While the USWNT's Round of 16 exit from the Women's World Cup showed other national teams have closed the gap, the Americans have been “losing ground at the younger levels, too," according to John Powers of the BOSTON GLOBE. The U-20 team, which claimed three of the first six world championships, “hasn’t won since 2012 and hasn’t made it out of their group at the last two tournaments.” The U-17 team, which “never has won a global crown, hasn’t earned a medal since 2008, was last in its group in 2018.” The U.S. “once set the gold standard for the women’s game," but now is “scrambling to stay competitive as its development model appears outdated.” While Title IX created an “unparalleled pipeline,” it also “channeled that talent to colleges, not clubs.” The objective in youth soccer now is to “land a six-figure scholarship,” but the “rest of the world doesn’t operate that way.” In Europe, where women’s club soccer is “booming,” the "goal is to win the Champions League.” It is “telling that the U.S. team’s most dangerous player” in this World Cup -- MF Lindsey Horan -- is the “only one who performs overseas,” while everyone else plays in the NWSL. Americans playing American-style soccer against other Americans “didn’t do much for the men, the best of whom have been playing for top European clubs for years." Only nine USMNT at last year's World Cup "came from MLS teams," while nine of the 11 starters "played overseas, five of them in the English Premier League.” The drawbacks of playing domestically were "on display in the women’s Cup, where the U.S. managed only four goals in four matches” (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/7).
IN NEED OF A SOLUTION: YAHOO SPORTS’ Henry Bushnell wrote the USWNT’s early World Cup exit was an “anomaly spawned by injuries, poor coaching and poor luck,” but it was “also a wake-up call.” American defects “allowed the world to catch up,” and they “largely lie within a youth system that prices out millions of families and fails to incentivize player development.” Those defects were “once obscured by a decades-long, Title IX-fueled head start.” But in an “unchecked industry,” the “primary purpose was not to craft creative midfielders; it was to serve customers (parents) and make money.” Those incentives “hardly mattered on the international stage” while European powers “shunned women’s soccer.” But they shaped a “messy landscape where winning, marketing and recruiting are often prioritized over individual development.” U.S. Soccer could “work with major sponsors, such as Nike, to fund a reformed system.” It also could “work with the NCAA to reshape elite college soccer,” which has been “surpassed by European clubs as the world’s premier platform.” The chosen solution, for now, is “unclear,” but what is clear is that “identifying it is necessary.” Without it, the gap "won’t just close; the European powers who’ve invested in women’s soccer will invert it.” Other advantages have “also dissipated,” including the USWNT "gathering regularly and building chemistry, on and off the field.” The recent growth of women’s club soccer has “limited those gatherings” (YAHOO SPORTS, 8/7).
WINNING IN OTHER AREAS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Rachel Bachman notes a “sharp increase in tournament prize money for this tournament allowed the U.S. women to secure their biggest prize purse ever, despite not winning the title.” Their pay is “boosted even higher thanks to a unique agreement in which they share in the prize money won by” the USMNT at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Between the two, the USWNT will “receive a total of $7,312,500 in net prize money” from this 2022-23 World Cup cycle. That is the “same as the U.S. men’s team,” which also lost in the round of 16 at their World Cup. FIFA “more than tripled” the total Women’s World Cup prize pool for the 2023 tournament, to $110M from $30M in 2019. FIFA’s “designated award for reaching the knockout stage,” where the USWNT finished, is $3.25M per team. Under the U.S. women’s current labor deal with U.S. Soccer, players are “set to receive 90% of that payout,” or $2.925M while U.S. Soccer “keeps a 10% cut.” That is “more than the net $2,730,000 that U.S. players received for winning the 2019 Women’s World Cup,” where the title purse from FIFA was $4M (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/8).
