“I Will Become Legendary”
Despite all the comparisons and links drawn between this year’s USWNT and the 1999 team, this year’s team is doing more than just following in the footsteps of legends. They are creating their own story. Becoming legends in their own right.
After the win over Brazil to secure a spot in the semifinal, Hope Solo commented:
There’s something special about this team, and I do believe that this is the team to do it. We want to write our own storyline, and we want to write our own destiny. To be honest, we’re tired of hearing about 1999. It’s time for a new team to come in here and make history.
The pressure to be someone else is overwhelming, but at least there is a model to copy. The pressure to make something of yourself, to write your own story, is scary. Anyone can copy a model that someone else has drawn up, but if it is not unique to the specific person, to the specific team, it will not be the optimal path.
It’s as if everyone is drawing the comparison between the the two teams to show that we can do it again because we’ve done it before. Sure, we will party with the same enthusiasm as 1999 if we win, but we won’t “party like it’s 1999” because it’s not. It is a different team. It is a different time. Yes, as a country it will be our 3rd cup, but it will be this team’s first. The women who are on the field have worked hard to ensure that they are at their best. They have resolved internal issues, changed coaching strategies and done the work to ensure they will be on top. They believe they can do it, and will leave everything on the field to do so.
Comparisons are a normal, but I think it has been taken too far. I am guilty, along with the commentators, press and nation, of comparing this team to what I know. But to be quite honest, what do I really remember from 12 years ago? Their style of play? A bit. The number of goals they scored? Not exactly. The number of minutes each player had on the field? Not a chance. What I do remember is that we won and that it was awesome. I don’t want to remember this team for how well they measured up to the 1999 team or followed in their footsteps. I want to remember this team for what they did in 2011, without the shadow of another team falling on their glory. I want a new generation of legends.
Go USA. Become legendary.
-HD
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