I'm a fairly recent soccer fan, for too long believing that it was boring because there's so little scoring, compared to our American sports.
That's changed with the incredible drama of several games I've watched in the last few years -- the US men's last-minute goal by Landon Donovan to win their World Cup group in 2010; Chelsea's underdog win in this year's Champion's League final; Manchester City's two goals in injury time to win the Premier League title this year; and, most of all, the amazing Megan Rapinoe to Abby Wambach goal in the 122nd minute of last year's World Cup quarterfinal.
The US needed a goal to tie, and as Brazil controlled the ball near the US goal area in the 121st minute, announcer Ian Drake said:
Chants of USA ringing around the arena here in Dresden, but it does look that it's gonna be to no avail.
And it will go down as the USA's worst performance in the World Cup.
Then soccer magic happened:
Click that video, if you can.
If you can't, current WNT captain Christie Rampone won the ball down by her goal line, Carli Lloyd ran the ball to the center, then passed to Rapinoe, who got it about 20 yards past midfield on the left, touched once, then launched a 40-plus-yard cross off her left foot that Wambach jumped high and headed in.
I became a Megan Rapinoe fan, right then and there.
More, below.
It seems there is no video, embedable or even viewable, of the WNT's two games at the Olympics -- a 4-2 win against World Cup semifinalist France and a 3-0 win against Colombia.
The team has played well as a whole, obviously, and Rapinoe has done especially well, having a foot in five of her team's seven goals -- two assists and a long ball to the assister on another goal against France, and a goal and an assist against Colombia.
And she had four of the USA's nine shots on the Colombia goal.
After Rapinoe scored her goal, the first of the game, she:
reached into her right sock and pulled out a long slip of white paper with a message written on it in black marker. As she ran toward the far sideline, she held it up for the U.S. fans, TV cameras and, hopefully, its intended recipient to see.
On the paper, she had written the words, "Happy B-day, Kreigy! We love you!"
Midfielder Ali Krieger, who missed the Olympics due to injury, turned 28 on the 28th (the day of the game), and was watching from her birthday party.
Rapinoe said:
She would be here if she was healthy, and I'm sure it's hard for her to watch from home. I wanted to do something special for her.
Krieger responded on Twitter:
Wow. knock me off my feet and make me cry why don't u! @mPinoe I have the best teammates in the world, thank u for makin my bday so special!
In the ESPN story linked above, coach Pia Sundhage explained why she is now starting Rapinoe, who had been a substitute in the World Cup:
Right now, she is in a good place and she is happy and that's good for the team. She has earned a spot because of all players; she takes a lot of chances. She looks dangerous. And she's special.
Maybe one reason Rapinoe is "in a good place" and happy is that she came out just before the Olympics.
And did it with typical Rapinoe style:
People probably guessed that I was gay because I'm pretty transparent in the way that I live my life.
I think it's pretty cool, the opportunity that I have, especially in sports, because there's really not that many out athletes. I think it's important to be out. It's important to stand up and be counted and be proud of who you are.
I'm happy if I can help anyone else in their struggle. I'd like to make a positive impact on people.
The WNT plays North Korea Tuesday, and after that will be three games away from their third straight Olympic gold medal.
Do yourself a favor, even if you are not a soccer fan, and watch this great team while you can.
And keep an eye out for the blond midfielder who will be making exciting plays.
Guaranteed.