Category: USWNT

Megan Rapinoe had an iconic year. But she wasn’t the best player.

Posted on by Backline Soccer

I am a huge fan of Megan Rapinoe. Over the course of her career, she has been one of the most dynamic and exciting players in the game. Pinpoint crosses, aggressive playmaking, thumping shots and delicate tap-ins, and maybe the best throw-in mojo in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to see her in person a good fifteen or twenty times, and it’s always a joy.

She’s also one of the most important voices in the game today. She takes stands for important causes, wears Audre Lorde’s name on the back of her shirt, and always provides honest and insightful comments on demand. She’s a superstar, and we’re lucky to have her.

But she wasn’t the best player in the world in 2019, and it’s not a close call.

It’s not surprising that she’s taken home all the major awards, of course. She won the Golden Boot at the World Cup, and therefore also won the Golden Ball. And awards-voting being what it is, there was never going to be anyone else at the top of these lists.

But we shouldn’t let ourselves be resigned to this fact. Awards don’t matter that much, but we all still do care about them—from fans to media to players themselves. They are signals of respect, honors for special performances. They should go to the players who earned them. And it’s beyond the realm of plausibility to argue that Rapinoe’s performances on the pitch earned these awards.

Rapinoe’s year was iconic, not great

Over the course of 2019, Rapinoe played 1075 minutes for the United States and 333 minutes for her NWSL club, Reign FC. She scored nine goals and recorded seven assists for the US, and added nothing to either of those numbers in the NWSL. A forward who contributes nine goals over a calendar year maybe be a useful player, but is nowhere close to the elites of the world. Just by way of comparison, Sam Kerr notched 43 goals in 2019, while Vivianne Miedema is closing in on 50.

To even put Rapinoe in the conversation for best in the world, you would have to decide that club performance is basically irrelevant, and would have to massively downgrade international performances outside of the World Cup.

But even narrowing the focus to that extent still doesn’t actually work. Yes, Rapinoe won the big awards in France, but was she actually the best player in the tournament? No. And she really wasn’t even close. She scored six goals, which is obviously a lot, but also isn’t an especially noteworthy total for the Golden Boot winner. And consider the nature of the goals. One came at the tail end of the Americans’ 13-0 drubbing of Thailand—a game in which Rapinoe looked rusty at best. Three more came from penalties. Penalties count as much as any other goal, of course, but the worst penalty takers in the world will still convert about half their chances. There’s value in being the person with the nerves to stand there and do the job, but it’s hard to believe that one of the many other world class Americans couldn’t have done the same.

Her final two goals both came in the quarterfinal matchup against France. One was a strange free kick that somehow failed to be blocked by three different French players. It was a bit of a freak result, though Rapinoe absolutely deserves credit for taking the shot and giving herself the chance to find the opening. The other came from open play—a nice reminder of what a fantastic player Rapinoe is when she’s at her best.

That France game was a genuinely excellent performance, and is certainly the crown jewel of her case. In arguably the biggest game of the year, she played well and delivered the decisive goals.

But one game is just one game, no matter how important. And outside of that match, she was average at best. Against Sweden, Rapinoe looked lost, regularly giving the ball away, and struggling mightily to create anything. Against Spain in the octofinals—probably the closest the US ever came to losing—the American attack was pathetic. They managed a measly two shots on goal, and created virtually nothing from open play. A large part of that is because Spain deliberately shunted the US attack out left, giving Rapinoe chance after chance to create something. She never did.

Rapinoe then missed the semifinal to injury, and the difference was notable. In the same role, Christen Press not only scored a brilliant goal, but also contributed significant defensive work—something the US had been missing from the hobbled Rapinoe. And when she came back for the final, the injury that had left her out of the previous match remained notable. She once again scored a penalty, but looked well off the pace of play.

The final tally: one great game, a couple average ones, and a couple stinkers. She did provide critical nerve in converting some big penalties, and was an important leader on the best team in the world. That’s not nothing. I didn’t include her on my Best or Second XIs for the tournament, but I understand why many reasonable people might disagree.

But those five games are the entirety of her case. Outside of France, she contributed virtually nothing over the rest of the year. And if you’re going to reward someone for a transcendent performance on the biggest stage, it better be truly transcendent. This wasn’t, by any stretch.

We should absolutely celebrate the iconic nature of Rapinoe’s World Cup. We’ll look back at this decades from now and remember her standing, arms outstretched. We’ll remember her drawing the ire of the president. We’ll remember the way it changed our collective conversations about the sport. That all matters. But it has nothing to do with whether she was the best player.

Picking the right players for awards is hard, but it’s important to try

Again, I want to reiterate how much I appreciate Megan Rapinoe. She is one of my favorite players of all-time, and I have been thrilled to see her resurgence in 2017 and 2018. She was famously taken to the Olympics in 2016 while still recovering from an ACL injury, only to be subbed on and back off in a horrible half-hour of the US quarterfinal exit to Sweden. At that point, it looked like her time as a key contributor for the US might be coming to an end. But instead, she came back revitalized, shifting her style of play to become more physical and direct and actually getting better in the process. She really was one of the best players in the world over those couple of years.

So I don’t begrudge her the accolades that are raining down this year. She’s been one of the best for a long time, and there is literally no one I’d rather have as the face of global soccer in 2019.

But I care about the sport as a whole. I want people engaged in it to take their responsibility seriously. I want considered, engaged debates that reflect the accumulated knowledge of experts. I want performances to matter more than fame.

This is not an easy thing. As my friend Kieran Theivam has noted, the availability of statistics is extremely limited. Matches are hard to see. Good commentary is hard to find. I consider myself reasonably well informed about the global game, but that’s purely a relative comparison. I have been able to watch maybe three Frauen-Bundesliga games this year, a handful from France, a couple from South America, basically none from Asia. My colleague Sophie Lawson has expressed the same feelings, and if you know Sophie, you know there is almost no one in the world who watches more (and a more diverse range of) women’s soccer than her.

If it were my job to cover the global game, I could certainly watch more. But it’s not my job because that job basically doesn’t exist. There are a handful of people in the world who can actually devote their full time to covering the sport. The rest of us are either amateurs or professionals who can only devote some of their limited bandwidth to the game.

So I have no confidence in stating who I think should have won all these awards. But to my own eyes, the shortlist should be: Vivianne Miedema, Sam Kerr, Julie Ertz, Amandine Henry, Crystal Dunn. You could also make credible cases for players like Ada Hegerberg, Pernille Harder, Ewa Pajor, Kosovare Asllani, Lucy Bronze, Griedge Mbock Bathy, Caroline Graham Hansen, Debinha, and others.

You could extend out another rung and bring in dozens more truly excellent players, all of whom contributed more over the course of the year than Rapinoe. That’s not a slight to Rapinoe, just an honest reflection of what actually happened.

We are blessed with an unbelievable amount of quality in the game today. Awards season should be a chance to celebrate that talent. It should inspire a bunch of heated and engaging conversations about how to assess the relative quality of leagues, and a diverse range of performances. It shouldn’t be about anointing the most famous player simply because she’s famous.

I know we aren’t there yet, and I certainly wasn’t surprised to see Rapinoe sweep the awards. But just because something is predictable doesn’t make it good. And I don’t accept that we have to treat this as an inevitability. We should demand more. The players are delivering unprecedented excellence on the pitch. We should also demand excellence from those evaluating and analyzing them.

Backline Chat: NWSL 2019 Reflections

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Charles Olney (@olneyce): Welcome everyone to our NWSL wrap-up chat. It’s been awhile since we’ve all talked. It’s good to be back. This week we want to discuss the conclusion to the NWSL regular season. Where we are now, and where things will go from here.

To kick things off, what have been everyone’s favorite moments of the 2019 season?

Allison Cary (@findingallison): Toni Pressley coming back this past weekend and getting the captain’s armband

RJ Allen (@TheSoccerCritic): It would be mean to say Jill Ellis’ last game in charge of the team so I am going to say Balcer having the year she has and being really a wonderful pro level player out the gate.

Allison Cary: Also the Spirit’s games at Audi Field. I was at the first one against the Pride and it was a really special experience.

Luis Hernandez (@radioactivclown): For sure Toni coming back from cancer, but I think an honorable mention to Syd also coming back this year.

Charles Olney: The Pressley moment was a great one. And as Luis notes, there are some similar notes with Sydney Leroux coming back after her pregnancy.

I have also loved seeing some of the big crowds, especially for teams that have often struggled for an audience, like Washington and Sky Blue.

Luis Hernandez: It’s a credit to the fitness coach and support staff for the Pride.

Charles Olney: Less inspirational than some of these moments, but I also enjoyed some of the blitzkrieg performances we’ve seen this year. The full North Carolina thrashing of Portland. Those rapid-fire three goals from Reign against Orlando. Chicago at times. It’s fun to see teams truly clicking.

RJ Allen: Honestly seeing Sam Kerr find another gear and managing 18 goals in a World Cup year was pretty great.

Charles Olney: Okay, getting a little bit more into the weeds, what were some big surprises this year? Teams who over or underperformed? Players?

Allison Cary: Even in a World Cup year, I was surprised at just how bad some of the performances from the Pride were. Particularly their top players. Like I didn’t expect the team as a whole to be great but I expected more out of some of the bigger named players.

Charles Olney: I was pretty down on the Pride coming into the season, but I was still surprised. They were much worse than even the low-range expectation

RJ Allen: I think the Sky Blue FC saga was surprising. Starting the year like they did, going through a few sets of coaching and coming out as a team that wasn’t just dropping 3 points every week.

Luis Hernandez: My biggest surprise was the overachieving Sky Blue once the team fired Denise Reddy. I wasn’t expecting them to perform how they did.

Charles Olney: Sky Blue was definitely the reverse image of Orlando. I expected them to be better than 2018 but still pretty awful. But after they fired Reddy, they were genuinely competitive. Combine that with changes at the top of the system and Sky Blue no longer feels like the unwanted stepchild of the league. Which is great news.

RJ Allen: Coaching in the NWSL seems to be a very different job than coaching in a lot of other contexts.

Charles Olney: For individual surprises, did anyone see Kristen Hamilton having this season? RJ already mentioned Balcer. Midge Purce would be another one along those lines.

RJ Allen: I don’t think even Hamilton thought she would have this season.

Luis Hernandez: Nope. She certainly made the most of her opportunities.

Charles Olney: I was delighted to see Tori Huster transition seamlessly into being a fullback. That’s certainly not one I expected.

RJ Allen: I thought Andi Sullivan also had a pretty solid season for a player who 2 years ago looked like a lock for France 2019 for the USWNT and then very much didn’t look like that player.

Luis Hernandez: I also want to say that I didn’t expect this season to be Heather O’Reilly’s last year. I get it, but in my mind she was going to play forever.

RJ Allen: I didn’t expect O’Reilly to be the starting right back for the favorite to win the title. But here we are.

Luis Hernandez: What a way to go out. She’s the reason I’ll be rooting for the Courage. Besides, who doesn’t love an underdog story…

Charles Olney: On the negative side, I wouldn’t quite call it a ‘surprise’ but I was disappointed that Houston wasn’t able to take a step forward. Especially during the World Cup break. That felt like a team with some potential to consolidate on some gains from 2018, but it never happened.

RJ Allen: Houston feels like the boy called “It” of the NWSL.

Allison Cary: They seem stuck in that limbo of not quite in the bottom tier but not quite good enough. And they’ve been stuck in that for at least the last two seasons.

Charles Olney: Really, every season except their first. Points per game for the last five years: 1.2, 1.1, 1, 1.3, 1.1. They’re nothing if not consistent!

Luis Hernandez: Houston gives Orlando hope.

RJ Allen: Can we talk for a moment about Vlatko and the magic he has been able to pull this year in Washington state? The Reign had a starting XI level of players on the IR this year and he managed to get them to the playoffs.

Luis Hernandez: It seems like every move Reign pulled off worked out. I’m ready for the coach of the year to go put a roster together for the USWNT.

RJ Allen: The problem with that is he doesn’t get free reign to do that. He can’t just drop an unfit Alex Morgan for example.

Charles Olney: If nothing else, Vlatko in the job will test a lot of the hypotheses we’ve developed over the past five years about who precisely is responsible for various policies and choices.

RJ Allen: Vlatko seems to be willing to admit when he is wrong too. Which is a huge thing in his favor.

Charles Olney: Alright, let’s talk playoffs. In the first match, it’s the North Carolina Courage taking on Reign FC. The Courage should finally get their home semifinal. Does anyone think the Reign can pull this one out? What do you think will be the key matchups?

Allison Cary: Anything can happen in the playoffs.

Luis Hernandez: I credit his leadership when he had a big absence from the locker room. I think the only thing that didn’t happen as much as I wanted to see was a better year from Shea Groom

RJ Allen: I am going to give the Reign a solid 33.3% chance of coming away with a win. Murphy has been great. Yanez will be back from her one game sit down. I think if anyone can figure out how to get to Riley, it’s Vlatko.

Allison Cary: Agreed. Like I still think the Courage will win, but I’m certainly not counting the Reign out.

RJ Allen: But Lynn Williams and Crystal Dunn and Jess McDonald and Sam Mewis and I could go on. The Courage are stacked.

Luis Hernandez: I really want to see a different group of teams in the final. I just don’t see how NC drops this match at home.

Charles Olney: The big question for me is whether Rapinoe is actually back. She seemed to be giving it maybe 60% effort in their final game this weekend. But she has shown flashes of her top level. If she can put in a full 90, she has every chance to give O’Reilly a nightmare of a game.

Luis Hernandez: Reign have back to back weeks where they are traveling across the country.

Charles Olney: Absent that, it’s hard to see where Reign’s goals would come from. But you could still see a very tight 0-0 or 1-0 win if North Carolina can’t convert on their chances.

RJ Allen: The Courage love to play almost a two back with how high the outside backs get up. That can burn them. It’s rare but it happens.

Luis Hernandez: There are so many factors. The Courage will shoot like three times as much as the Reign; so as long as they convert they’ll win.

Charles Olney: Yanez and Long are probably the key players here. If they can support the backline, they may be able to force Carolina into taking a lot of mediocre shots from distance. I trust Murphy to handle those.

Luis Hernandez: Really all I want is a good game from both matches and not have to worry the ref is going to screw something up where there’s a meltdown on Twitter.

Charles Olney: Moving onto the second semifinal: Chicago-Portland. Chicago will be trying to prevent a fifth consecutive exit in the semifinal. How do you like their chances? And what are the key matchups?

RJ Allen: I do not want another North Carolina vs Portland final. And North Carolina is pretty likely to win. So sorry Portland.

Allison Cary: This is gonna be a good game.

RJ Allen: Sam Kerr vs AD Franch and the Emilys is going to be huge. Kerr has a habit of not always showing up in games that matter.

Luis Hernandez: Which team has less momentum: the one that hasn’t played in what, three weeks, or the team that hasn’t looked great and not scored in a couple of matches?

Charles Olney: If it’s about momentum, it’s all for Chicago. They finished the season on a high and then got a nice break. Portland finished the season stumbling over the line.

RJ Allen: And Portland has been flat out bad lately. Utah broke them.

Luis Hernandez: I want the Red Stars to win. I’ve seen all the buzz on social media to get a packed house.

Charles Olney: You’re right about Kerr often not managing to produce to her normal levels in the big games. I tend to think that’s coincidental more than a real flaw in her game. But it would certainly be nice to get some definitive evidence on that point. A hat trick in a big game would be thrilling to see.

Luis Hernandez: Rory Dames needs to win this game or GTFO of Chicago.

Luis Hernandez: Like the team should fire him.

RJ Allen: I don’t see why Chicago should fire him at all.

Luis Hernandez: because he can’t get the team over the hump

RJ Allen: He is getting his team to the playoffs more times in a row than any other coach. He can’t help things like in 2017 Christen Press couldn’t score a goal to save her life.

Luis Hernandez: I want him to win.

Charles Olney: This is the best Chicago has ever played, and a fulfillment of the plan they have been talking about for two years. I’ve been somewhat critical of him in the past, but I’m a big fan of what he’s done this year. One result this weekend, either direction, shouldn’t wipe that away.

RJ Allen: He is also the best drafter in the NWSL.

Luis Hernandez: All I’m saying is that if we are going to credit Vlatko for all his success in the post season that we need to shine a light on Dames constantly crashing out in the big game

RJ Allen: It’s not like he gets blown out of these games. I feel like getting your team to the post season almost every year is his job. Anything more is gravy.

Charles Olney: The big question for me in this game is the battle of the midfields. Chicago didn’t drop a single point after moving Ertz to the backline but, as I commented when they made the switch, it’s an approach that improves the midfield in terms of its ability to keep possession but potentially weakens it defensively. This will be their first test against a playoff team to see whether it can withstand the sort of pressure that Portland can apply.

RJ Allen: I think a lot of this game is going to come down to the health of some of the Red Stars.

Charles Olney: Portland closed out the season playing effectively a 4-6-0. It didn’t really work that well, but you could imagine something like that causing a lot of trouble for Chicago by constantly putting players into tough decisions about who and where to mark.

RJ Allen: The Chicago midfield has taken a beating in terms of not having their best players always able to go 90. I worry if this is a long 0-0 or 1-1 game Chicago just won’t have the ability to go 90 or 120 minutes.

Charles Olney: Brian and Colaprico are probably the most positionally astute central midfield combo in the league, but this setup puts a lot of pressure on them to both defend and attack. Could be a real inflection point.

RJ Allen: Portland has Heath and Sinclair; they haven’t been great, but a set piece or a PK is not something you want to mess around with either on.

Charles Olney: Another place where that multi-week break could be important. If Chicago comes out fully healthy, that’s a huge advantage. But if they come out rusty, very different story.

RJ Allen: Both sides have very solid goalkeepers. I doubt a dinky goal is going to win it. Both sides are going to have to really put it out there to get a score.

Luis Hernandez: Just because Portland has kind of limped into the post season, there’s no way to discount them. I do like Chicago here. I think the Red Stars backline is stronger. The midfield is more even than I expected and the front line for Chicago has the edge. I think I’d be surprised if they were too rusty.

RJ Allen: The problem with Portland isn’t just they limped in. It’s how truly bad they look doing it. They look like a team in 7th or something.

Charles Olney: It does feel like the weakest Portland has been in quite a while. But it’s also hard to bet against that team. A vintage performance from Horan and Heath could easily tip the balance.

RJ Allen: If Horan is healthy.

Luis Hernandez: If Chicago does look poor, people will be critical on the league scheduling at the end of the year.

Charles Olney: Okay, we’ve already sort of discussed this, but what matchup for the final would people most like to see?

RJ Allen: Red Stars vs North Carolina.

Charles Olney: I’ll stick with the obvious one and also say North Carolina v. Chicago. The two best teams over the season, who match up really well against each other. And a chance for Sam Kerr to finally show what she’s got in the final.

Luis Hernandez: I would like to see Chicago vs Reign, but I’m expecting the Courage hosting the Red Stars at the final

RJ Allen: North Carolina playing at home vs the Red Stars I think is the best case for the league. Sam Kerr vs Lynn Williams. Two great defenses. A ton of marketable stars. And just different enough that people won’t be annoyed like another North Carolina vs Portland game.

Luis Hernandez: It may be the last game for Kerr in NWSL. That bums me out.

RJ Allen: Until Kerr posts it, I don’t buy her going away from the NWSL and W-League.

Charles Olney: Before we close out, let’s talk about the big end-of-year awards. RJ and I already wrote up our picks (in which we actually agreed right down the line):

  • MVP: Sam Kerr
  • Defender: Casey Short
  • Goalkeeper: Kailen Sheridan
  • Rookie: Bethany Balcer
  • Coach: Vlatko the Wizard

Luis, do you want to weigh in?

Luis Hernandez: Well, sure.

Charles Olney: And you are contractually obligated to disagree with us. Make your case!

Luis Hernandez: MVP: Sam Kerr – Yet another Golden Boot for her even when she left for the World Cup. Came back and continued to push the Red Stars to wins.

Defender: Casey Short – Personally, I’m favoring a player that’s been here the full year. Yeah, maybe she didn’t start on the right foot, but she got better as the season went on. Plus two goals, one a game winner in Orlando. I think she deserves it.

Goalkeeper: Aubrey Bledsoe – I think Bledsoe is so consistent that she gets overlooked. Nine clean sheets.

Rookie: Bethany Balcer – I think everyone had Balcer’s name penned in for this award and I wanted to pick someone else but I’m talking myself on Balcer. She had the better year. Goals get awards.

Coach: Vlatko. He managed to stitch a team together where others more than likely would have fallen short.

RJ Allen: One final thought before we go: can we all agree the NWSL needs more awards?

Charles Olney: I actually disagree. The NWSL already suffers from award inflation with all the player of the week/month, goals/saves of the week, etc.

RJ Allen: Newcomer of the Year, 12th Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year. Give me all the awards.

I want there to be an NWSL awards dinner like Orlando does.

Charles Olney: Okay, that does sound fun.

RJ Allen: See, I knew you’d come around. Sonnett and Kling can host.

Arsenal Blocks U.S. From Speaking with Montemurro

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The United States Women’s National Team is undergoing the unenviable task of replacing two-time World Cup winner Jill Ellis and are being blocked from speaking to one of their top candidates, Arsenal Women’s head coach Joe Montemurro, according to ESPN.

The 50-year-old Australian coach has elevated the North London club to the league title in the 2018-19 campaign and has expressed interest in taking over the top ranked national team in the world. However, the club are not willing to part with the coach as they look to solidify their dominance in the FA Women’s Super League.

Ellis, the U.S. national team’s current coach, is finishing up her tenure with a Victory Tour which has seen the club playing a series of friendlies around the country to capitalize on the success of the World Cup. US Soccer would love to have the vacant role filled before she departs and Montemurro is high on the list of possibilities. 

The other aspect is the current state of the FA Women’s Super League in England. Currently the league is the only fully professional women’s football league in Europe and has attempted to capitalize on the World Cup success in a similar fashion to the United States. With the promotion of Manchester United, most of the major men’s clubs are not represented on the women’s side and ready to make waves at the club level. Holding on to Montemurro is perhaps key to that success.

Arsenal won their first three games over Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United. They have also defeated Fiorentina in Champions League Round of 32 and are the favorite in nearly every competition they face this season.

Kristen Hamilton Is Not Throwing Away Her Shot

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Not many people have quite the auspicious start to their professional career like Hamilton. Orphaned as a child in the Caribbean – wait wrong Hamilton.

Let me start over.

Her name is Kristen Hamilton and just like her team, she’s lean, mean with high esteem.

Hamilton was a star forward at University of Denver, starting almost every game. She earned a number of accolades, including NSCAA First Team All-American, Summit League Offensive Player of the Year and a MAC Hermann Semifinalist. She left Denver as the all-time leader in goals with a staggering 51. She entered the 2014 NWSL draft and was picked dead last by the Flash, but you know what they say.

In New York, you can be a new woman.

Hamilton didn’t have the smooth start to her professional career that she hoped. In a preseason game in March, she tore her ACL and MCL, beginning the first of a series of setbacks. Tearing your ACL is almost every athlete’s worse nightmare. You can either make a full recovery or fall short and have to make some serious decisions you weren’t prepared for. In interview given to the YouTube channel ‘theACLclub’ in 2016, Hamilton talks about her injury and what her recovery process was like, mentioning how the hardest part was not being able to walk six weeks before and after her surgery.

In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet. And in that quiet, Hamilton found the strength to go through her recovery, trusting the process and her faith in God. She made a full recovery, impressing Flash Head Coach Aaran Lines, who was all too happy to have Hamilton back on the squad. She would come on as a sub in extra time during the 2016 NWSL Championship and exit as a Champion.

Hard work and determination – they get the job done.

After working her back up to full fitness and biding her time on the bench, Hamilton would get her first start in June 2017 against the Boston Breaker. With both Lynn Williams and Jess McDonald out due to injury, new head coach Paul Riley had to pick a new right-hand man. Looking over his bench, thinking to himself he needed someone who would know what to do in the trench, someone who had such resilience and would match his tactical brilliance. And who better…. than Kristen Hamilton.

Hamilton stepped onto the pitch and scored a brace within 13 minutes. The first of many. Though she would continue to be a super sub, she would get another chance and replace the injured Debinha in the 2017 NWSL Semifinal game. She earned the start for the following Championship game before facing yet another setback in the form of an injury in the 39thminute. It was reported to be an MCL tear, something she know had experience in.

Playing her way out of her injury, Hamilton would have a quiet 2018, starting 8 games and super subbing for 15. She would sub on in the second of the NWSL final, gaining another Championship ring.

But in 2019, Kristen Hamilton would finally rise above her station. With the World Cup about to begin, she wouldn’t take a break or say no to this. Knowing that Jess McDonald would be gone, and Williams needed a strike partner, Hamilton was not throwing away her shot.

June would prove to be HER month as she piled the pain on the Orlando Pride and scored her first hat trick. Even though it hurt to watch Hamilton dismantle my team single handily, it was hard to deny how beautiful her goals were. A month later in July, Hamilton tied an NWSL record and scored four goals against the Houston Dash.

Man, the woman is nonstop.

As the World Cup raged on, Kristen Hamilton began collecting NWSL awards, winning Player of the Week three games in seven games. At the end of July, she was named Player of the Month after the way she destroyed Houston’s will to live and scored a breathtaking half volley against Utah.

Hamilton is now a powerhouse player in her own right, showing the world just who is she and overcoming injury after injury. As it stands right now, Hamilton has 8 goals, 3 assists and 17 shots on goal.

And now, a very well deserved spot on the senior squad for their friendly against Portugal. Granted it is only because of injuries, but even still… history now has its eye on her. 

Hamilton is truly a dynamic player to watch. The way she’s able to get behind any backline, outplay any defender and stay with the ball is a site to behold. Hamilton is one of those rare players who actually stay with a play and find a way to score, when some other forwards to give up. And not only can she score, but she’s a team player in every sense of the word, setting her teammates up and creating chance after chance to secure the win.

Kristen Hamilton may not have had the greatest start as a professional soccer player, but she never backed down, she took her time and believe it or not, there’s a million things she hasn’t done.

Just you wait  

The Fans of Women’s Soccer: the Diehard, the Casual and the Social

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I spend a lot of time thinking about women’s soccer. It’s part of the job when you are someone who writes about women’s soccer.

I think about fans and the community around women’s soccer a lot too. It’s a community that is as diverse as it is dedicated. As adaptable as it is aggressive in its willingness to proselytize the good world of women’s soccer.

Women’s soccer and its fans have struggled during modern history due to a delightfully toxic mix of negligence from those charged with growing the game and being ignored by those who have the ability to invest in the teams that make up different leagues around the world or national teams. To be very clear the game has not struggled because the players are poor at playing soccer or because people have an inherent disinterest in women’s sports.

Fans have been pushed off and pushed away because of lack of access or lack of care taken with treating them with any kind of respect. And the ones who have survived that shuttering of fans have been left with the memory of a bitter taste in their mouth.

There are flavors of fan in women’s soccer like there are for just about any sport. We talk often in the extremes when it comes to fans or we talk about the most passionate fans without talking about the others. We hold up and praise the diehards, we often bash the casual fans for not being diehards and we disparage the social media fans as not being good enough.

When we talk about women’s soccer fans as a whole we talk about how they are rabid. Ever hungry for more. More access to games, more access to merchandise, more access to the sport they love, more devoted to the players whose jerseys they wear – if and when they can find them, and if they come in their size – on their backs.  And honestly all women’s soccer fans share a hunger for more. Because over and over we have seen if you give women’s soccer fans even an inch they will pay you for the suggestion and one day there will be a foot. And, if you give them a foot, they will prepay for the full mile for themselves and all of their friends. They will fly across the world for the national teams they love, they will spend hours on public transport getting to games, they will go above and beyond for the sport and the players.

But there are limits. The very first pro women’s soccer game played in the US after the USWNT played in and won the World Cup in France saw just over 1,800 fans show up. And while the two-win Sky Blue FC and the somewhat boring Utah Royals FC are not the marquee showpieces for the league right now, it does sum up the limits of the fan base. A fan base that cares about the quality of organizations, and has a long memory when they have been mistreated or forsaken. But they also have an endless willingness to forgive, to show up, to support teams and players if just the bare minimum is shown in terms of effort.

If you boil the fans of women’s soccer down as far as you can get you can find three general forms left. The diehards are the type that can tell you who scored in the third place game for the USWNT back in 1995 or the play leading up to Tobin Heath’s free kick in the 2013 NWSL Championship game. The casuals usually can tell you the current happenings in the sport, but may stumble on the history or push the sport aside as life gets in the way. The social fan – nope, I refuse to use “stan” here even if you are all thinking it – says Megan Rapinoe is their favorite person in the media right now, have a shirt with her face on it and think her goals in the World Cup were amazing but it’s a love that is as fleeting as a viral video.

The social fans can turn in to casual fans and the casuals to diehards if they are given a chance. If they are given a reason to go from supporting just the national team, which has been around for 30 plus years, to supporting an NWSL team that may or may not be there in five years or three years or even next year. It is easier to invest your time, your social media posts, or money for a jersey or a ticket into a player like Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe because the USWNT isn’t going anywhere. The national team might break your heart, but it isn’t being disbanded anytime soon. And fans can shift between all of these stages from time to time. Pushed away by overzealous diehards or pulled in by the ones that understand how to speak their language so to speak. There are other types of fans, shades that bleed from one color to another like the lines between red and orange and yellow bleed together on a canvas.

Right now women’s soccer in the US, and really around the world, is at a crossroads in terms of how they draw people in. Not just the diehard fans and not just the social fans, but how do teams draw in the mass of casual fans and get them to give a damn long term? How do you turn someone who has a general idea of what is going on and make them passionate a year from now, five years from now when there are so many others sports and so much other entertainment in the world?

That is the billion dollar question, right? The men’s side has figured that out by and large around the world. They have multi billion dollar clubs. They have transfer fees that make MLB contracts look like chump change. They have full stadiums and professional accommodations.

The answer to all of this might be as simple as investment spent to raise the tides and to lift all the boats up. It likely is more complex than that as oversight and accountability have to come into play after all the negligence we’ve seen over the years has rotted the core in places.

The biggest asset that women’s soccer has right now is the players who play the sport, but the second is the fans who will be there in one form or another as long as there are balls to kick into nets and defenders trying their hardest to stop that from happening. The fans have shown in one form or another they will show up, show out, retweet, talk about and be there when the Yanks come marching in or the Riveters march to Providence Park. Given half of a half of a chance they always will.

Christen Press and Rose Lavelle Pull Up a Barstool and That’s Not Great

Posted on by Backline Soccer

Women’s soccer is funny sometimes. There are funny things that happen in and around women’s soccer (or women’s sport in general) that are odd when you compare them to men’s sports.

Women are often scrutinized for the things they chose to do on a level that is comical at best and deeply unfair at worst. Megan Rapinoe swears and we must think of the children, but if LeBron James then he’s just being passionate. Alex Morgan sips tea after scoring it is arrogant, but look at any NFL game and you will see nut grabbing and planned celebrations nearly every touchdown or sack. 

Things like Rapinoe and Morgan celebrating publicly and proudly are harmless. Even if we must think of the children, and we so often are told we must in women’s sports, at the end of the day these players have no more a duty to think of the children as Charles Barkley did in 1993. If little Timmy or Susie hears Rapinoe drop an F-Bomb or see’s Morgan sipping some tea, they will be fine. I promise you a life of crime does not lay ahead for anyone seeing what Rapinoe and Morgan have done.

It is a problem though when a women’s soccer player does a gross thing. Because we’re so often called on to defend the silly or the meaningless or to think of the children when they do step over the line we don’t always want to point out the gross thing they have done.  The same people who would, rightly, defend Morgan’s celebration or Rapinoe swearing may not know how to react. The problem is in the case of the gross things, they shouldn’t defend the players even if it feels like the Rapinoe and the Morgan thing all over again. 

And that brings us to Christen Press and Rose Lavelle.

Christen Press promoted Barstools brand during the parade in New York City during her Instagram takeover just days after they won it all sends people to the Barstool social media. People who had either never heard of the company or who wouldn’t have followed them before did. It grew their brand.

Rose Lavelle went on their Pardon My Take podcast to “talk about the World Cup, how soccer works, Cincinnati and scoring mad goals” according to Barstool. People who were searching for Lavelle or the USWNT or anything to do with the World Cup may have found and tuned in. They may go back for more episodes. 

The debate about the differences in impact of taking over an Instagram for an hour and being on an episode of a podcast is not one I am interested in having. If you want to say taking over an Instagram is worse, sure, go for it. If you want to say being on a podcast and interacting directly with people who work for the site is worse, fine by me. In the end both are bad. Because Barstool Sports is terrible. And don’t take my word for how bad Barstool Sports is, check out Stop Enabling Barstool’s Shit and Inside Barstool Sports’ Culture of Online Hate: ‘They Treat Sexual Harassment and Cyberbullying as a Game’ if you want a taste of why they are terrible. 

We put more pressure on the USWNT to get things right more than most other female athletes and most female athletes have pressure on them to get things right more than most male athletes. We expect more from them in terms of being role models and giving the perfect quote, the perfect sound bite, the perfect performance in their public lives. It’s not fair to them. It is 100% not fair at all.But they also shouldn’t get passes when they do gross stuff because some men do it too. 

Press and Lavelle working with Barstool Sports is very bad, horrible, no good. There is no way to spin it in a way that it becomes somehow neutral, let alone positive. I want to be clear that we don’t fully know if it was Christen Press or her team or Rose Lavelle or hers that reached out to Barstool or if Barstool reached out to them. USWNT Press Officer On Christen Press’s Barstool Sports Partnership: “Something Seems Amiss!” shows how unclear it all is. But at the end of the day even if the players knew nothing about the site they were connection themselves with, their names are now linked when someone Googles their name. At the end of the day, team or player, the player’s name is the one that is out there.

Women and women of color have a lot of pressure put on them that isn’t fair. But I do not think it is unreasonable to expect them to not work with and promote sites that actively harm and harass others while wrapping what they do is a goof and just for fun. I get the urge from their fans to defend them the way they often have to defend female athletes just being themselves. But working with companies that don’t gleefully harass women isn’t unfair pressure, it is basic respect. 

I’m disappointed in Press and Lavelle as someone who supports the USWNT and who believes in the calls for equal pay and equality the team has been pushing for years at this point. I don’t expect everyone on the team to be Rapinoe or Ali Krieger when it comes to politics but I do expect more than endorsement of sites like Barstool Sports. 

I really do hope they figure out what they did sucks, honestly tell us they are sorry and they do things that suck less in the future. 

Carli Lloyd Unsure of Future

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Amidst the celebration of yet another World Cup victory, US Women’s National team star Carli Lloyd may have given some insight into a potential retirement. She still feels like she is at the top of her game, but sounded displeased by the view of her as being more of a substitute. 

“It’s been a really tough couple of years,” said Lloyd. “It’s not based on my ability and for whatever reasons, coaches made the decision. I tried to put up a good case (to play).”

Lloyd did play a role in the 2019 World Cup victory but it was as a super-substitute off the bench. In all, the former FIFA Women’s Player of the Year only started in one game, a group stage meeting against Chile. She scored twice in that game but was unable to crack the starting line-up for the remainder of the tournament.

Overall, the Women’s National team was stacked with talent unlike ever before. Lloyd’s contributions are certainly not undervalued, but head coach Jill Ellis may not see her as a long term part of the team and played her in that way over the course of this tournament.

Lloyd turns 37 next week but hasn’t shown a significant dip in production. Her efforts with Sky Blue can be attributed to the team’s on and off-field issues but she has produced on the international stage. She has scored three goals despite not being a starter thus far in 2019 and does have hopes of playing in the Olympics next year.

 “I’m going to go home, I’m going to kind of let the emotions die down a little bit, speak to my husband and we’ll go from there.”

While her future may be in doubt, she did express her happiness about the team’s performance in France. She has been a part of two World Cup teams and been a major face for women’s soccer.

“The goal was winning,” said Lloyd. “I’m really proud of this team and proud to be on this roster of 23 players to win another World Cup.”

The World Cup is Over. Come Watch the NWSL!

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The World Cup is a wonderful event. Once every four years, the whole world collectively watches the best players in the world compete. We watch their triumphs and their failures. And we share it with millions of others all watching together. There is nothing that can replicate that kind of communal experience.

But there’s actually something even better out there: club soccer.

It hasn’t always been true. For most of the history of women’s soccer, ‘clubs’ barely existed at all. They were amateur organizations at best, literally nonexistent at worst. That all changed in the United States in the early 2000s with the arrival of the Women’s United Soccer Association. For three shining years, the biggest stars in the world all played in America. But then the league folded. Things started up again in 2007 with Women’s Professional Soccer. Which also lasted for three years before folding.

So expectations were suitably low when the National Women’s Soccer League started up in 2013. But it has now outlasted the other two leagues combined, and is going strong.

The World Cup comes every four years, but the NWSL is here every week, and the quality is every bit as high as what you’ve been watching at the World Cup. It features all the very best American players, along with many other top players from across the world. Its teams draw big numbers—with Portland the shining jewel bringing in over 16,000 fans per game. The league just signed a sponsorship deal with Budweiser, and reportedly has more deals coming. That influx of cash will help them stabilize and develop. They also just signed a TV deal with ESPN, which will make the league more accessible to casual fans. And those fans will be primed to go, thanks to all the excitement over the World Cup.

And they’re going to get a great show. In terms of talent on the pitch, this is maybe the best league in the world. But for too long, these world class players have been surrounded by a league run on a shoestring budget—under-capitalized, under-marketed, under-supported. But that’s ready to change and you can be a part of it.

Here are five reasons why you should be pumped to watch the NWSL.

The players are world class

Every single player competing for the US in the World Cup plays in the NWSL. If you’ve been enjoying Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, and Tobin Heath…they all play every week. Not to mention some incredible players who have barely seen minutes, like Jess McDonald, Mallory Pugh, and Morgan Brian.

But this is a truly international league. The NWSL also features Sam Kerr, maybe the best player in the world. And Marta, maybe the best player of all time. Christine Sinclair, who is also in that conversation for GOAT. Debinha, the rising star for Brazil. Abby Erceg from New Zealand. Caitlin Foord, Steph Catley, and Ellie Carpenter from Australia. Yuki Nagasato from Japan. Rachel Daly and Jodie Taylor from England. Raquel Rodríguez from Costa Rica. And these are only a few of the names.

From top to bottom, this is the deepest, highest-quality league in the world. Turn on any random game, and you’re likely to see a genuine superstar, and plenty more players close to that level.

The talent pool is deep

Skim off all fifty-odd players that went to the World Cup, and you’ve still got an incredibly deep pool of talent. That’s a feature of a US developmental structure that generates tens of thousands of high-level players per year, hundreds of whom reach the end of their college careers with the plausible talent to play professionally. It produces a league full of players who have contributed years of high-level performances completely outside of the national team.

If you like Rose Lavelle, you’ll also love Vanessa DiBernardo, who plays for Chicago. Been enjoying Alex Morgan? Check out Lynn Williams on North Carolina. Or Kristen Hamilton, who just scored four goals last night. Or you might just remember Amy Rodriguez, who has been banging them in for Utah. Love Julie Ertz? Take a look at McCall Zerboni. Big fan of Sam Mewis? Andi Sullivan is right there with her. There’s Midge Purce, who’s been on a scoring tear. And Simone Charley who had to fight like mad to make it onto the field, and then delivered the goods when she got there. Like defenders? Take a look at Megan Oyster for Seattle or Amber Brooks for Houston.

Every one of these players has her own story, each of which is worth digging into. Think about how fun it has been to learn the backstories of the US national team players. Then multiply that by ten. 

The league is balanced

In many leagues around the world, the talent is highly concentrated, leaving just a couple teams at the top competing with one another and running roughshod over everyone else. The NWSL isn’t like that. There certainly are better and worse teams—but just look at the table right now. Five teams are within four points at the top, with two more in touching distance.

And it’s not only about the teams at the top. Just last night, the two bottom teams in the league—Orlando Pride and Sky Blue FC—each managed wins over teams far above them in the table.

That’s the way this league goes. Every single game is a battle. There are no pushovers, no easy points. It’s part of why so many prominent international players choose to come here—because they know they’ll be tested in a way that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. 

From a fan’s perspective, it’s also great. It means every game is tense. There might be a favorite and an underdog, but until the game is actually played you can never know if it will hold to form. It’s thrilling stuff, which is setting up to be one for the ages.

The fans are the best

There is something joyful and communal about following this league, even more than following international soccer–where allegiances always carry that weird tinge of nationalism. In the NWSL, there are obviously still fans of given teams, and certainly rivalries–as you would hope for in any good league. But there is a sense of togetherness as well. People are all rooting for each other, because we all know how fragile these things can be.

It can sometimes be daunting to jump into a new hobby or interest. Where do you begin? How do you get up to speed? Will the people who have already been there a long time be welcoming?

The NWSL community does a whole lot to ease those worries. Show up to a game, reach out on twitter, and you’ll get dozens, hundreds of folks who will be thrilled to welcome you in. Who will be happy to share inside jokes and explain references. Who will love nothing more than to share the history of their team, talk about favorite players, or anything else you’d care to discuss.

The NWSL is diverse, in all the best ways

The sports landscape is not especially welcoming to those who fall outside the traditional trope of the sports fan. It can feel alienating for those who aren’t in love with white, hetero, masculine tropes that dominate the sporting world.

The NWSL is a good home for anyone who feels that way. Which certainly doesn’t mean that it’s not a sports league. Despite the best efforts of many involved in marketing the league, this is not simply a home for young girls and their parents. It’s still a fun and raucous place. It’s just that the fun comes from a much wider range of sources.

Look at the crowd at an NWSL game and you’ll see queer people, trans people, men, women, children, people of all colors. And you’ll see supporters groups that work very hard to blend all these elements together to produce an inclusive, exciting environment which is genuinely fun for everyone.

There are very few places like this in our culture. Far too many of our social spaces are controlled by those who are loaded up with cultural advantage. Even if they try to be open and inclusive, the whole structure is still defined by white, male, cishet standards. But come to an NWSL game and you’ll experience what it’s like when those standards aren’t just taken for granted. It’s wonderful.

If you’ve been enjoying the authenticity of players like Megan Rapinoe, who express themselves in thoughtful and considered ways about complicated and important subjects, it’s worth seriously thinking about what kinds of structures make it possible for that sort of engagement. To think about what a difference it makes when many prominent players are queer. When many members of the media are people of color, women, gay, trans, etc. When many of the fans are as well. It all creates a support structure in which people can think about new ways to perform, discuss, and appreciate sports.

The culture of the NWSL–along with leagues like the WNBA and NWHL–is bringing something new and important to the sports landscape of this country. It’s a place where competition doesn’t have to mean abuse. Where tension and passion can flourish without having to be accompanied by exclusion. Where compassion adds to the thrill of victory and tempers the pain of loss.

How to watch

If you live anywhere near one of the markets, go and see a match live. Soccer is so much better in person. But if you’re not near a stadium, the league just announced a TV deal with ESPN, which will air 14 matches on ESPNEWS and ESPN2 over the rest of the season. If you don’t have those in your cable package, you might be able to get them through a streaming service like Sling or YoutubeTV, or you can simply pay for the ESPN+ service.

With matches on TV, you can also stop by your favorite local watering hole and ask them to put the game on. There’s no better way to find other fans and make new friends.

If none of those sound appealing, every other game streams for free at Yahoo Sports or on the Yahoo Sports App. If you live outside the US (or know how to convince your computer that you’re outside the US) you can also stream the games directly from nwslsoccer.com.

The national team players are expected to take a week or two after the conclusion of the World Cup to rejoin their teams. So if you’re excited for their return, you can target the games at the end of July. But every team in the league has plenty of exciting players, even without their US national teamers, so don’t worry too much about it. 

Reign FC and the North Carolina Courage – 1st and 2nd in the league at the moment – meet on Saturday, July 14. It’s going to be a great game, and you should check it out.

USA v. Netherlands: Four Questions for the Final

Posted on by Backline Soccer

The big one is finally here. The United States enter this match on an 11-game winning streak in the competition, which goes all the way back to the group stage in 2015. One more win here and they will win their fourth World Cup.

According to the bookies, that is overwhelmingly likely, with the US favored at around 80% to take home the title. I’m inclined to agree. But 80% isn’t 100%, so let’s talk through a couple of the key variables worth considering while we wait.

Will Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle start?

Rapinoe was held back from the semifinal with a hamstring strain, while Lavelle had to be removed after an hour with the same injury. Both have been training in the run-up to the final, and are at least theoretically available. But will they be 100%? And if they’re anything less than that, will they start anyway?

In the case of Rapinoe, the US has a more-than-able backup in Christen Press. In fact, as I argued after the England match, Press is almost certainly a better option right now, even setting aside injury concerns. It would be hard to sit Rapinoe—who has been the biggest story of the tournament. But the reality is that, goals notwithstanding, she hasn’t actually played that well. And Press is in the best form of her life.

With Lavelle, there isn’t an obvious replacement, with no other players on the US roster really capable of creating the same way that she can (Crystal Dunn is the exception here, but that ship has long since sailed). However, it’s not clear that the US needs a player in Lavelle’s mold in this game. The more muscular and mobile trio of Ertz, Horan, and Mewis might be best-suited for throttling the Dutch midfield, and ensuring the US keeps a tight hold on the game.

In both cases, the US has a range of options. Even with no injury concerns, you could make a decent case for resting them both. And with the injuries, the argument gets stronger. But, in general, Jill Ellis has a preference for sticking with her best XI, so I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if both Rapinoe and Lavelle start.

Will the US play sloppy, and can the Dutch make them pay?

The US have won every game so far, but have also been pretty sloppy in the process. A mistake from Alyssa Naeher almost gifted Chile a goal. Some extremely questionable defending against Sweden could easily have conceded a goal. Spain, France, and England all had excellent chances to find an equalizer or winner in their knockout matches.

In every case, the US has had enough to hold off the opposition. But these have not been blowouts. They’ve generally been lucky that their defensive breakdowns have been relatively contained. A big part of that has been the oft-maligned Abby Dahlkemper, who is quietly having her best run of games in a national team kit. But the US have been playing with fire. And, at least in theory, this Dutch team has the potential to ruthlessly exploit the kind of gaps that the US has been allowing.

Will the 2017 Netherlands ever show up?   

In 2017, the Dutch were a revelation. They raced to a European title, obliterating every opponent that came their way. They were particularly devastating against teams that expected to control the game. Given space to work, the wide attackers were relentless. Opponents simply couldn’t cope with the quickness of play and repeatedly found themselves overwhelmed.

Over the next two years, though, the Dutch showed relatively little of that prowess. They struggled to qualify, having to go through the playoffs. And even here, with six wins out of six, they have never really turned up. They’ve made the final, which is a huge accomplishment, but compare the route the US have taken (Spain, France, England) to the Netherlands path (Japan, Italy, Sweden). The gap is enormous. And then remember that the Dutch were thoroughly outplayed by Japan and only managed to scrape through on a 2019 Handball Special.

Most of the problem has come from the frontline: Lieke Martens has been bad, and Shanice van de Sanden has been worse. Vivianne Miedema has done just enough to keep them going, but has only really had one excellent game (against Cameroon). The substitutes have played well in limited minutes, but shown little when given more of a chance to make their mark.

The midfield haven’t controlled games to the extent they would like, but have done enough to keep them in every match. The problem there is that Spitse, Van de Donk, and Groenen have played 1651 of a possible 1710 minutes over their first six games. They’ll need to get 100% performances from all three in this match, and it’s hard to see that happening under the hot midday sun, on no rest, at the end of a long tournament.

So on the evidence of the last month, this game should be a fairly easy win for the US. But we know what the Dutch are theoretically capable of producing. If they can put it all back together, this could be a lot tougher for the US than expected. I wouldn’t bet on it, but you certainly can’t rule it out entirely.

How do you mime eating a stroopwafel?

I certainly don’t know, but we’ll probably get to find out!

Rapinoe on WC Pay Disparity: “Certainly Not Fair”

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US Women’s World Cup star Megan Rapinoe did not hold back on Saturday when she fielded questions about the increase in World Cup prize pay disparity that is set to happen between the men’s and women’s game in 2021. 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino wants to double the prize money for the top international competition in women’s soccer to $60 million. While on the outside this may look like progress, the men’s World Cup scheduled for Qatar in two years will see an increase in prize money to $440 million. The disparity will increase by an astounding $380 million. 

“It certainly is not fair,” said Rapinoe when asked by the press. “We should double it now and then use that number to double it or quadruple it for the next time.”

Rapinoe has been on the front line during this World Cup and in recent years as the women’s game looks for major support from big money backers and federations. She has vocally criticized FIFA and US Soccer for their shortcomings both domestically and internationally. The money issue is one that brings many of the complaints to the forefront.

“That is what I mean when we talk about: ‘Do we feel respected?’ Earlier in the year, a quote came out where I said FIFA doesn’t care about the women’s game. That’s what I mean. If you really care about each game in the same way, are you letting the gap grow.”

In recent years the fight for support from FIFA has been a strain. Just four years ago the fight to have games played on actual grass was an issue that the men’s World Cup would never need to concern themselves with. Now, it is a fight for respect when ratings, ticket sales and eyeballs have increased far more on the US Women’s team than with the men.

“I’m not saying that the prize money is $450 million this time or next time around. I understand that for a lot of different reasons the men’s game, financially, is far more advanced than the women’s game but if you really care, you’re letting the gap grow?”

Thus far the off-the-field battle for their place in the sporting world hasn’t affected the on-the-field product. Tomorrow the US Women’s National Team goes for their fourth World Cup championship and their second in a row against Netherlands. Thus far they have impressively dispatched Spain, France and England in the knockout stages and are heavy favorites against the Netherlands.