NEW YORK – Adoring fans packed New York City’s Canyon of Heroes on Wednesday amid a blizzard of confetti to praise the World Cup-winning U.S. women’s national soccer team as leaders on the field and advocates for pay equity off it.
Crowds chanted “USA! USA!” and workers sounded air horns from a construction site as the hourlong parade moved up a stretch of lower Broadway that has long hosted so-called ticker tape parades for world leaders, veterans and hometown sports stars.
Co-captain Megan Rapinoe and her teammates shared a float with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Carlos Cordeiro, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation. Rapinoe struck her famous victory pose, took a swig of Champagne and handed the bottle to a fan. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher held the Women’s World Cup trophy aloft.
Aly Hoover, 12, of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, stood at the sidelines with a poster of the face of co-captain Alex Morgan, who matched Rapinoe with six goals at the monthlong, 24-team tournament in France.
“I just want to be like them,” she said.