The Table Of The United States Women's National Team For The 2011 Women's World Cup And The Colleges They Went To

Wanted to do this, both recognizing/honoring the 2011 United States Women's World Cup team as well as finally brushing up on my HTML skills by putting, for the first time ever in Wailing And Failing, a table.

I'll talk about coding first.  Of the four classes of my very first semester in college, one of them was a freshman symposium.  Remember that this was 1994.  I literally grew up at the dawn of the Internet.  My senior year in high school was when I heard about this thing called "e-mail" and I remember kind of making fun of how weird and stupid it was.  The joke was on me.  Anyway, that freshman symposium on what the World Wide Web was piqued me into learning more about it, so my junior year I took a class on how to make a homepage, which we now call coding.  I learned a lot of stuff which is super basic now, but I've always wanted to brush up on them ever since I starting WAF.  I just didn't have time nor a reason to.

The U.S. women's national soccer team, albeit four years ago, was my impetus.  I always watched them, although I'll admit I remember falling asleep to the end of the 1999 Women's World Cup Final; I woke up to just after Brandi Chastain converted the final Penalty Kick to give the U.S./us the championship.  But I really, really got into them in 2011, especially after Megan Rapinoe crossed that ridiculous header to Abby Wamback to tie up their quarterfinal match against Brazil in injury extra time (it basically starts at :40):



I am still saddened and humiliated that they couldn't hold an extra time lead in the final against Japan.  Seeing them fall apart in PKs still wounds me.  But then, and even moreso now, I think that that team should be honored.  I think that, well, loser team will stand out as a watershed moment in the history of American women's soccer, and American soccer, period.

And I will honor them by making a table of them according to where they went to college.  What?  OK, that's my main reason for establishing this table.  You could call it an obsession.  The U.S. is alone in using college as an athletic apprenticeship.  Everywhere else around the globe have these special training academies.  Once he or she develops even a scintilla of talent, they are whisked away to these camps to train (and to study) for years until they're adults.  I'm guessing these academies can start as soon as they're 10.  As an American I think it's kind of barbaric, but I'm sure that someone from Europe or South America would say, "Why are fully grown adults going to college not to study but to play -- and why aren't you paying them?"

Nonetheless it is interesting for me to know the colleges of the 21 players on the USWNT for the 2011 Women's World Cup.  And in numerical order, here they are.  I hope you like it:

Number	Name	College
1	Hope Solo	Washington
2	Heather Mitts	Florida
3	Christie Rampone	Monmouth
4	Becky Sauerbrunn	Virginia
5	Kelley O'Hara	Stanford
6	Amy LePeilbet	Arizona St.
7	Shannon Boxx	Notre Dame
8	Amy Rodriguez	USC
9	Heather O'Reilly	North Carolina
10	Carli Lloyd	Rutgers
11	Ali Krieger	Penn St.
12	Lauren Cheney	UCLA
13	Alex Morgan	Cal
14	Stephanie Cox	Portland
15	Megan Rapinoe	Portland
16	Lori Lindsey	Virginia
17	Tobin Heath	North Carolina
18	Nicole Barnhart	Stanford
19	Rachel Buehler	Stanford
20	Abby Wambach	Florida
21	Jillian Loyden	Villanova

Anything that stands out?  I've always believed that North Carolina is the preeminent women's soccer program in the country, but while they had two players on the team, it's actually Stanford that led with three players.  It's very Pac-10/12/8-heavy, but don't forget that another school on the west coast, Portland, is a very excellent program, as evidenced by the two players it placed on the team.  Outliers?  Back-up Goaltender Jillian Loyden of Villanova and Captain and The Legendary One, Christie Rampone, who hails from Monmouth.

This team all left college, but there are a few other countries in this year's WWC that have players that still go to college.  I think women's college soccer, the NCAA, and the individual schools may be squandering a chance to capitalize on the popularity of the team and the event by not promoting the upcoming season.  The schools can boast of the alums that made it to Canada.  Some should be able to say that a few student-athletes got to play in the World Cup.  Add to it that it is in fact women's soccer that kicks off the college sports season (they begin a week or so before college football does), and it appears as though the sport as a unique opportunity to bring in people who may not be aware of their local Division I team that could, theoretically, have the next Abby Wambach or Megan Rapinoe on their team and on campus.  (Same goes for the National Women's Soccer League; they should be promoting the hell out of themselves -- "You want to see the players on the national team play professionally?  Come to a game near you!")

I will hopefully do a similar table for the current roster before Tuesday's match versus Germany.  Should be a good one, but I don't want to do a table for them after a loss.