Here’s the Chant No One Ever Heard: W-U-S-A!
On the air Sunday and continuing intermittently through Oct. 12: Mission Impossible, The Sequel.
Four summers ago, a small band of female soccer players walked off the Rose Bowl field thinking they had done all that was humanly feasible. They had filled NFL stadiums across the country for women’s soccer matches. They had put women’s soccer on the front pages of major newspapers and the covers of national magazines. They had persuaded nearly 40 million Americans to watch their championship final on television.
It was an amazing achievement, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of accomplishment.
Except, now, they are being asked to do it twice in four years.
Only this time during the heart of football season.
And, oh, while you’re at it, can you also please resurrect the recently folded women’s professional soccer league?
In between the 1999 Women’s World Cup and the 2003 tournament, which begins this weekend, WUSA, the U.S.-based women’s pro soccer league, has come and gone. WUSA announced it was suspending operations this week, days before the World Cup opener, which is a curious piece of timing -- running up the white flag minutes before the cavalry arrives.
Or is it?
By banging its battered tin cup against the wall on the eve of the World Cup, WUSA has strategically turned the next three weeks into one massive SOS -- Save Our Sisters -- campaign. For the rest of the tournament, the two story lines will be melded as one: Team USA trying to defend its title and salvage its league.
Will it work? It is telling, if predictable, that WUSA received more national media coverage after calling it quits than during its three-year existence. That helped get the message out there -- i.e., the future of women’s soccer is at stake -- and who better to rally the cause than the familiar faces of ‘99, Mia and Brandi and Julie and the rest of America’s all-time favorite soccer team?
Already, there is talk of potential investors meeting next week to sketch out a plan to revive WUSA in some form in 2004. And should any cold feet develop, they can just take a look at the television monitor in the corner. Goal, U-S-A! Listen to the roar of that crowd!
Beginning with Sunday’s U.S.-Sweden match (Channel 7, 9:30 a.m.), 18 World Cup matches will be televised live on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. That’s the best TV news WUSA has seen since its inception. ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 are brand names readily recognizable to all sports fans.
As opposed to PAX, which carried WUSA games the last two seasons. That’s PAX, as in: “What is PAX?” “Where is PAX?” “You ever heard of PAX?”
For the women of WUSA, that is some alphabetical triple jump -- from PAX to RIP to ABC.
For the next three weeks, the platform is theirs. And those three weeks might be all they get. Talk about crunch time. For Team USA, it’s pretty much down to this: Repeat or your league could be gone. No NBA or NHL “Dream Team” ever began an Olympics under that kind of pressure.
So, into the valley of the NFL and college football and baseball playoff races the women of the World Cup bravely ride. Among the opening-weekend competition:
TODAY
* UCLA at Oklahoma
(Channel 7, 12:30 p.m.)
You don’t need to spend 50 hours in the film room to know which way this one goes. Most likely, Bruin fans, two field goals aren’t going to get it done this week.
* Giants at Dodgers
(Channel 13, 7 p.m.)
The Giants win the division! The Giants win the division!
The Dodgers try to salvage the wild card! The Dodgers try to salvage the wild card!
Where have you gone, 1951?
* “Most Hilarious Sports Pranks Ever”
(Channel 4, 3 p.m.)
Reportedly, Emmitt Smith is involved. “OK, viewers, what Emmitt doesn’t know is this piece of paper contractually binds him to play for -- get this! -- the Arizona Cardinals. Don’t you love it! OK, let’s see if he goes for it. Oh, look! He’s taking the cap off the pen ... “
* Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley (replay)
(HBO, 6:45 p.m.)
For students of the sweet science and journalism majors everywhere, a class assignment: Tape this re-broadcast while watching it with the sound off. Take notes. Watch it again with the sound on. Compare notes. Whose performance was most persuasive -- De La Hoya, Mosley or Team HBO?
* “Beyond The Glory”
(Fox Sports Net, 6 p.m.)
Glory being a relative term, FSN examines the pro football career of Vinny Testaverde ...
* Ultimate Fantasy Football Show
(Fox Sports Net, 11:30 p.m.)
... and comes to the fantasy-league conclusion: Do not start Vinny.
SUNDAY
* New York Jets at New England Patriots
(Channel 2, 10 a.m.)
Remember, you have been warned.
* Tampa Bay Buccaneers at
Atlanta Falcons
(Channel 11, 10 a.m.)
Are the Buccaneers done? Before last Sunday’s game, free-agent-to-be Warren Sapp told Fox’s Pam Oliver, “One thing that I learned from my mom a long time ago is that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to you. So I must live for today. I know I’ll be here for 15 more games and after that? So be it.”
That would take Sapp to the end of the regular season and nothing beyond. So what’s he know that Jon Gruden doesn’t?
* Florida Marlins at Atlanta Braves
(TBS, 10 a.m.)
Subtitled: “The Dodgers Spend Batting Practice Scoreboard-Watching”
* FIVB Nissan Beach Volleyball
(Fox Sports Net, 1 p.m.)
To make this happen, they dumped truckloads of sand onto the tennis court at the Home Depot Center. Tournament organizers might be a little confused. See, it’s very hot this time of year in Carson. If you’re in Carson this time of year, the idea is to get out of Carson and go to the beach. You don’t stay and have them bring the beach to Carson.
