It was a great game. I was watching it on a plane trip back home.
It totally had the make up of a hollywood story.
Before the game I had read about Brazil being the number one ranked team in the world (Antagonist being stronger than the Protag).
US wasn't favored. (setup)
I also read that Marta was the best player in the world. Plus the fact that she was the one that scored twice against the Americans.
I also had read about Hope's back story on how she blamed the US's blowout lost to Brazil in the last Cup on the coach who benched her. (conflict and redemption) (Opening image)

The match was a struggle. I felt so drawn into the game because the lead had changed. And when the Brazilian's tied it at 1-1 with a controversial PK I felt jilted. (Midpoint)

Then Marta took over. The second goal was a dagger in our back and took the wind out of the crowd.
(All is lost)

I was ready to resign at the 2nd overtime. The Americans were not doing well. (Dark Night of the Soul)

The American's staged a comeback (3rd act break)
And Hope (pun intended) intervened. She redeemed herself again and solidified her as a true hero by blocking a PK. (finale).

(Closing Image) Pia Sundhage strumming her air guitar.

The story isn't over yet. We still need to beat France wednesday and the winner of the other Semi bracket.
Maybe this will generate some interest in the Nation to watch the women's team? Hopefully those matches can be our Sequels?

Ferdinand, I was going to go into a much longer post, exploring why I'm so passionate about soccer (having only discovered it in 1990), but I simply don't have the time. But you hit on some of it as I do think the sport has a unique connection to writing.

Unlike basketball or American football where there is lots of scoring, it is incredibly difficult to score a goal in soccer. 1-0, even nil-nil matches are not uncommon.

It is a struggle. And so is writing.

And just as soccer teams have a goal, we do, too: To write a great story. In fact, even our characters have goals, it's one of the most fundamental facts of our characters' lives that we as writers deal with. Their goals shape plots and the contour of the story.

I want to think this through more. Some other time.

"It is possible". The new slogan for screenwriters.

OK, I have to share this: "It's all here. Fast kickin', low scorin' and ties? You bet!"

As a lifelong player and USNT supporter, I was holding back tears. I'm a sorry sap of a man.

I'm a huge sports fan in general, and the World Cup in particular is the pinnacle of competition of any kind. I saw three games in Germany 2006, including Germany vs Argentina in Berlin. Same stadium where Hitler saw Jesse Owens run. Goosebumps. So ripe with drama.

Part of me knows there isn't really any significance to any of it, but I can't imagine a world without sport.

One of my goals as a writer is to come up with a story which articulates in a meaningful way the nature of sports and how it manages to hold such power and incite such passion, even at the smallest level, and why anyone should give a shit.

The entire 30 for 30 series alone is fertile ground for inspiration as a writer. I could go on and on...

@daveed: The Simpsons have parodied soccer more than a few times, I think. At times, the sport parodies itself - a classic example happened yesterday when one of the Brazilian players (Erica) collapsed in a heap and had to be stretchered off the pitch, only to spring back to her feet - miracle! - then race back on. Fortunately the Irony Gods were watching as the 2-3 minutes of time-wasting she did resulted in giving the U.S. the added time to score the tying goal.

@CRANKY: You didn't happen to make it to the U.S. v Italy game in Germany? Talk about drama! IIRC, we were the only team to get a point of Italy in that WC. Game ended up 10 v. 9 with 3 red cards.

Re tears: I confess I shed a few yesterday after Wambach's goal. What got me was the shot of Hope Solo leaping about like a little girl, so filled with excitement and joy. And after the whole mess in 2007 where she was essentially kicked off the team. What sweet redemption for her yesterday!

Yes, it couldn't have been better scripted by Hollywood, but no one would buy because it just wasn't believable!

Don't forget, Erica was carded for her little stunt, too. Not that it made any difference, even if Brazil had won since with the exception of a red card, the slate is now wiped clean.

@Scott - As a player, I know that feeling, which might be why when I watch these games it's with an intense, visceral sensation that can be hard to convey. It drives my wife crazy how into it I get, and it amuses and frightens my kids. And I do my best to try to lock it down and keep it in perspective for their sake.

As for Germany 2006, I was lucky enough to have tickets for two quarterfinals and a semi final. If the U.S. had advanced to one of these games I probably would have had a heart attack being there, what with all the sausage and beer I consumed. We did play Italy tight, and definitely some injustice in the distribution of cards.

There was drama enough in that Germany Argentina game. Imagine a stadium full of 70k plus Germans singing and chanting in unison, not to mention the vocal Argentinians who nearly shook the train off the rails singing and bouncing on the way to the stadium. Plus there were fisticuffs on the field as the teams prepared to take PKs. No love lost between those teams.

The atmosphere alone at the WC is worth the price of admission, even for the casual fan.

Cranky: One of my goals as a writer is to come up with a story which articulates in a meaningful way the nature of sports and how it manages to hold such power and incite such passion, even at the smallest level, and why anyone should give a shit.

I used to wrestle in h.s., so Vision Quest (1985) was to me what Top Gun was to Air Force cadets. And this quote (about soccer, appropriately enough) has stuck with me my entire life, because it did a damn good job of summing up why I love sports, even ones I don't or can't play. I think it's what you're after...

Louden Swain: You never took a night off to see me wrestle before. They'll dock you for that.
Elmo: Hey, kid - money ain't everything.
Louden Swain: It's not that big a deal, Elmo. I mean, it's six lousy minutes on the mat, if that.
Elmo: You ever hear of Pele?
Louden Swain: Yeah, he's a, a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player.
[pause]
Elmo: I was in the room here one day... watchin' the Mexican channel on TV. I don't know nothin' about Pele. I'm watchin' what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in - upside down and backwards... the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody's screaming in Spanish. I'm here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying.
[pause]
Elmo: That's right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute... let me tell ya, kid - it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain't the six minutes... it's what happens in that six minutes.

I can't dribble a basketball (I don't even care to watch it), swing a racket or stand up on ice skates, yet I used to love watching Michael Jordan, any old tennis match, and figure skating (even mens, I'm secure enough in my masculinity to add). Somehow, vicariously, I was elevated by watching (as Elmo says) a member of "the species that I happen to belong to" perform the physical equivalent of poetry.

Added to that is that sports is like a microcosm of the vast sweep of human drama, acted out on a field or court or rink, in a limited amount of time and (hopefully) without anyone dying. There's an appeal there.

As for myself, while the only thing I practice is Brazilian jiu-jitsu (*true* poetry in motion!), my one and true love is baseball. To me, there is often nothing more beautiful, poetic, dramatic or epic than a baseball game, series or season. My team is the Yankees, and I'm one of those nutjobs who live and die for them (to the chagrin of my Sox-loving wife). There have been many lows (esp. 04 and 07...), but overall there have been many more highs. As for that Dave Hirshey/ESPN quote you included, watching Jeter this past Saturday... to do what we he did... yeah, I've seen him fail many times, but he's also given us so many magical moments. And as a NY fan, what he did Saturday made me laugh and tear up and shake my head in wonder and gratefulness... To paraphrase Joe D., "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankees fan."

@CRANKY: Thanks for sharing those memories. I'll have to get Nate Winslow in on this discussion. He went to South Africa for WC2010 and was just in Portland this weekend for the inaugural Portland Timbers v. Seattle Sounders MLS match. Amazing to see that kind of atmosphere at a U.S. soccer match.

@RonC: Okay, a lifelong Mets fan here, although never having lived in NYC, I never developed any hatred toward the Yankees. I actually really liked their '78 team.

Baseball is also a great writer's sport, surely tons of writers have written about it.

I have a similar attitude as you. And I never understood how some sports fans feel they need to lift up their sport by deriding another. Soccer, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, tennis, golf. I watch 'em all. Not nearly as much as I used to, but you can almost always find some interesting drama or story going on.

Perfect example: In one of the many subplots in the US v. Brazil game, the young woman who scored the winning PK recuperated from a life-threatening medical condition five years previous. Suffered, I believe, 6 mini-heart attacks. Now she wins a pivotal game for her soccer squad. And she plays professional soccer in Germany! Amazing stuff.

Thanks for that quote re Pele. I do have the vaguest memories of watching a few Cosmos games in the old NASL on ABC, I believe. Here is a compilation of Pele's best goals.

Scott: Baseball is also a great writer's sport, surely tons of writers have written about it.

I can't wait to see what Sorkin and Zaillian did with Moneyball. I read the book, still haven't gotten my hands on the screenplay yet. After all the drama in getting the thing made, I hope they haven't pulled an Indy 4...

@RonC

Anyone who can bring "Vision Quest" into the conversation has earned my undying respect. Another underrated movie.

I remember that speech. So obviously I wouldn't be the first to dip in that well, but I'm still compelled to re-articulate what others have probably done better. Such is writing...

@Scott - as a Portlander I've experienced first hand the bona fide atmosphere the Timbers Army creates at those games. Tix for that match were fetching over 4 times face value. The home opener this year was a spectacle.

@RonC: Agreed, although the first trailer seems all over the place in terms of what the movie is. You can see that trailer and some background on the project's journey through development hell here.

Interesting that Beane, who is the 'star' of Moneyball, caught the soccer bug. He convinced the owner of the A's to buy the San Jose Earthquakes. And given MLS salary caps, I would imagine Beane may be using the same small market principles in assembling the soccer team. Although they're not having much of a year in 2011.

@CRANKY: Seriously, I would be hard pressed to think of a cooler experience than being part of the Portland Timbers Army at one of their games. Fantastic environment in that Seattle game on Sunday, although the Timbers lost 3-2. You guys in the Pacific Northwest just plain get the soccer culture. Hopefully that will migrate south and east to the rest of the country.

@Scott -
It helps that it's a downtown stadium and that we're starved of sports franchises. No more baseball in PDX and they took the Sonics from Seattle to OKC just when they were looking resurgent.

Enough of my off topic ramblings... I'll save it for AM radio.

and I think one of the problems many studio films lack these "magical moments", especially in regards to sports films, is because the movies end up not BEING about sports.
I don't know if it's the case of most writers don't know that much about the sports they're writing, or that the studios are afraid of specificity and details - but most sports movies are about personal redemption and relationships and money and girls; the sport becomes a mean to achieve hero's end, with no real genuine love for it (despite lip service.) The hero's always using the sport to win something else - respect, money, girls, defeating the villain...etc., because somehow a thrilling game is never enough.
and this paints sharp contrast with engrossing foreign films, TV shows, reality shows, and documentaries that depict people who live and die by the game, where the drama is discovered within a game, not the same stories superimposed over different genres.

and it's a seriously flawed belief to think that the audience won't care for it - as shows like 30 For 30, docs like Hoop Dreams, comic books like Slam Dunk, shows like Friday Night Lights, have disproved. The real drama is within the mechanics of the game, as a billion fans have attested.

and Hollywood's problem is not just contained within the sports genre either - the studios seem to have problems making films that are actually about a subject. Instead, professions become character quirks, and the worlds (cities, neighborhoods, professions, hobbies) that people inhabit become excuses to mirror the same 40 beats a la Save the Cat.

Lastly, this is the trailer to my favorite sports film, from Japan, about Ping Pong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwFVc2NAt94

@pete: As you suggest, that's one of the beauties of sports, that within the context of the contests, magic does happen. And I suppose in some strange way, the fact that 'unbelievable' things occur in sporting venues, that helps us to believe the 'unbelievable' can happen in movies. I mean if the U.S. can score a goal in the last seconds of added time on a 35 yard cross directly onto the head of our forward, and that's reality, then it actually seems plausible that Luke Skywalker can fire that missile and have it go down that tiny entrance into the Death Star.

@pete: Forgot to thank you for the Ping Pong recommendation. I've put it on my list of movies to watch.

also, athletes and teams have solved a problem that screenwriters have been tackling since the beginning of time: have a hero the audience can arbitrarily root for.
We work so hard to craft a character who is interesting, watchable, identifiable, and lovable.
Sports teams, on the other hand, just happen to "represent" where you're from, through the most unsubstantial connections. and they're really only measured by their skills on the field: as long as they remain watchable, they will be hailed as heroes; they don't even have to win.
and the narratives that we weave around our favorite teams only happen after the fact; we make up these stories to justify our continued emotional and temporal investment, that we aren't merely wasting time and money worshiping events and people that do not matter.

whereas screenwriters spend a third of the movie just trying to convince the audience that they're making a reasonable emotional and temporal investment.
though every once in a while you get a character or a star you root for through similarly illogical connections - I think Bruce Lee is chief among them, but that's a very short list.

I introduce my screenplay's protaganist Xochitl scoring the winning goal in sudden death. It's posted on Amazon Studios along with the dialogue track. Sports don't make character they reveal it.

And it continues...

After Yankees 2B Robbie Cano won the Homerun Derby tonight with his dad on the mound throwing to him, ESPN's John Kruk was like, "Hollywood couldn't have scripted it any better..."

@RonC: There you go. And from John Kruk of all people. I just remember him ducking out of the batter's box when he faced Randy Johnson in the All Star game. That was hilarious.

Allez les bleues ! :)

@malefice: Yes, good luck to France. Let's hope it's a scintillating match. And judging by the attacking football your squad plays, it should be!

Unbelievable game. I was sitting in a pub in downtown Portland with three buddies and an enormously packed house waiting for the Timbers/Sounders game to start and the entire place erupted when that went in. Just unreal.

@Scott: Great timing with this and the Spielberg thing. I completely agree. At the same time, it's one of those pieces of the filmmaking craft that's almost impossible to define. Or maybe even to practice. It falls into the realm of the "innate" for me, and it's something that, if you look at any of your favorite movies or at movies considered all-time classics, it's almost guaranteed there are "moments of magic" in there somewhere. They're what stick with you when your memory of the exact plot details and twists and turns have faded. They're the ones that you associate with whatever defining time in your life you were currently experiencing. Is there any way to really practice that? I don't know. Hone your cinematic instincts, sure. And I think that's where those come from. From an innate knowledge of what makes movies magical. That and finding a director who feels something when they read the words on your page and know exactly how to make it come to life on screen in a way that people will remember for the rest of their lives :).

But I think soccer lends itself to this sort of situation more than any other sport on the planet. Part of it has to do with the scale of soccer. There isn't any other sport that comes even close in my mind. Americans are unique: we might be the only country in the world that doesn't take this sport as a second religion. But for the rest of the world, it's a common language. Everyone plays soccer. And it sets the stage for incredible drama at every stage of the game because of how beloved the sport is. You have your lowliest 4th division team in England that's from a town of 2,000 people playing their biggest rivals from across the county--that's not just a sporting clash, that's a clash of two populations of human beings, two entire towns filled with people who attach their aspirations and hopes to their hometown club and suddenly it's not just a win or a loss, it's validation for a tough economic year that saw half the town's grain farmers go out of business while the rivals town thrived.

You move to the Spanish Premier League on the day of El Clasico when Barcelona play Real Madrid and you've got an even grander stage. Now it's not just two rival towns, it's two rival CITIES. And it's not just two rival cities, it's two rival groups of people renewing a rivalry that has it's roots in the cultural differences between Catalonia and the Spanish government. Where the chants ringing out around Barcelona's stadium had their roots in political protests during Franco's reign. And so it's not just a game between two sports teams, it's a clash between two vastly complicated set of beliefs, histories, cultures and human lives.

One step further and you're at the World Cup which is a step even further: it's not cities and towns and separatist factions, it's entire NATIONS. Millions of people. And at this highest level of the sport, it comes full circle and transcends those local rivalries within each country: it brings together Arsenal fans and Tottenham fans and Manchester United fans--fans that normally hate each other with a passion--and puts them all loudly behind the English National team.

And it pits nation against nation. Millions and millions of people. The hopes and dreams of an entire population are resting on the shoulders of those 11 players out on the field wearing your country's jersey. And it's a struggle happening on multiple levels: the struggle on the field is mirrored in the stands, with each teams supporters trying to outdo the others. You've got ready-made heroes on the field that the audience and the fans immediately project onto because they're out their waging metaphorical war against another country and they're representing COUNTRIES.

It's the height of drama. The tradition, the passion, the intensity, the stakes...there is nothing bigger than a World Cup elimination game.