Leaving your mark

Defining moments don’t always come in championship games.

When the U.S. beat the U.S.S.R. in 1980’s ‘Miracle on Ice,’ it was not the gold medal game. It may have been one of the greatest sports moments ever but it did not assure that group top standing.

Just the same, the U.S. women’s soccer team’s win over Brazil was just a quarterfinal. Ali Krieger’s final PK strike was not for the title, as Brandi Chastain’s winner 12 years to the day was.  This win wasn't for a World Cup but it was a standout. The confounding calls of the referee that put the U.S. in such a difficult predicament, Brazil's stalling, the jump up and down moment of Abby Wambach heading Megan Rapinoe's perfect cross into the net when all hope looked lost and Hope Solo’s spectacular save to break the PK stalemate. Those all resonate as simply unforgettable.

But Abby Wambach said it best when she said for it to be truly historical they need to keep winning and get to the final.

There’s a very good chance that come a year or five or ten down the line it won’t be what the U.S. does against France today or if it reaches the final that we’ll wax poetic about. It will be the ten pound gorilla of a game that was U.S./Brazil, so chock full of drama that watching the replay later that day was like pulling out your favorite Oscar winning movie.

That said it’s easier to wax poetic about a champion’s struggles with adversity than one that falls short after a triumph. Landon Donovan’s extra time goal to keep the U.S.’ World Cup dreams alive last summer was captivating but you can’t help but then also think of the disappointment of the subsequent quarterfinal loss to Ghana.

It’ll be the same for the U.S. women. A loss to France would be an extreme disappointment after overcoming obstacles in the dramatic fashion they did to advance. Memorable moments will still be memorable even if the team is not a champion. They’ll still make best of lists and all that but something will be missing.

You don’t have to have your moment in the final game. A bunch of kids on skates proved that three decades ago in Lake Placid. People remember Mike Eruzione’s game winning goal and their Soviet slaying. They also remember that win led to a gold medal. How the U.S. women will be remembered, just what mark they will leave, is all theirs to determine. Wambach’s header will be the highlight. The comeback will live in lore. It will carry even more clout as a remarkable show of heart and spirit if it leads to a World Cup.