports bra of doom for China!
And who can forget Alex Morgan鈥檚 viral tea-sipping gesture, as the U.S. eliminated our colonial oppressor Great Britain on the way to the 2019 Cup?
This year, Smith, Horan, Morgan and the technicolor beast Megan Rapinoe seek an unprecedented third championship in a row. No World Cup team, of either sex, has ever pulled off that particular hat trick.
No pressure, ladies.
But as hard as the U.S. women fight on the field, they鈥檝e had to fight that hard off of it. Through years of protest, lawsuits, and negotiation, they have finally achieved pay equity with the U.S. men鈥檚 team. But even if they win the World Cup this year, their bonus pool will be just $10.5 million dollars. When the men reached the knockout round last year in Qatar, they received $13 million dollars鈥攆or their 16th place participation trophy.
Thirteen mil doesn鈥檛 buy what it used to, evidently.
But in women鈥檚 soccer, compensation may be the least troubling problem. For one example among many, the male leaders of soccer federations in Afghanistan and Haiti have been accused of sexually abusing female players.
It makes a cheer stick in your throat.
OK, it鈥檚 a drag to rattle on about money, sex abuse, and discrimination, when there鈥檚 such beautiful soccer unfolding Down Under. But cheering for the women鈥檚 game means cheering for the players off the pitch as well.
Think of the team from Jamaica. The Reggae Girlz, as they鈥檙e known, disbanded in 2016 because of a lack of funding. Then Bob Marley鈥檚 daughter Cedella rallied support, and the team went on to qualify for the World Cup. A few days ago, the Reggae Girlz famously stuffed France for a 0-0 tie.
Redemption song, indeed.
Rapinoe has said that the U.S. women鈥檚 team should 鈥渞epresent America鈥nd a sense of patriotism鈥hat kind of flips that term on its head.鈥�
In soccer, that head-flip maneuver is called a . And if you can pull it off, it astonishes an opponent. For our women鈥檚 team, and for the amazing athletes they鈥檒l face off against, that鈥檚 the goal.
And there鈥檚 our neighbor Sophia Smith, kicking it for Northern Colorado.
Go get 鈥榚m, you
Pumped to watch the games? Here are a few places holding watch parties in and
Peter Moore is a writer and illustrator living in Fort Collins, and a cultural commentator for 萝莉少女. Find his work at 萝莉少女.org.
