As a diehard USA mens fan, it was very hard to see a USA team lose, even if it was the woman instead of the men. I had started following the tournament shortly after it began out of boredom, and was slightly surprised by the quality of the women, even compared to the men. So by the time the US rolled to the finals, I was reasonably excited for the big game. And when Alex Morgan found the back of the net for the first time, I actually was pleasantly excited. Unfortunately for me, Japan equalized, and I had to wait until the middle of extra time, when Abby Wambach's powerful header soared into the goal. At that moment, I went nuts, jumping up and down and throwing everything within a 5 foot radius of me. De Ja Vu came a calling though, and the Japanese equalized again and eventually won on free kicks
After that, I found myself very disappointed with my newly beloved national team. They let up goals twice after they seemed locked in to win, and they missed the first THREE penalties of the PK shootout. However, after thinking about it more, I realized what a great story Japan's Cinderella story really was. Following Japans earthquake and typhoon crisis, the asian country really did not have much to be happy about. Yet, their woman's national team upset the first 2 seeded teams in the FIFA rankings (USA and Germany) and found themselves with a tournament win that not only uplifted themselves, but a whole nation of millions. So yes, I am upset about my countries heartbreaking loss, but I have come to terms with the fact that Japan needed this one more than the USA, and that this story is one of the greater Cinderella stories in sports history.
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