Soccer-Obsessed Family Realizes Lifelong Dream While Attending Match Featuring All-Time Great Megan Rapinoe
- York Plagge
- Oct 15, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 7
Three NWSL matches... three times we were forced to watch the Chicago Red Stars... With our daughter's and Elizabeth's favorite soccer player of all time (Megan Rapinoe) playing and our growing disdain for the Red Stars, we were locked in as OL Reign fans from the start. I wonder if we will ever cheer for Chicago?
Four Nomadic Hippies' Fútbol Is Life National Tour
Match Four: NWSL Regular Season (10/15/23)
Location: Bridgeview, IL (SeatGeek Stadium)
Score: OL Reign (3) Chicago Red Stars (0)
4NH Team: OL Reign
4NH Fan Record: 5-1-0
4NH Human Of The Match: Megan Rapinoe
With the OL Reign's season on the line, soccer legend Megan Rapinoe pushed the sun back up in the sky one last time and willed her team to a win in the final regular season match of her storied career. The victory extended the Reign's season as their dominance in their 3-0 win over the Red Stars sealed a playoff birth for the franchise, while giving the potentially greatest player in the team's history more time to add to her legacy.
Despite the Reign being shutout in the first half, Rapinoe's play was pivotal throughout. Early after the halftime break, Rapinoe and the Reign finally broke through as the University of Portland standout received a pass at the left side of the box, brought to the center, and fired a 19-yard curling screamer past USWNT teammate Alyssa Naeher to put her team out front, 1-0. The goal was the 50th regular season tally of her NWSL career.
Only a couple of minutes later, Rapinoe demonstrated her superior offensive skill once more as she scored NWSL career goal 51, putting the Reign in complete control of the match and their playoff destiny. Receiving a pass inside the box on the left side, Rapinoe got the ball to her right foot and put her effort on the inside of the opposite post. The ball made its way into the net, and Naeher and the Red Stars were victims of Rapinoe one last time.
4NH Fav Of The Match: Megan Rapinoe
There was one single reason we made the long and arduous trip along I-80 to Chicago to watch soccer in mid-October... to fulfill our daughter Ivy's request to see Megan Rapinoe play live once. Nothing like waiting to the last possible moment... at least that was a real possibility going into the match.
As a family that would consider themselves avid fans of the USWNT, our early interest in the NWSL came from an eagerness for to watch more soccer from our favorite players. Christen Press... Rose Lavelle... Alyssa Naeher... among others. Even with all the greats from the national team, no doubt a lion's share of our attention has gone Rapinoe's way, both on and off the pitch.
Megan Rapinoe's appeal goes way beyond her skill as an athlete. The soccer great has been increasingly influential as a social activist and has been able to navigate outside criticism of her pursuits in a most dignified way. Also possessing a keen knack in regards to marketability, the combination of this with her appeal as an soccer player has allowed Rapinoe to transcend a typical athlete's influence. It certainly left a powerful impression on one (my daughter Ivy) of her multitude of "Number One Fans."
Dickhead Move Of The Night: People Sitting At Home Instead Of Coming To The Match
Ok... SeatGeek Stadium holds 20,000 people for soccer matches, so according to my working knowledge of the mathematics, there was still plenty of room left for fans from the third-largest metro in the United States to attend. Although we didn't actually do an official head count, I would be hard-pressed to back up the announced attendance, as way more than half of the seats were empty. We understand that the Red Stars were an unsatisfactory side, but this was potentially the last match ever for an all-time great.
The OL Reign needed a win to get into the playoffs, and since the match was the last of the regular season, there was a genuine reality that it was the end of Megan Rapinoe's storied run as the face of women's soccer. We were sincerely astonished that there were so many empty seats for the match.
What else was going on in the Chicago Metro that day? The Chicago Bears were in town, but they were awful... Was Simon & Garfunkel playing at the Ravinia? Were there half-priced beers at John Barleycorns? Was there a reunion for the attendees of the 1969 Democratic National Convention? Who knows... but the Four Nomadic Hippies were disappointed with the attendance.
4NH Best Logo/Kit: OL Reign
To be fair here, neither of these team's kits are overly exciting... and that is saying it nicely. I had a fleeting appreciation of the incorporation of powder blue with the red stars on the Chicago's white kit a couple of years back, but that was lost when they came out in all black during this match.
The OL Reign's royal blue kits fair much better in our eyes than the white kits do, but forced to wear white in this one, neither team gained any reasonable advantage. In fact, we might suggest both teams to go back to the drawing board and engage in a total redesign... plus, think of the extra income when the diehards update all their gear.
So... with no answer after a through evaulation of the kits it was necessary to go all the way to front of kit sponser... which the OL Reign wins with flying colors. The Black Future Co-op Fund's purpose is to "address the systematic racism and wealth inequality that has disproportionally affected the Black community for generations." Extra credit here of the players of the OL Reign voicing their opinion that the mission of the Black Future Co-op Fund aligned with the beliefs of the team.
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