A crowd of 44,028 was on hand for the U.S. women's national soccer team's victory tour game against Costa Rica yesterday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, a city "not famed as one of this nation's soccer hotbeds," according to Graham Hays of ESPNW. Never before had "so many people on U.S. soil attended a women's national team game that meant nothing" and was not part of a doubleheader. The fans "came to celebrate a moment, and the team came to celebrate with them." Fans were already "out in force more than two hours before the game, setting up tailgates and kicking soccer balls in parking lots." The atmosphere resembled that of "Sundays experienced here during the NFL season" (ESPNW.com, 8/16). ESPN's Bob Holtzman noted the team has become a “big deal” to fans. USWNT MF Carli Lloyd has a gameday tradition of going for a "short run in the morning, just to get her blood flowing." When she came out of the team hotel in Pittsburgh yesterday, she "almost couldn't get off on her run because there were so many people out there wanting to catch a glimpse of her or one of her teammates, get a picture, get an autograph." Holtzman: "This team has become a team full of rock stars” ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 8/16).
PART OF THE MAINSTREAM: In Pittsburgh, Craig Meyer writes while women's soccer was "once an overlooked sport," it has "become not only mainstream, but also bigger in a way it had never been before." USWNT coach Jill Ellis said, "Part of it is the team, but I think part of it is our sport. ... You look at stadiums where we have [NWSL] teams, there are fans out there and they want to be entertained. It’s an unbelievable sport and it’s continuing to grow. That’s part of our responsibility" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 8/17). USWNT F Abby Wambach said, "We’ve put women’s soccer I think permanently on the map. I’m just so proud of what we’ve accomplished this summer" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/17). Wambach added, "I'm proud that we can make such a positive impact and have it show in the sale of tickets, because that brings corporate sponsorships in, that gets people excited about stuff around the country. It being our first victory-tour game, it's a good precedent to set.” espnW's Kate Fagan noted the USWNT's World Cup win "launched a million tweets, a thousand headlines, seemingly hundreds of TV appearances, dozens of new sponsorships and two championship parades." Fagan: "This win also seemed to launch so much more. This team's really good at the things they need to be really good at in order to be exceptional at the one thing that seems to matter most to them: Changing minds about women's soccer" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 8/16).
