Abby and Pia set them free!
Congratulations the USWNT what a fantastic accomplishment. Having been privileged to attend every Women's World Cup and Olympic Soccer event since 1991, I think this success story must go down as one of the finest. Overcoming some major obstacles since the last World Cup including: The retirement of some very significant and decorated players, the goalkeeping debacle under Greg Ryan, the subsequent media attention and coaching change, the loss of Kristine Lilly, Cat Whitehill, Leslie Osborne and most significantly Abby Wambach. These are no small hurdles to get over!
The players and coaches deserve a huge amount of praise for not only overcoming a more talented Brazillian team (which we did in the last Olympics!) but also we should consider the process.
The way Abby reacted after her horrific injury both immediately and during her subsequent media interviews, instilled and intensified the belief system for this team. It proved once again that in sports it is possible for character and hard work to overcome almost anything if you believe it can. This is not to say this team is without talent, Carli Lloyd's strike to win the game was world class and Christie Rampone's play at the back was exceptional. However before the games began Abby managed to settle everyone and galvanize their core to the task which her coach Pia Sundhage had set the team. Pia played her part with her joyful sideline exuberance and never gave the players any sign that they could not achieve their dream. She maintained faith in players but never backed away from giving a young player a shot. This factor, I believe was pivotal in how the team rallied around each other, whether they played at a high level or not and thus the sum of the parts became greater than the whole.
Gaining the confidence to go and win is probably the most difficult challenge in sports, you need to be set free, technically, tactically, mentally and physically and I think Abby and Pia played a huge part in setting them free!
Congratulations.
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