[Insert LOUD AUDIBLE SIGH here]
What a week-and-a-half stretch for women’s soccer.
It started with the distressing and infuriating revelations of systemic abuse and misconduct in the NWSL in the Sally Yates report at the beginning of last week. Then it had a spark of much-needed joy from the electrifying atmosphere at a sold-out Wembley as the US. women’s national team faced England. Now the stretch has ended with back-to-back losses for the USWNT in Europe — a 2-1 loss to England and a 2-0 loss to Spain.
That 2-0 loss on Tuesday came against a Spain team that was missing 15 key players due to a fight with their federation, by the way, and the USWNT’s performance was simply put: poopy sloppy. On top of it, add in this stat: the last time the U.S. women had lost two games in a row with the opponent scoring multiple goals was in 2001. Then? Welp, it is downright depressing.
It does, however, give you a glimpse at how remarkable the U.S. dominance has been in women’s soccer over the past few decades. This double loss marked only the third time the USWNT has lost consecutive matches in the last 20 years. And as much as I hate to break it to U.S. diehards out there, that dominance was predicated on a global soccer ecosystem that essentially did not care much about women’s soccer while millions of girls here in the U.S. had the opportunity to play — thank you Title IX.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.)
We have known that once the world catches on to how awesome (and profitable) women’s soccer is, the U.S. team’s future would be complicated (read: challenged). What we are seeing in Europe with the women’s game is actually long overdue — European leagues and clubs are investing in women and their teams. They are finally watering that garden which we always knew would blossom.
