The Unicorn Next Door
Celebrating my neighbor (sorta) Sophia Smith and all the awesome women footballers who are making their mark in the Women's World Cup. WRITTEN, ILLUSTRATED, AND SPOKEN (!) BY PETER MOORE
I RECENTLY BEGAN A GIG with Front Range NPR, to provide commentary and cartoons on whatever might catch my eye. And there’s nobody more eye-catching right now than the fantastic footie females of the World Cup, which is currently unfolding in Australia and New Zealand. One cool aspect of that, for me, is that it marks to world-stage debut of local talent Sophia Smith, who reached full awesomeness while growing up in nearby Windsor, Colorado. One of her partners in amazingness is team captain Lindsey Horan, from Golden, Colorado. There is greatness among us! Give a listen. Or a read. Or both! Full text below, as well.
WATCHING SOPHIA SMITH dominate in the Women’s World Cup is like seeing a unicorn prancing through your backyard: What’s she doing there?
Sophia’s from Windsor, Colorado, just down the road from here. It wasn’t that long ago that she was appearing daily at Fossil Ridge High School. If you timed it right, and if she liked doughnuts, you might have stood in line behind her at Mr. Yo’s Donut, on Main Street in Windsor.
I’ll have what she’s having: The international awesomeness doughnut, and a World Cup of coffee, if you please.
In her World Cup debut, Sophia drilled a goal at the 14-minute mark, and a little later, bounced one through the legs of Vietnam’s goalie. In the second half, she threaded a sweet assist to fellow Coloradan Lindsey Horan, who rammed the ball home. In game two, against a much tougher Dutch team, Horan got royally pissed off about rough play, and then retaliated with a vicious header to tie the game.
That’s the Colorado connection, baby!
We live in the epicenter of Female Football Greatness! Maybe it is the doughnuts?
Our next-door stars are only the most recent ballers who have been making the U.S. great on the soccer pitch. It began in the inaugural Women’s World Cup in 1991, as Colorado’s own April Heinrichs formed part of the famed “Triple-edged sword” that cut down Norway in the final. Then in 1999, Brandi Chastain bulls-eyed a championship-game penalty kick and ripped off her jersey in an iconic celebration.
It was the sports bra of doom for China!
And who can forget Alex Morgan’s viral tea-sipping gesture, as the U.S. eliminated our colonial oppressor Great Britain on the way to the 2019 Cup?
This year, Smith, Horan, Morgan and the technicolor beast Megan Rapinoe seek an unprecedented third championship in a row. No World Cup team, of either sex, has ever pulled off that particular hat trick.
No pressure, ladies.
But as hard as the U.S. women fight on the field, they’ve had to fight that hard off it. Through years of protest, lawsuits, and negotiation, they have finally achieved pay equity with the U.S. men’s team. But even if our women win the World Cup this year, their bonus pool will be just 10.5 million dollars. When the men reached the knockout round last year in Qatar, they received 13 million dollars—for their 16th place participation trophy.
$13 mil doesn’t go as far it used to, evidently.
But in women’s soccer, compensation may be the least troubling problem. For one example among many, the male leaders of soccer federations in Afghanistan and Haiti have been accused of sexually abusing female players.
It makes a cheer stick in your throat.
OK, it’s a drag to rattle on about money, and sex abuse, and discrimination, when there’s such beautiful soccer unfolding Down Under. But cheering for the women’s game means cheering for the players off the pitch, as well.
Think of the team from Jamaica. The Reggae Girlz, as they’re known, disbanded in 2016 because of a lack of funding. Then Bob Marley’s daughter Cedella rallied support, and the team went on to qualify for the World Cup. A few days ago, the Reggae Girlz famously stuffed France for a 0-0 tie.
Redemption song, indeed.
Rapinoe has said that the U.S. women’s team should “represent America…and a sense of patriotism…that kind of flips that term on its head.”
In soccer, that head-flip maneuver is called a bicycle kick. And it astonishes an opponent. For our women’s team, and for the amazing athletes they’ll face off against, that’s the goal.
And there’s our neighbor Sophia Smith, kicking it for Northern Colorado.
Go get ‘em, you Fossil Ridge SaberCat!