As we head into the second half of 2015, there are some amazing sports story lines already on the board.
There was American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown. There was DeflateGate leading nightly newscasts on ABC as well as ESPN. There are Grand Slams in play for Serena Williams and Jordan Spieth.
United States’ Abby Wambach, right, gets a kiss from her wife, Sarah Huffman, after the U.S. beat Japan 5-2 in the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer championship in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Sunday, July 5, 2015.And as intriguing as those have been, they are yawn-worthy compared to the drama of the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
The women put an overwhelming exclamation point on a dominant World Cup run with a 5-2 win over Japan in the final Sunday. It was a chance to see the best that sports can be – poetic, exhilarating, joyous, proud and victorious.
Even the most indifferent soccer fan could not help but be fascinated, and the match could not have played out better for the sport. The knock against soccer has been a lack of offense, and the lightning-fast start that generated a strong lead and a hat trick for Carli Lloyd was extremely cool to everyone, be they soccer fans or sports fans or simply Americans.