Congratulations, Ladies!
by Volker Weber
Germany wins the FIFA Women's World Cup, but almost nobody in this country could name three players on the team. In unrelated news, Michael Schumacher makes history claiming his sixth title in Formula 1 racing and the (male) soccer team qualified for the Euro 2004 championship yesterday.
What a weekend.
Comments
And to further extend the list:
Erik Zabel placed 11th out of 180 in the World Championships in Cycling (individual men's road race)
Uwe Peschel placed 3rd and Michael Rich 4th in the World Championships in Cycling (individual men's time trial)
Judith Arndt placed second in the World Championships in Cycling (individual women's time trial)
And also, Erik Zable is ranked 3rd on the UCI world ranking which he was leading for almost three years uninteruptedly...
Just mentioning, so you know... ;-)
The German Womens Soccer team deserves the title. They played extremely well in every match, consistently combining speed, strength, and wonderful skill. Yes, I was rooting for the US team, but then after the German victory in the semi-final, was cheering for Germany to win over Sweden. Both the semi-final and the final were excellent matches. Prinz had a brilliant tournament, Rottenberg was stellar in goal, Garefrekes, Meinert...I don't know if German soccer fans know these names yet, but US soccer fans know these and several other names well. Congratulations to these ladies and many thanks to all the players from all the teams; it was a joy to watch the matches.
I happened to see one of the plays by chance while zapping through the channels. Although I'm not really interested in soccer I thought "Geez, why not broadcast more of that instead of our really boring 1st league. This looks like real soccer, compared to the millionaire waltz they keep sending.".
Yes, the womens' matches often seem to me to be better soccer than the mens'. When I was coaching I would encourage the boys to watch the womens' matches when they could; there was often better ball movement and strategy.
