U.S. has leg up in growth of women's soccer
Virginia TechPatrick Ridge couldn’t help but fall in love with the game of soccer. He played the sport growing up, and he remained hooked by the game’s excitement when he attended matches and World Cup watch parties in Latin America and Spain while studying, teaching, and researching. “I saw the fervor,” said Ridge, now an associate professor of Spanish at Virginia Tech who studies soccer for a living.