The Beautiful Game

Alex Morgan scoring - photo Todd Korol

I've been watching the Women's World Cup all weekend, and last night watched the US team win over Colombia. It wasn't the most beautiful win, but as the head coach of the US team said, "I'll take a 2-nil win any day."

I love soccer. To me, it is the ultimate sport, the best of athleticism, the most beautiful game. I grew up playing soccer (futbol!) and so my love of the sport is deeply embedded in me. I remember being about 10 years old, after a few years playing rec-soccer (Yes, I started playing at a very young age), try-outs for what was called "Classics" happened and I made the team. What that meant is that soccer became my life. It became a year-round sport that I continued to play almost every season with the same young women until I was 17 years old and played varsity in high school. I was always number 2. And I always played left midfield. Which meant that the team I grew up playing on almost always played a 4-4-2. As an outside midfield I was both offensive and defensive, and ran the length of the field usually for the full 90 minutes. The strategies and geometry of soccer is the lens through which I see all other sports. How people move on the field, how they close in for certain defensive plays, and spread the field to make plays. If I could handle a frisbee better I'd be a great ultimate frisbee player simply because I understand the field. What can I say, I learned to play a sport with my feet! So it is simply lovely and inspiring to watch the Women's World Cup. Women don't get much love for playing this sport, but they have a big hearted fan in me.

Oh how I love this game. The most beautiful game.

Some photos of me growing up playing the beautiful game