Title IX Fail

I'm going to get on my soapbox for a hastily researched, but impassioned rant.

Here's the thing: women's soccer is a real sport. And in the United States, it is really the only soccer (USMNT qualifier thrills notwithstanding).

Case in point: The USWNT has won 4 Olympic golds and 2 World Cup titles (and has been on the podium in every Cup since the first one in 1991). No men's player will EVER come close to touching Kristine Lilly's international cap record of 352, and it's unlikely that any men's player will top Abby Wambach for goals (currently at 182).

And yet, the only media coverage that I saw leading up to this World Cup was over the lawsuit regarding the failure of FIFA to allow grass installation for the matches. The men's World Cup has been played on grass for the last 20 years. Turf not only plays a different game, but is dangerous (heat and injuries are much higher). It's also cheaper. So, turf it is.

Plus who really cares about women's soccer? Not the media. Denver Post coverage for the men's tournament began days before the first kickoff last year. Sunday's paper had one line the day after the women's tournament started, and it was the time of the televised Germany game that day, tucked away in the TV grid. No results from the first two games. No mention of the score to settle from 2011. No preview of the coming weeks.

It. Drives. Me. Crazy.

I realize that not everyone knows the names of the entire roster, or owns a jersey, or saved the picture of former coach Pia Sundhage on their camera from when the team came to Kansas City (because she's only adorable). And I'll also grant that we have lost a little bit of the magic of the Fab Five--women that carried the sport on their shoulders through sheer determination and love of the game. But can we please at least acknowledge that this is a sport? That this World Cup means something? That these women are incredible athletes that deserve far more recognition than they receive?

I would also take another title. Just sayin'.