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It was never over

Women's national soccer team should be celebrated without comparison

About a month ago, Fox Sports released a promo for their upcoming coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup titled “It’s Not Over.”

The commercial begins with footage from the United States Men’s National Soccer Team’s Round of 16 loss against Belgium in the 2014 FIFA Men’s World Cup. The camera zooms in and focuses on #13 Jermaine Jones, one of the American standouts during the last World Cup as the broadcaster announces, “The American World Cup dream is over.”

The commercial proceeds to argue that the American World Cup dream is not over, hence the title, because the United States Women’s National soccer team now has the chance to make this dream come true.

“It didn’t end when the final whistle sounded, when the fans headed home. It didn’t end when the bars shut their doors, when the TVs went dark, when the celebrations stopped, and the paint washed away, because the final chapter of this story is just getting started.”

As the last line is echoed, the image of Jones changes into an image of #13 Alex Morgan — one of the stars of the women’s national team — effectively equating the two teams as one.

While this commercial certainly fits into the “One Nation. One Team.” campaign and puts women on an equal playing field with men, it is unfair to compare the USWNT — a team with much storied success and a legitimate chance to win the World Cup every four years — to the men’s national team, who have a lot of work to do before they have an actual shot of realizing the American World Cup dream.

Case in point: since its inception in 1985, the USWNT has won two World Cups — in 1991 and 1999. Since its inception in 1913, the USMNT has won zero,with their best result a third-place finish in the 1930 World Cup. The 1930 World Cup only had 13 competitors, and Italy, Spain and Germany — the three most recent World Cup Champions — did not compete. Brazil, winner of five World Cups, competed but didn’t come into prominence until 1950.

From 1954-1986, the men didn’t even qualify for the World Cup after forgettable performances in the 1934 and 1950 contests and withdrawal from the 1938 World Cup, while the women have qualified for every World Cup since the first one in 1991, never finishing below third. Furthermore, the U.S. women’s team’s style of play is much better than the men’s team — they don’t let in easy goals in the game’s first ten minutes and can actually execute an offense capable of scoring on every possession.

Thus, the promos should highlight the success of the USWNT instead of comparing it to the men’s team, which the other two released ads have done a better job of accomplishing. “Two Stars,” the first video released, acknowledges the World Cup titles, and ends with the kicker, “See that third blue star over the crest? No? Just wait.”

The most recently released promo, “Conqueror,” is even more transgressive because women aren’t traditionally thought of as conquerors. The video features images of the team and individual players “standing tall” to the lyrics provided by the hit show Empire and Morgan falling to the ground “on her knees” after a slide tackle then subsequently standing up and screaming. It ends with the subtitles, “Conquer the world.” Male European explorers might have conquered the world in the 1500s, but women will be the new conquerors in 2015.

One of the biggest stages for women’s athletics, the Women’s World Cup should be celebrated without being associated with a lesser-accomplished male counterpart — because for them, it was never over.

Chanhong Luu is a Sports Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at c.luu@cavalierdaily.com.

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