This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
The word three-peat is unheard of in soccer. Well, at least when it comes to the World Cup it is, anyway. Wait. Is three-peat one word or two? Whatever. It doesn’t matter.
The point is nobody has reached this level before. No men’s soccer team. No women’s soccer team. Nobody. The United States Women’s National Team is in a unique position to make a little bit of history here.
Obviously, the team won back-to-back World Cup trophies in 2015 and 2019. The team lost to Japan in 2011, so it’s made three Finals in a row which is already impressive. But to potentially win three World Cups in a row? That’s unprecedented territory, folks. Not many teams have ever actually come close to doing this.
This is going to be the overwhelming narrative as the tournament progresses. I mean, just Google it. It already is. It’s all anyone is actually talking about when it comes to this team.
But, listen, man. It’s hard to win something three times a row in literally anything. Pick a sport. This is something that rarely happens. It’s why we’ve never seen it happen in the World Cup. These teams play every four years. Things change. Folks get older. New talent comes in. Things are constantly in flux.
There’s a lot of pressure on the USWNT right now and the team is very, very different from what it once was. USWNT legend Tobin Heath talked about it with our Michelle Martinelli in a wide-ranging interview you can read here.
“I think that winning anything, especially a World Cup if you look at the history of the tournament, is really, really hard. I remember when after 2015 — which was like actually a big monkey off our back because we haven’t won a World Cup since that iconic ’99 moment. So we went a pretty long time before we then won in 2015, and then, of course, we won in 2019. But you have to remember, 2011 we got to the final. 2015 we won the final. 2019 we won the final. So really, we’ve only known World Cup Finals for the last three World Cups. And that’s a lot of pressure.”
I’m not saying to count these ladies out at all. They’re talented. And there’s a reason USWNT is — once again — ranked as the world’s top team. They should win it all again.
But this is sports, y’all. We know nothing is guaranteed. That’s why they play the games. There’s a lot of talent out there that will be coming hard for this team.
So, look. Cheer the team on as you would any other time. That’s what we’re all here to do. We want to see them succeed. We want to see them make history. I know I certainly do — I love me a good super team. Ask Phoenix Suns fans about me.
But no matter what happens, let’s all enjoy this ride. Know that the USWNT is chasing history here and, that alone, is worth watching no matter the result.
Quick Hits: Barbenheimer weekend is here…RIP Tony Bennett…and more
— Our Cory Woodruff brilliantly makes the case that Barbenheimer weekend is the biggest weekend the domestic box office has had in years. He’s right.
— Tony Bennett was a truly special talent, man. Rest in Peace. Charles Curtis pays homage to the legend here.
— The Commanders are probably going to change their name again. Here are some suggestions from Twitter.
— Robert Zeglinksi ranks Dan Snyder’s $60 million NFL fine and, clearly, it’s by far the biggest ever. Good riddance to this guy.
Have a nice weekend. Be kind to one another.