Destiny’s latest victim: The U.S. women’s soccer team
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Hope Solo reacts after the U.S. soccer team lost the Women’s World Cup in a penalty shootout.
Hope Solo reacts after the U.S. soccer team lost the Women’s World Cup in a penalty shootout.
Hope it’s satisfied.
In the pictures from the women’s soccer World Cup, the American lasses stood in a line after the final looking as if they were in a queue for root canal work.
But everyone should have seen this coming, once that D word started getting bandied about.
In regards to Destiny, the United States had a lot of inspiring stories, but nothing to match a tsunami and threat of nuclear reactor cataclysm.
Nothing to rise to the level of carrying the hopes and hearts of a badly wounded country.
Japan was probably the easiest decision Destiny had in months. And we know it never loses once it takes sides. No wonder that when the Americans started with their penalty kicks, the net seemed to shrink to the size of a croquet wicket.
And Abby Wambach would mention later to reporters, “Evidently, it wasn’t meant to be.”
She and her teammates had been Destinized.
Destiny had a busy weekend. It has also apparently decided that Northern Ireland, with a population less that of Houston, Texas at under two million, will be capital of the men’s golf world.
That small sliver of Europe, with three winners in the last six majors, is turning out champions like it is turning out empty pint glasses. And the latest, Darren Clarke, has toiled a long time, including through the death of a wife.
Isn’t Destiny wonderful when it smiles? Of course, to the losers, it hisses. We’re here today to remember them, because those who get on the bad side of Destiny usually hurt, and a lot. We’re not talking garden variety second places, but true victims.
Of course, performance might have a tad more to do with the outcome, if we want to be cynical about it. But Destiny certainly gets talked about a lot, doesn’t it?
Anyway, to the winner goes wild cheers and legends and maybe a talk show appearance or two.
The loser gets stuck with the memory.
To Destiny, the champion is Harry Potter, and everyone cries when he wins.
Second place is Voldemort, and everyone cheers when he falls apart in pieces.
Destiny is a plush cruise ship for the chosen.
It is a leaky canoe for the shunned.
Remember the roars a couple of Super Bowls back for the New Orleans Saints, when they not only lifted the Lombardi Trophy but also the spirits of a Katrina-battered city?
It was, as millions of voices agreed at the time, Destiny.
But all it meant for Peyton Manning was he threw an interception to doom the Indianapolis Colts, and who knows if that will be the last Super Bowl chance he gets in his life?
Destiny, possibly moved by emails from Mark Cuban, seemed to pick Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki after so much waiting. Any bruises and nicks on the psyche and image were left for the Miami Heat.
Destiny figured the Boston Red Sox had been cursed long enough.
So when the time finally came in 2004, it would be truly historical with an unprecedented comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series. Wasn’t that much fun making history for the Yankees, though.
Destiny decided the plucky kids on the 1980 United States Olympic team would turn a hockey game into a nationally therapeutic miracle, and they’re still hallowed. One wonders if the Soviet Union players ever found peace.
Destiny won one for the Gipper with Notre Dame.
How’d that work out for Army?
Destiny gives the winners highlights that will be shown forever.
And the losers game films too terrible to bear ever watching again.
Every champion who comes with a story of heart and will needs an unhappy co-star. Unfettered joy at one end means deep pain at the other.
So sympathies to the women’s soccer team, who were trying to hold a lead against an inexorable force in Germany.
“I think there was something bigger pulling for Japan,” goalie Hope Solo mentioned afterward.
And that’s always big trouble.
Destiny’s an unbeaten brute, when in the other uniform.
Similar Posts:
- World Cup isn’t just ‘a soccer game’
- England rallies for 2-1 win over New Zealand in World Cup
- USA’s Rachel Buehler could play key role in stopping Japan
- Abby Wambach overwhelmed by Rochester homecoming
- U.S. ready to move on with World Cup semifinal vs. France
