The most telling moment of the finals of the Olympic Games matchup between the women’s U.S. soccer team and heavily-favored Brazil was expressed in a quote by Brazilian superstar, Marta. After she missed a point-blank scoring attempt late in regulation play, she lamented, “I don’t understand why the ball didn’t go in . . . in other games, we were able to score easily.”
We see it all the time. Teams who aren’t given a chance surprise everyone and win the golden ring. The N.Y. Giants did it to the undefeated New England Patriots in the last Super Bowl. The Boston Celtics won the 2008 NBA championship against teams with presumably bigger superstars. In a 1980 “miracle on ice,” a gaggle of U.S. college kids stole the gold medal in hockey from a superior U.S.S.R professional team. In these Olympics, the heavily favored U.S. softball team lost the gold to a Japanese team that didn’t know it was supposed to lose.
Similarly, the women’s U.S. soccer team didn’t buy the notion that it stood little chance against the formidable Brazilians led by Marta. The U.S. won 1-0 in overtime. Four of the soccer heroines hail from New Jersey: Heather O’Reilly, Christie Rampone, Carli Lloyd (she scored the winning goal), and Tobin Heath from nearby Basking Ridge.
Skill combined with confidence, tenacity and a will never to relent until the game is over is a human characteristic that is present not only in sports, but in all aspects of life. That is why every day, hundreds of thousands of people overcome seemingly insuperable disadvantages and hardships to achieve similar personal victories of their own.
Note: For a recap by Kevin Manahan describing the women’s U.S. soccer team victory, see http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/beijing_when_the_final.html
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