World Class

I like it when girls play with balls.

I've always thought women's basketball was a purer form of the game than men's. Less showboating, more team play. And women's soccer is nearly devoid of the egregious and cynical fakery that characterizes the men's game: falling dramatically, flinging themselves to the ground, rolling several times before appearing to be in mortal pain. (Doctor's note: if they're rolling several times, they're not hurt. You break something, you want it still as possible.) Much as I admire soccer in general, the skills involved, that injury melodrama is off-putting in the extreme. It's virtually absent from the women's game -- except in one of the greatest games I've ever watched: US v. Brazil in the Women's World Cup. Having already nearly been gifted the game by highly questionable refereeing, toward the end the Brazilians resorted to very manly manipulations.

The game had everything that's great and horrible about soccer. Terrible calls by refs, amazing skills on both sides (I could wax descriptive about the Brazilian women's superior talents, but I'm not that into Brazilian waxing), superhuman efforts rewarded, superhuman efforts wasted, outcomes hinging on refs. Playing a man down and prevailing. Changing the game in stoppage time. Redemption. Frustration. And for the first time ever I've thought the post-regulation PK spectacle for once served justice.

Hell of a game. If you missed it, find a way to watch a replay. If you're not a true aficionado, you can skip to the second half after the first two minutes of the first half.