Thursday, June 15, 2006

The New Pele


In the next few weeks, if you head into your favorite Mexican restaurant, the service may not be as good as usual. The Men's World Cup will be in full force, and the world (apart from pockets of the USA) will be watching. The SuperBowl is nothing compared to this event. The Christian Science Monitor ran an article about this dynamic recently.

The Monitor talks about this great national divide - how our country alone does not have the love of soccer (football, for the rest of the world). It asks where the next Pele is - and then recounts the history of male soccer players and teams.

Where has that reporter been? It was years ago the US Women's team played (for the second time) in the World Cup Final against China and won an exciting match. Mia Hamm was proclaimed the new Pele (by no one other than Pele himself). If you see a soccer player on tv in ads (and you do), it's Mia. All of our kids are playing soccer, and can name various US female players. Ask for a man - and Brit David Beckham is the only one they can remember.

The revolution has come. The new Pele is here. But she's a woman. Too bad too many men can't see past Title IX.

5 comments:

Lunar said...

Amen!

restless said...

Rock on sister Rio and all the soccer sisters round the world, including the one who ripped her shirt off, to -SHOCK- show her sports bra to everyone:)

restless said...

ps- you changed your format again?

I should just post don't you think?

Amy Rio-Anderson/Running Rio said...

Changed the blog again - keep getting bored.

Edgy Mama said...

I like the new design. I'm terrified of change, myself.

Were we talking about soccer?