U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Returns Home, Sings ‘We Are The Champions’ On Day After Victory
The celebration is on for the U.S. women’s national soccer team, who won their second consecutive Women’s World Cup on Sunday in France.
Following the win, and a great deal of revelry afterward, the team landed in the U.S. on Monday, and the team’s official Twitter account posted a video of Megan Rapinoe and the rest of the team stepping off the plane on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International Airport to the tune of Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”
A subsequent video had the players singing along with the song, while wearing “World Champions” t-shirts, holding up the World Cup trophy, and sipping from unknown beverages. The second video had over 260,000 views as of Monday afternoon.
The U.S. team dominated the tournament in France, never losing and never trailing. They defeated the Netherlands, 2-0, in the World Cup Final. It was the fourth Women’s World Cup title — and the second in a row — for the U.S.
Now that the team is back in the U.S., more celebrations are planned. A ticker-tape parade will take place in New York — at the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan — on Wednesday, per Reuters. A similar parade took place in the same location after the team won the tournament in 2015. Several members of the winning team also appeared on stage with Taylor Swift at the singer’s concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey after that July 2015 victory.
Brought you back a little something.
? World Champs,baby! pic.twitter.com/iUonZWgv1q
— U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (@USWNT) July 8, 2019
The team’s victory tour is unlikely to include a stop at the White House. President Donald Trump spent part of the tournament in a feud with Rapinoe, who had vowed in a video before the tournament to avoid going to the White House.
Victorious in the World Cup, #USWNT will be celebrated with a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan on Wednesday.
The winning squad from the 2015 World Cup is the only other women’s team that has been honored with a ticker-tape parade. https://t.co/SiMuH5Bu4S
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 8, 2019
Per USA Today, the president is now “noncommital” about whether or not to invite the team to celebrate, although the Democratic leaders in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, have invited the players to Capitol Hill, per Twitter. Earlier in the tournament, Rapinoe had accepted an invitation from Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to visit the capitol.
“We Are the Champions,” written by Freddie Mercury, was a song recorded by Queen for its 1977 album News of the World. Now a classic rock radio staple, the song has been synonymous with the celebrations of sports championships around the world for the last 40 years. The song was often paired with its B-side, “We Will Rock You,” at the conclusion of Queen concerts, and the tunes are still often played back-to-back on the radio to this day.
