Women's 2019 big kick-the-ball tournament

Dick, I say this with love ... stop with the defeatist attitude.

It's funny that you can sprint 15-18-20-23 miles a pop and have a killer instinct in the arena of law ...

... but somehow balance that with a woe is me everyone hates me cuz I'm different tack. Stop.

You're not nuking. You need a break for the joint? Fine, take a day or two off.

But more important, the woe is me everyone hates me thing is unbecoming of a killer shark.

All that said, the idea that this thread has been some big bag-on-soccer fest is simply not supported by the content of the thread.

I generally agree with this. I lost track of where it went off the rails. Did something get deleted?

Soccer is lame

I was all prepared to add some conciliatory (thank God for spell check, I wasn't even close) words to this thread, but fuck off with this.

What about me!

Alright, I have thoughts...

Yes, sometimes we like to make fun of soccer. Sure, it's dumb, but it makes us laugh. It's like an old, inside joke, and it's not going to get old for some of us. I know, I know, it's immature. Sue us. 

That doesn't mean we don't actually like the folks here who are soccer fans, or even that we don't appreciate soccer itself. 

Fuck, I've been watching soccer since I was a kid. Cosmos, NASL, MISL. Watched the World Cup back when you could only watch it on UHF, in Spanish.

But... I don't think Dick's line of questioning here was a troll job.

Anyone who does think this, hasn't paid attention to his posts over the years. It's the exact thing that would pique his interest. 

Broad questions might interest him, but the details fascinate him. The definitions, the arguments for or against, your ability to present, and defend a thesis. 

Fuck, he demands this from me all the tie when I make a "weak" argument. He demanded it of Ben Shapiro this week. 

So, if someone says the 1999 Women's World Cup was "historic", he wants you to make the case, with specifics.  

Now, I don't know or remember enough to say, but, I'm guessing the U.S. women were the favorites going into the 1999 Cup. (If I'm wrong about this, ignore everything that comes after this.)

I think that, like with this year, is a reason why Dick has a hard time calling it historic. How historic is it if you win something you were favored to win?

But, on one level, I do believe it was. Like with the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team, who obviously were huge underdogs, the team caught the nations's attention. Who cares why? They did. (Which Dick acknowledged.)

It was a kind of perfect storm. It was in the U.S. (No way it would have been nearly as big if it had been in a time zone that was far off from ours.) You had a team that wasn't just likable, but two of the biggest stars were also gorgeous. 

The games were all televised. The media had reached a point of wokeness, where covering women's sports was a thing, so they covered it, and sold it. (Let's be honest, women's events are still covered differently, with more of an emphasis on personal narratives.)

And, so all of a sudden, stadiums started filling up, and these women were viewed as good role models for young girls who didn't have a ton of (white) (straight) female athletes to look up to. 

Now, to be truly historic, there should be some lasting value. 

Like with the 1980 hockey team, some girls did get into soccer as a result, and the players on this year's team certainly looked up to the players on the 1999 team. 

But, the overall impact appears low. Women's soccer still isn't really a thing here. It's big enough that people will pay attention every four years, like olympic gymnastics, or swimming, but the rest of the time, people don't really care.

And, granted, it's a tough thing. To get big, you need to reach a certain threshold where the game is ubiquitous enough that you become familiar with enough of the players to give a shit. 

As for Ty, and LTL, and whoever else...

I don't think anyone should feel responsible for "driving someone away". (I mean, unless you a actively did so.)

I nominally drove LTL away, but I don't think for a minute that he hates me, and I have zero bad feelings toward him. I think he got frustrated, didn't like how frustrated this place was able to make him, and didn't see the time suck as worth it, if it was going to make him frustrated. 

And, that's fine. I think DD and others get that way too sometimes. 

I hope, and think, that LTL will be back. Same with DD.