some canadian guys writing about soccer

This was supposed to be a triumphant week in the off-season for Women’s Professional Soccer. WPS is, of course, the top-tier women’s league in North America, having started play last season to fill the void left by the demise of the WUSA in 2003. In its inaugural season, the league attracted a good amount of attention, thanks in part to the star appeal of Brazilian Marta, who scored 10 goals in 19 appearances for the WPS’s Los Angeles Sol, and went on to win the FIFA award for female player of the year.

The league also has an astonishing 250,000 followers on Twitter, showing there is clearly a burgeoning interest in the women’s game on this continent (or an awful lot of spambots who were drawn to the word “women” like moths to a flame). And, in what was supposed to be the good news story of the week, the Atlanta Beat (who will begin play as an expansion team this year) officially announced the opening of the first women’s soccer-specific stadium on the continent (they’ll share the 8,300-seat facility with the Kennesaw State University women’s soccer program).

However, all is not rosy for the league. Steve Goff is reporting today that the Los Angeles Sol are “on the brink of disbanding” after failed attempts to sell the team this offseason. The Sol made it to the championship game last season, and led the league in attendance. They also have the rights to one of the women’s game’s most recognizable players (not to mention Canadian keeper Karina LeBlanc and veteran defender Martina Franko). As Goff notes, if the Sol were to disappear, it would represent “a major setback to women’s pro soccer in America.” (Updated, 4:08 p.m.: It’s now official, the LA Sol will fold.)

I can already sense you rolling your eyes. “Who cares about the women’s game?” you’re asking yourself. “If they can’t play soccer, maybe they can get back to ironing my shirts and making my lunch. Blah blah blah.”

Let’s put aside, for the second, the overly aggressive misogynistic bluster you use to mask your own feelings of insecurity and low self-worth, shall we? You’re reading this site, presumably, because you’re a soccer fan. Probably a North American soccer fan. And probably someone who would like to see the game transcend its long-time “niche” status and finally stake a claim to being a fully mainstream sport on the professional level.

Now, in case you hadn’t noticed, this planet is inhabited by two genders, who are about equal in numbers. And if you’re interested in forwarding some sort of cause (political, social or, in this case, sports-related), it’s best not to alienate half of the population. So regardless of what your personal thoughts and beliefs are on the entertainment value of the women’s game (or on women’s sports in general) you should, as a North American soccer fan, hope for WPS to be successful.

I’m not saying you need to rush out and buy merchandise or season’s seats. All I’m asking is that if your default reaction to hearing a news item about women’s soccer is to be dismissive, perhaps you should reconsider.

Clearly there are plenty of folks who do care about women’s soccer, and WPS in particular. Someone was going out to those games. Someone is filling out the ranks of the league’s Twitter followers. And there are hundreds of thousands of young girls playing the game in Canada and the USA, many of whom just need a role model to fully ignite their passion for the game as a supporter.

And a young girl whose interest in soccer is sparked by a female player they see as a role model will, very likely, also eventually gravitate to the men’s game, both domestic and national teams. And that’s one more person who’s on our side. One more voice to vouch for soccer when it’s being belittled, vilified and ostracized by the entrenched sports media and culture.

Without WPS, or some equivalent, maybe that young soccer-playing girl doesn’t feel a personal connection to the game beyond using it as some youthful recreational pastime. She doesn’t become an ardent follower. She doesn’t start reading the blogs, posting on the message boards, attending the games, calling the phone-in shows, and otherwise propagating a love of the beautiful game to her friends, family and anyone else who will listen.

And that’s just one more lost opportunity to forward the cause of soccer on this continent. Now multiply that by 250,000. Yeah, that’s what’s at stake.

I realize that there’s an entrenched… not misogyny, that’s too strong a word… but aversion to female supporters among many old-school-thinking sports fans. For many men, being a sports fan is their way to “escape” their wives or girlfriends, or to speak freely and openly without worrying about the self-imposed social confines of speaking in mixed company. And, yeah, some guys are just Cro-Magnon assholes, who really do think women are good for nothing but spitting out babies and cooking dinner.

All of these factors — as well as the complicity of the more enlightened male supporters — coalesce into an ongoing, though anachronistic, sense of hardcore sports fandom as an insular male world. Sure, girls can come to the games and wear their pink-tinged team memorabilia while asking their cute little questions… or they can get a gig on TV reading the scores and wow take a look at that one’s tits! But beyond that? “Boy, she really is a sports fan… that’s weird. Is she a lesbo?”

I’m not suggesting that there’s a way to change this attitude overnight. It’ll be a long time — if ever — before the culture truly does change to fully embrace females as regular sports fans, rather than novelty eye-candy or closeted lesbians.

But why can’t soccer take the lead on this one? Soccer fans, if I may be so bold, tend to generally be more sophisticated than their peers in other circles of sporting fandom (NFL and NASCAR, anyone?), and could probably be relied upon to be open-minded, in my cases. We should be encouraging as many fans to flock to soccer as we can, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation or any other affiliation. As I’ve said, we need all the help we can get.

However, if WPS dies, it could throw one more obstacle in our way. (I’m not saying the league is on the verge of folding; in fact, they’ve got two new expansion teams planned for 2010. But if one of the team’s marquee franchises did fold, it wouldn’t portend well for the league as a whole, methinks.) Sure, with all the obstacles soccer has already overcome on these shores, another one isn’t insurmountable. But it’d be nice to keep the momentum of the last 15 years moving forward, wouldn’t it?

So yeah… even if you think women’s soccer is boring, the health of WPS actually does matter to us all. Let’s keep an eye on it.