Hats off to the USWNT

[Snapolit1]

Why is it that we can field the best women's team in the world for a number of years, yet the men suck? Any theories out there? I suspect many more men have been playing soccer in the US for more years than girls/women.

[drcy]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Why is it that we can field the best women's team in the world for a number of years, yet the men suck? Any theories out there? I suspect many more men have been playing soccer in the US for more years than girls/women.

In many soccer-dominant countries, women weren't traditionally allowed or encouraged to play soccer because it was a 'man's sport.' That philosophy/sentiment hasn't existed in the United States.

That American women do so well in many sports internationally is a social commentary on our country-- and is an argument that counters the recent 'U.S. as relatively (I said relatively not absolutely) regressive towards women' arguments of some. It also helps, that we're a large country (third largest population).

[packs]

Someone mentioned the level of competition earlier, but I think it's actually a good point in a different light. I just don't think there is any major competition among the men in this country when it comes to soccer. I think women are much more competitive soccer players and that's why their team is made of up of higher caliber players that are able to compete globally. We don't have a large enough talent pool of men playing the sport to truly create a best of the best type of team, like say Brazil is able to do so often.

[oldjudge]

Soccer is a major sport for girls in high school. For boys, soccer is a secondary sport.

[prewarsports]

A couple thoughts.

Why does everyone feel the need to immediately jump from the womens team to bashing on the men? Just celebrate the women, they deserve it.

I think people are being way too hard on the men's team. We were one of the last developed countries to start taking soccer seriously and compared to others that live and breath soccer (like England) we have fared just as good or better than most other nations. It was not until 1994 that mens soccer even really existed in the United States and if you look at our record since then, we have done just fine and are trending upwards. We just played for a gold cup on the same night as the women, played very well against a dominant Mexico team and are trending up in the sport with one of the youngest national teams.

You cant take our population as a whole in the mens game, because we divide up our athletic talent among so many other sports. Assume football and basketball dont exist and ALL our young boys play is soccer. Who knows how good athletes like Lebron James or Odell Beckham would have been at soccer if that is all they did. In these other countries that is the case. Despite what some people are saying on here, we are not even CLOSE to the laughing stock of the soccer world. We also have some really good young talent as the game starts to develop here in the U.S. and I would not be surprised if we made it to a World Cup final or even won it in my lifetime (next 40 years).

As for the women, I applaud their success and think it was great they won. Anything that is good for the game of soccer in the United States is great.

If they played the mens team and they tried their best for 90 minutes, Vegas would have to set the line at 20-0 or more. Not a disrespectful statement, just the flat out truth.

Congrats to the women, it is awesome that they are so dominant. I just can not understand why every statement anyone makes about the women has to turn into mens team bashing.

[Exhibitman]

Nevermind the other stuff; that was a very exciting tournament and a great final. My whole family got up early Sunday morning to watch. I picked up this Rapinoe Panini sticker earlier last week:



Sometimes an athlete emerges as the undisputed finest in the world; Rapinoe won the Golden Shoe and the Golden Ball in the 2019 World Cup, so she is indisputably the best woman 'footballer' in the world. Happy to add her to my modest soccer collection.

[ALR-bishop]

I went to college in the late 60s and early 70s at SLU. In the 60s and 70s SLU was as dominant in soccer as UCLA was in basketball. National Champions in 59, 60, 62. 63, 65, 67, 69,70, 72 and 73. All with local players. Then other colleges began recruiting foreign players. They have never been a power since

I enjoy watching the women's team play. As for pay, my view is it should be tied to revenue generated not success on the field.

[MULLINS5]

I thought this was about playing for and representing your country rather than making gobs more money than they're making now.

From my understanding, the women players make a higher percentage than men, but ends up in less dollars because men's soccer brings in 45X more revenue than women.

It's like WNBA vs NBA salary. The average starting salary for a WNBA player is $75k vs $850k for NBA.

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by MULLINS5

I thought this was about playing for and representing your country rather than making gobs more money than they're making now.

From my understanding, the women players make a higher percentage than men, but ends up in less dollars because men's soccer brings in 45X more revenue than women.

It's like WNBA vs NBA salary. The average starting salary for a WNBA player is $75k vs $850k for NBA.

Patrick--Actually, it is worse in the WNBA. The rookie starting salary is under $40,000 and the max salary is about $117,000. That is why the WNBA season is the offseason for most of the stars. They make a lot more money playing in Russia and China.
Again, the revenue comes into U.S. men's soccer because people want to see the teams we play, not us. If you paid the men the same as the women you probably wouldn't lose one men's player, and even if you did it wouldn't impact the W-L record.

[oldjudge]

Rhys--As I was reminded by Leon, I think you need your name on your post.

As for the U.S. just taking men's soccer seriously, we won two medals for soccer in the 1904 Olympics. Our team is not good, it's piss poor. We got knocked out of the 2018 World Cup by Trinidad and Tobago, a team that had lost seven games in a row. I don't know what their training facilities are like but I don't think they rival ours. We have several hundred times more people than they do. The truth is that very few people in this country care about men's soccer and if they do it is as fans of various foreign professional teams. We don't have to compete in every sport. We should just admit that as a country we don't care about men's soccer and direct the funding to sports we do care about.


"If they played the mens team and they tried their best for 90 minutes, Vegas would have to set the line at 20-0 or more. Not a disrespectful statement, just the flat out truth."

We both know this is an incredibly stupid comparison. There are physical differences which do not allow woman to match men in speed or strength. The relevant comparison is how they perform relative to their peers and here the women win and the men lose.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

As for the U.S. just taking men's soccer seriously, we won two medals for soccer in the 1904 Olympics.

Umm... 1904 was mostly a sideshow for the worlds fair, most of the competitors were from the US.

In Soccer, yes, we earned two medals.
Silver and bronze, in a field that had at total of three teams.....

Canada represented by Galt F.C. won 7-0 and 4-0 over Christian Brothers College and St. Rose Parrish.

St. Rose "won" the Bronze by going 0-2 and scoring no goals.