Hats off to the USWNT

[packs]

Originally Posted by Tabe

Not even close to the same thing.

We're talking about a professional All-Star team (the USWNT) losing to 14 & 15-year olds. The team they played was a U15 boys squad. Anyway that gets dressed up, it's embarrassing.

It was a game they played for fun. I don't see why they would have put any effort into it. What pleasure can a professional athlete get out of dominating high school students?

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by packs

It was a game they played for fun. I don't see why they would have put any effort into it. What pleasure can a professional athlete get out of dominating high school students?

What makes you so sure they would have dominated them? There's no evidence of it. They had a chance - and got blown out.

You think the NBA All-Stars would ever lose by 35 to 14 & 15-year olds, regardless of the circumstances? Of course not.

The "it was played for fun" is what defenders of the USWNT say to try and justify losing to a U15 boys team. It just doesn't hold up. Also, the game was intended as a way to stay sharp for international games coming up. So you're saying that, as prep for international games, they just farted around and didn't try hard?

[packs]

You may find this article interesting

https://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes....-very-bad-day/

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by packs

You may find this article interesting

https://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes....-very-bad-day/

Those players on the college all-star team would all have been in the NBA today at the same age they played the Dream Team. I’m not sure you can compare that team to a junior high team of stars.

[packs]

That’s an ok stance to take. My stance is games that don’t matter don’t matter. Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back in an exhibition game. How much weight gets put onto something like that? It's interesting that it happened, but ultimately it doesn't say much about the people involved.

[Exhibitman]

Wes Ferrell told a story about getting shelled by a semi-pro team in an 'easy money' exhibition game.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by packs

You may find this article interesting

https://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes....-very-bad-day/

I assumed this would get brought up. That college team had Grant Hill - a Hall of Famer - and multiple all-NBA players on it. That college team would have beaten pretty much every other team in the world by 30.

And they won by 8.

The USWNT lost to a bunch of kids, most of whom will never play pro, let alone at the very, very peak of their sport. And they got blown out.

BIG difference.

[RedsFan1941]

my granddaughter once beat me in nine holes of putt putt golf.

[prewarsports]

The team the USWNT lost to was an FC Dallas u15 Academy team. I have high school players on my team that have left and played for these academies and I know them VERY well so let me put that into a bit of perspective.

There are 24 MLS teams in the U.S. and each has an Academy. Within each academy there are teams for the different age groups (U15-U17 etc.). This is the absolute youngest group of boys in one of 24 different academies that spread the talent so thin that many of these young men do not even get scholarships to four year universities, after four years of maturing beyond the u15 level. These are recently graduated middle schoolers or at best, freshman in high school. The best of the best usually skip these academies anyways as they are more about $$ than talent.

This was far from the best 15 year old in the country, and they won 5-2.

Again, hats of to the USWNT, they are awesome and I watch their games. They deserve every single bit of attention they are getting for their play. I just do not understand for the life of me why anyone needs to bring the mens team into the debate or start talking about pay gaps etc. Just celebrate the accomplishment.

[oldjudge]

Great. Many male college tennis players could beat Serena Williams. Should she earn less money than her male counterparts?