How did the US Women's Soccer team become the best in the world?
With the Women’s World Cup in full swing, how is it that the U.S. National Team became the most dominant force in the cup in a country that doesn’t care for soccer?
With the Women’s World Cup in full swing, how is it that the U.S. National Team became the most dominant force in the cup in a country that doesn’t care for soccer?
With the Women’s World Cup in full swing, how is it that the U.S. National Team became the most dominant force in the cup in a country that doesn’t care for soccer?
The U.S. women’s soccer team is without a doubt considered the best in the world. They have won four World Cup titles, four Olympic gold medals and have never come lower than third place in a World Cup. Although worldwide soccer has around 3.5 billion fans, in the U.S., American football is the sport of choice. How did the USWNT rise to power in a country that prefers another sport?
Early days of women’s soccer
The FIFA Women’s World Cup is a relatively new phenomenon, with the first official tournament being held in 1991. Before its establishment, women had to fight for the right to play soccer, with the sport being banned for women in Germany and Brazil up until the 1970s. This World Cup is only the ninth ever, whilst the men have had 22 tournaments. When the cup was finally officialized, women still faced massive challenges. The matches were 10 minutes shorter than the men’s, for fear that women couldn’t keep up with the physical demands of the game. When playing internationally, the players were only paid $15 a day and often had to share transportation to the games with their competitors.
Why is the U.S. team so dominant?
Despite the challenges, the players' determination, prowess and talent have made soccer the most popular women’s sport in the world. The US team is massively dominant too, ranked number one in the world.
One of the main reasons for the team’s success is the implementation of Title IX in 1972, the law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs. If anything demonstrates the positive impact Title IX had on women’s sports programs, it’s the change in high school girls participating in soccer. In 1971, only 700 girls across the nation played high school soccer. By 1991, that number had jumped 17,000% to 120,000. Currently, over 370,000 girls play high school soccer. This boom in women’s soccer increased the talent pool for players and encouraged more programs at a university level and beyond to invest in women.
Whilst Title IX was implemented in the U.S., other countries were still actively repressing women’s soccer, banning it or discouraging women from playing. More nations worldwide have begun to invest in their female teams, but sexism and gender stereotypes still hold many of them back.
2023 World Cup
This year’s world cup is hosted by Australia and New Zealand. FIFA is aiming to break records for viewership and ticket sales. The 2019 Women’s World Cup was viewed by over 1 billion people, and this year FIFA wants to break the 2 billion mark. The hope is that more viewers can bring more sponsorship and money into the sport as well as highlight challenges that women still face, like pay parity and systemic abuse. We can only hope that Team USA brings home yet another trophy.