What's Next For Soccer?

Despite playing soccer during my formative years, I'm no great fan of the game. However, I will watch the World Cup if our boys (or girls) are involved.

So I caught the overtime and penalty kicks part of the Women's World Cup, where Japan defeated us after scoring an equalizer with under 10 minutes left in regulation and tying the game in the second OT. The Japanese squad went on to win in penalty kicks.

Two Thoughts
1) There are girls playing soccer all over the U.S, around 1 million participants; in Japan, only 25,000 girls play soccer. It's impressive that the Japanese national team can take a limited pool of athletes and turn them into world champs. I guess the equivalent for us would be if our curling team won the Olympic gold medal.

2) After the '99 World Cup win, there was nationwide enthusiasm about women's soccer, to the point that a women's soccer league was formed and had a national TV contract. Call it a wild hunch, but I get the feeling that this year's squad wouldn't attract the same amount of publicity/endorsements that the '99ers did. Maybe it's the Mia Hamm factor.