AUGUST 12, 2008
When the Olympic team rosters for women's soccer were announced, I was thrilled to find that 3 University of Portland players were going to the Olympics.
Stephanie (Lopez) Cox, a defender who graduated in December, was named to the U.S. Women's team. Christine Sinclair, who graduated in '06 and is one of the best strikers in the world, was named to and made captain of Canada's team. And Sophie Schmidt, a current UP player and one hell of a midfielder, was also named to Canada's national team.
So as the Olympics were approaching, I was in soccer heaven, what with having 3 UP players to root for. Sure, they're playing for different countries, but I was optimistic about that and, rather than fear a face-off between the two teams that would pit UP player vs UP player in the Olympics, I instead focused on how great it would be for both teams win medals.
Yeah, my big hope was that Steph, Christine, and Sophie would all make it to the medal stand and do so in a way that would not require their respective teams to play each other. I didn't even care which team won what medal, just as long as all three UP players got medals. That was my big hope.
But now, the awful situation I tried not to think about has occurred. The U.S. will play Canada in the quarterfinals, which is single-loss elimination and not a medal round. The team who wins will advance to the semifinals and have a chance to medal, but the team that loses will be eliminated and get squat.
Now I feel like beating my head against a wall because there is no way I'll be happy come the end of that quarterfinal and, what's more, who the hell do I root for in that game? Some might say I should root for the team with my favorite player, but I love all 3 and have reason to want each to win a medal.
And when I posed the "who the hell do we root for now" question to Ross, he was pragmatic and elusive about it and said we should root for the winning team. Of course, that makes the actual game a bit difficult, what with not knowing who the winning team is until afterwards, but that's the approach we'll have to take... Live and die a thousand heartaches during the match, then root for the winning team for the rest of the Olympics.
Oi. You know, in sports, when they talk about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I had no idea both the thrill and the agony could somehow be one in the same, but that's definitely the case with this one. Sigh.
The U.S. vs Canada game will be played Friday at 3am PT/6am ET and broadcast on both the USA Network and the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel, just in case you want to thrill and agonize along with me.
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