Friday, March 16, 2007

America's WNT earns #1 ranking


So with all the hoopla over Posh Spice's husband David and his upcoming move to LA, I though I'd take a quick second to mention some other football news that may have escaped your attention.

It's the WNT, or the Women's National Team, and they're good. Very good. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to call them elite and the benchmark against which other nations are compared.

While the men's team continue to suffer from inconsistency, especially in big games with lots of pressure played away from home [like a certain local basketball team here in Charlottesville], the women continue to get better and better. They recently reclaimed the #1 spot in FIFA's international rankings following a tremendous weekend. The team won its 5th Algarve Cup recently and they seem poised to make a strong run towards yet another World Cup title.

The WNT has built a solid program that has consistently performed at the highest levels for almost 2 decades, and they deserve more attention and credit than is normally paid to them. But that lack of attention, in my opinion, makes them that much better: when you hear about them, it's about the right reasons and not the other issues that so often dominate professional sports [agents, fights, contract dispute, ridiculous contracts, etc]. Hats off to them on a well-deserved victory that will hopefully lead to even greater things this fall.

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