WOW Wednesdays

USA WNT VICTORY

Sunday was a big day for the women’s USA soccer team and their fans.

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Following the Fourth of July weekend  celebration, the women’s league won their 2015 world cup championship since their last win sixteen years ago, and with a total number of 25 million viewers all across the globe, that made this a historic deal breaker.

Holy crap

While many took to the streets in celebration all across America, the cheerful team members made their first stop in Los Angeles at LA Live.

I just got done with a triple whammy of three events in Downtown within a two month period, so I was really looking forward to a day in bed watching my favorite tv shows. That was up until the time that my best friend urged me to get up, get dressed and go to the USA rally being held in the same vicinity that I nearly lost my sanity from my work overload. I’m not a big fan of sports, in fact, every sport I’ve ever tried out for, I failed miserably with the exception of cheerleading.

I was too short for basketball. It was too hot for softball. I tripped over too many hurdles for track. Badminton was boring as hell. Water Polo didn’t do justice for my hair, and I got kicked in the face too many times with soccer.

So, I wasn’t all that interested in becoming a bandwagon fan not now or ever, but there did spark a debatable conversation that intrigued me. Now, I’m not your every day feminist, but working in an environment where you have to have thick skin which has molded me over the years into the woman that I am, I do have my opinions.

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At the LA Live location in Downtown,  the rally was waiting to begin around 11 am. I wasn’t sure how the turn out would be unless being a die hard fan and supporter, but I expected maybe a small crowd of fans to take over the parking lots and meters for yet another day when workers are late for work due to foot traffic. Ha! Just my luck to think that everyone wouldn’t take this opportunity to jump on board of the USA train. 10,000 people is what was supposedly calculated by some mystery calculator, but I was amongst the crowd for the Kings rally a couple years ago where not just LA Live, but the entire streets, buildings and anything high enough to climb in down town, were swarmed with all of Kings fans. So, I’d assume that maybe a couple thousand if not less would actually be a little more accurate.

Check out Go Kings Go!

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As I figured, Los Angeles was united with your tween soccer players, Media outlets, Sponsors, Supporters and your everyday bandwagoners who just wanted to contribute their presence as if they could even name all fifty states off hand. The closer to the stage you were the more packed like sardines you became, though it wasn’t any better in the back. Soccer moms using any inch of space to stand smack dab in front of you while everyone else considerably staggered themselves for equal viewing of the screen. Body hygiene was out of the question, as if people had been baking in the sun allowing their putrid odor to burn a hole through my nostrils.
I have a sensitive nose

Of course you still had your die hard fans who saw this as a major opportunity to show their support by arriving at the early hours of 4am dressed in their patriotic colors from head to toe in order to catch a glimpse of their favorite players.

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Then you had the ones that you just wanted to find a fly swatter and swat the hell out of them for even trying to pull a bogus move.

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Like what the hell was this guy doing?  Leave it to channel 22 to televise this walking catastrophe in order to promote stupidity at its finest. Even my camera was bugging out at this joke since the color turned out like this.

Even celebrities were promoting themselves as your everyday soccer fans taking to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as if they’ve ever been captured at a game all this time. Sorry Bey, but the norm would be to rock your favorite player whose actually been on the field. Vanity all day everyday.

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All of a sudden it was another day for  American pride, but I question,  what was everyone excited for if they’ve failed to contribute in the long going controversy of the women’s league in sports. This shows the true strength in these women and what they’ve surpassed and accomplished over the discrimination they’ve had to face. Lets be honest here. Sure, it’s great that our country has made yet another victory, but lets not blindside the difficulties they have to endure just for that parade of supporters.

“Soccer is already being taken more seriously than ever before,” Danny Townsend

It’s concerning that almost with every year, we as a society are still, till this day, fighting for something. Equality being the main fight. I guarantee that the majority of these fans were unaware of the depths of discrimination behind this teams wins, and while they wave a flag and gesture “We’re number one”,  they’re not actually backing the team in order for there to be better decisions made in fairness that would diminish the Guys vs Girls fairness gap. Then again… that might be a little far fetched.

Artificial Turf, has been a main issue on the fields where the discretion of FIFAs sexist acts have enraged many players, as well as those who can see a quality difference in this sport and its hazardous measures.

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Clearly, “The grass is greener and authentic on the other side”. So, lets work on getting it to there’s.

Another disappointing confusion is the pay gap. $2 million for winning the world cup as a female compared to $8 million to loosing a season as a male. I’m sorry, but huh?!

How does that even make sense? My brain cells can’t even work at the speed of comprehension in order to understand that sense of logic. Women’s World Cup players only make between $6,000 to $30,000 a season and here Kobe Bryant makes more money than everyone combined in the WNBA. Why is there such a huge pay GAP? Is that what comes with the territory of having a name on a birth certificate? I mean these women have beat out the men now twice in the USA and had the most viewers in history, and yet they get rewarded borderline bullshit in a bag.

Hey male fans… where’s your support on that?

During their appearance, each woman showed their appreciation and gratitude while people chanted USA and their newly chant lead by Abby Wambach “I believe that we just won” while their fans roared. For these women, this is a huge triumph not just against their competitors,  but overall in showing that women can do it, if not better, all within compromising situations.

“I turned on the tv and everything was about our team. It hasn’t really sunk it” “we won the world cup baby!!!”
Abby Wambach

The rally only lasted a good 30 mins up until the time that I found myself getting restless. I had hoped that they would speak on such topics just to put that memo out there, but why ruin the moment I guess. For those that were late racing and paying for parking to catch the last few minutes of the festivity …womp womp

Regardless, these women are warriors and while I can’t even name all twenty-three players and barely even know one, I give them a lot of props for pulling through and taking the trophy with such glory and grace.

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I BELIEVE YOU’RE ALL AWESOME!

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