Girls, Soccer, and the Women’s World Cup
by Grace Welker

Red Hook soccer girls team coached by Paul LaBarbera, mugging for the camera.

What are you doing Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 2 pm? If you’re the parent of girls, know a girl, or are at all interested in empowering girls, don’t miss the opportunity to watch the final game of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament together. Along with millions of people around the world, you and your girl buddy will be supporting the exciting field of professional women’s soccer.

Even for girls without professional soccer aspirations (or any soccer aspirations), the 2011 Women’s World Cup can be a special and fun event to watch. The reasons: 1) It’s the world’s largest single-sport team event for women. 2) It’s international—16 countries will be represented at this year’s games, being held in Germany. 3) It happens only every four years; the next one will be in Canada in 2015. 4) The US team, which won the cup in 1991 and 1999, will be playing.

Kristine Lilly, who played on the American team in all five Women’s Cups, was one of the trainers at this spring’s 2011 Soccer Champions Coaches’ Clinics held in Connecticut and Las Vegas. Communication among players on the field was cited by all the trainers at the clinic as the most important skill for both boys and girls to develop: “Pass to me,” “Go wide,” “Number seven is open.” According to Bob Gansler, who coached the U.S. National Team in the men’s 1990 World Cup, “Communication is a big challenge, especially for girls. In speaking, you risk being wrong.” A Hudson Valley coach put it like this: “Girls don’t want to be seen as bossy. Relationships are a very important aspect of the game for girls, so they can be reticent to speak up.”

Why should girls care about the Women’s World Cup? Because sometimes you can’t believe you can do something unless you see someone like you doing it. Today’s girls need positive role models for all aspects of who they are, the athlete as much as the movie star. For young female players, the Women’s World cup offers world-class examples of how to play smart, creative, and sophisticated soccer. For all girls, the Cup provides insights into life and leadership that apply on and off the soccer pitch: the effort of the team matters as much as the achievements as the individual; having a shared goal invites groups to organize for maximum effectiveness; mutual respect for the rules creates a positive and fair experience for everyone.

So grab a girl or two, gather with your girlfriends, and plan to watch as many games as you can together, and at least the final game. ESPN or ESPN2 will air all 32 games of the Cup, and, for the first time in women’s soccer, provide pre-match, halftime, and post-match coverage of each match with commentators Bob Ley and Rebecca Lowe. The games take place from June 26 to July 17. Most games will also be streamed live on ESPN3.com (and available there for replay through the end of August). For more information, go to ussoccer.com and look under Tournaments, 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Meanwhile, here are some of the most important dates:

June 26: Opening game, France v. Nigeria (8:45 am EDT)

June 28: First American team game, against South Korea (11:45 am EDT)

July 17: Final game, the two teams remaining (2:00 pm EDT)