FIFA 2011 Women's World Cup

As I have previously mentioned in the post on my trip to Berlin, Germany was the host of the FIFA 2011 Women's World Cup, which has ended less than two hours ago. Much was written in the run-up to this event about gender equality, as in Germany women were banned from playing soccer until the 1970s. I would like to refrain from adding any more this this debate, while also drawing your attention to another earlier post, on women in science.
Nevertheless, since I would prefer my significant other to be female, and since I have also been an avid lover of soccer for virtually all of my life, I confess that the combination of two concepts that appeal to me leaves me no less than enthusiastic. When I was a boy, children's birthdays were a little complicated because the boys wanted to play soccer, and the girls preferred Blind Man's Buff (or so I remember). Nowadays, it seems, gender stereotypes have eroded, and the ladies are into physical games just the same. Well, you can tell that this is definitely in my good books! In other words, if you are a thirtysomething female soccer player, with decent guitar skills and a progressive mindset - I fear I would drop dead at the mere sight of you ...
To dissociate myself from any hint of male chauvinism, I would like to congratulate all contestants of the FIFA 2011 World Cup on their performance. Especially, thank you for the most thrilling final (including extra time and penalty shootout) I have seen in a long time. Team USA was a worthy opponent, but over the course of the whole match, and the entire tournament, Japan has earned the title of World Champion most convincingly.
Then again, it's not a crime if I find some (many) of the players pretty, is it? (At least not as big a crime as stealing the photo from somewhere in the depths of the Internet, I guess.)
Update, July 19, 2011: Last night, while in line for a movie ticket, I overheard a conversation about the final. A person stated that the performance of the US team in the penalty shootout (three misses in the first three shots) was so bad, it were a reason not to watch women's soccer in general. The person was a young woman, age 20+.