USWNT dragged out of bubble by Trump-Rapinoe flap, but how will it affect them?
PARIS — Even before the 2019 Women’s World Cup kicked off nearly three weeks ago, the 23 members of the defending champion United States squad were talking up the importance of staying in their bubble, remaining in a protective cocoon that would shield them from the inevitable criticism and distraction and noise from the outside that, for plenty of teams, has rerouted the journey towards glory.
All of that went out the window this week.
The U.S. meets host France here on Friday, a win-or-go-home quarterfinal that was already the most anticipated match of the tournament. But the hype surrounding it and the American team got booted into the stratosphere on Wednesday, when President Donald Trump ripped star forward Megan Rapinoe in a series of tweets after a months-old clip of Rapinoe surfaced in which she stated her intention of most certainly not visiting “the f---ing White House” should she and her top-ranked teammates repeat as World Cup champs in July.
And so, what should have been an otherwise run-of-the-mill pre-match press conference on Thursday turned into anything but. The bulk of the questions to Rapinoe and U.S. coach Jill Ellis concerned not this match between the best two women’s sides on Earth, but rather what has quickly escalated into a full-blown controversy.
Within 24 hours of Trump’s social media blitz, several U.S. players (along with a few former ones) had publicly expressed their support for Rapinoe. Clearly, the Americans’ protective bubble has been burst. The question now isn’t if it will be a distraction from the task at hand. The question is how much of a distraction it will be.
“I don’t think we can ever keep everything out, nor do we try to keep every single thing out,” Rapinoe said Thursday. “Being the U.S. team, I think we always have a lot of eyes on us.”
That’s true. It’s also accurate to say that this is brand new territory for the USWNT. The side was hailed from coast to coast in 2015 after winning the third world title in program history, but the country has changed since then, and America’s favorite team has not been immune from political polarization. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters have to admit that he’s a divisive figure. And true to form, Rapinoe fully owned her comments, the lone exception being that she regretted using the expletive because her mother doesn’t like her to swear.
“I’m also just very aware of our platform as a team and how much impact that it has,” she said. “I think that gives us a lot of confidence. I guess if we were saying these things and no one listened to us and never needed us, maybe we wouldn’t say it as loud.”
Nonetheless, Rapinoe tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to turn the conversation back to perhaps the highest-profile match in women’s soccer history, one that will require laser focus to win. Ellis, for her part, said she isn’t worried that the mission has been hijacked.
“For our players, there’s only one purpose and one mission while we’re here. Comments, media, whatever – it’s always been something that we can block out pretty easily.”
It was pointed out to her that her players haven’t exactly been ignoring the Trump-Rapinoe feud.
”I’m not around all the time so I don’t know what they’re kind of posting or saying,” Ellis said. “But at the end of the day, on the training ground, in the meeting rooms, the focus has been phenomenal. We’re just genuinely excited.”
They should be. And in a funny way, the fact that few seem to be talking about the actual match could actually work in her team’s favor. Coaches in all sports have been known to deliberately create diversions to protect their athletes from nosy reporters. And maybe this will make the team hone in even more on the job. That’s the way Ellis is spinning it, anyway.
“This is a magnificent showcase piece for our sport,” she said. “The attention, the fanfare around it and behind it just draws more attention to it.”
The attention is there, all right. So is the pressure.
“This is a big game and I think the players know that,” Ellis said. “But it’s also that expectation of being ready for this moment. We talk a lot about it. They’re wired for this. We’re built for this. You don’t come into this program and hide in the shadows, you’re in the spotlight right away. So I think some teams will visit pressure but we live there.
“Are there going to be some nerves? Of course,” Ellis added. “There’s a lot at stake. But I think that they are wired to handle it.”
We’ll all know for sure soon enough.
More from Yahoo Sports:
