THAT DEEP BENCH IN WOMEN'S FOOTIE.

The Stritch Wolves might be finished as a program, but an observation I made at a game they played is still relevant.  "That's how it went, all game, every ball contested, nobody wanting to let a ball go out of bounds if at all possible."  It might be Stritch recruited overseas players who wanted to play against the best.  So too might it be with Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Olivia McDaniel, a 2020 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, enjoyed a magical match in goal for the Philippines early Tuesday, making nine saves and leading her squad to an historic 1-0 upset of host country New Zealand in the FIFA World Cup.

The Philippines, appearing for the first time in its history in a men's or women's World Cup, registered its first-ever victory and moved to 1-1-0 in pool play.

Eighteen of the 23 players on the roster are American-born, including the California-born McDaniel and her sister, Chandler, who also played at UW-Milwaukee and didn't appear in the match. Indiana native and Marquette University alumna Ryley Bugay checked in at the 83rd minute.

The incentive to play against the best extends beyond college.

The team even trained in the United States, coming together in storybook fashion with players who have familial ties to the Philippines.

The McDaniel sisters' parents, Filipina mother Lindy and soccer-coach father Clint, first helped get the ball rolling for a Philippines soccer program in 2012, securing a complex in Corona, California, for the first tryouts.

Well, why not? Footie is popular with eight year old girls in the United States, and adolescent males nearly everywhere else, and the allocation of resources to sport reflects that.  "Perhaps U.S. policy contributes to its omnipresence.  In Brazil, by contrast, the resources tend to go to the adolescent males."

There's something Pareto-improving about wanting to pit yourself against the best on the pitch, and maybe secure a college education to go with it.  Yes, of late, the United States team has injected itself, probably to its disadvantage, into the culture wars.  The easiest way to deal with that noise is to tune the game out.

Sometimes, though, it's best not to fret over Geopolitics or whether a woman can kick like an early adolescent male, and just let the players rediscover their inner eight year old.