Mexico ahead Mayra Pelayo (20) celebrates along with her teammates after scoring a objective towards the USA throughout the second half of a recreation at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park. (Photograph credit score: Jessica Alcheh | USA TODAY Sports activities)
Because the full-time whistle went and Tina Turner’s “Merely the Greatest” blasted out across the Dignity Well being Sports activities Park in Carson, Calif., on Monday night time, a bunch of disconsolate Individuals gathered in a circle on the sphere. On this explicit event, the music was not meant for them. Of their remaining group recreation of the Concacaf W Gold Cup, the USA girls’s nationwide staff had simply been crushed 2-0 by Mexico, a aspect 33 locations under them within the FIFA rankings.
The sense of confusion was palpable. What on Earth had simply occurred? Sure, Mexico is an improved power, with an more and more robust home league of its personal. They’re, and have been, roared on by a big base of passionate soccer followers. However no one, maybe not even the Mexican gamers and supporters themselves, anticipated this.
For just a few years, it has been argued that the remainder of girls’s soccer is catching as much as the USA. That narrative is an excessively simplistic one, contemplating the U.S. endured 16 years with out World Cup success between 1999 and 2015. Nevertheless, there isn’t a doubt that the professionalization of the sport worldwide has elevated alternatives for gamers to cross borders, even continents, looking for a profession and to proceed growing their recreation. That, in flip, means extra groups with a star or two of their ranks, extra groups who — on their day — can beat anybody in entrance of them.
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