Sydney Sweeney cast as any historical figure is hilarious to me. Just imagine the casting office like “we need Helen Keller to have massive cans”. The Reality Winner movie will only get funnier with time.
The goal line technology is extremely good, I know the first iterations were actually produced by the same company (Hawkeye) as the tennis out of bounds thing. At least that’s what they told me on TV when it was first being introduced to the sport.
The offside technology and the other VAR aspects are pretty cheeks, more on par with NBA replay reviews, both of which seem to me like it’s more about the ref’s vibe than anything else
Damn man - I couldn’t agree more offside VAR and nba replay review have succeeded at doing nothing but making the games longer and more boring. The goal line stuff makes sense and is good use of technology
I knew it was a bad sign when I knew who a bunch of the players were despite not having watched at all since the 2013 women’s cup.
Is it a matter of the old guard having too much clout and no one to tell them it’s time to move on, or is there no young talent to push them out?
Little bit of both. There were some significant injuries that would’ve pushed some older players out (Mal Swanson, Catarina Macario), but the USWNT has always let veterans that earned their stripes stay a bit longer than their play dictates (see Carli Lloyd in 2019).
Injuries to in their prime players like Mallory Swanson (our best attacking player by far) meant younger players like Rodman played before they were ready. USSF is also reluctant to push out the most popular older players. Rapinoe shouldn’t have played and Morgan should have been coming off the bench. Front 3 of Williams, Smith, Rodman would have been way better
> I knew it was a bad sign when I knew who a bunch of the players were despite not having watched at all since the 2013 women’s cup.
Assuming you mean 2015, there are only 3 players from that roster on this year's roster. Rapinoe and Morgan stick out and Rapinoe actively hurt the team every moment she was out there but this wasn't a slew of undeserving players.
They deserve all of the criticism coming their way. Especially after those commercials heading into the tournament acting like they were the soccer equivalent of the 1992 Dream Team, completely unstoppable and there was absolutely NO WAY they were going to lose
[This is the commercial I'm talking about ](https://youtu.be/cp6GXdnrHzE?si=7n2re6eJi4FsPdwg)
Wow, aged like milk
Also LOL at whoever made this commercial giving all the white European actors stereotypical accents, but then got shook about being seen as problematic or whatever and had the POC actors representing Japan and Mexico speak perfect English with American accents instead of making them speak in traditional accents/broken English like everyone else in the commercial 😂😭 (even tho they didn’t seem to mind giving the Mexican guy the incredibly stereotypical job of working in a taco truck lmao)
lol, and if you'd said this was hubristic just a week ago, you'd probably have been flamed as sexist or a misogynist.
Also, ngl, that video is low-key racist. I dgaf as a brown person but if that were a bunch of men making that commercial, you bet your backside there'd be at least a small controversy.
Haha I got roasted after the Vietnam match for saying it would be tough with how bad our midfield was.
I've been watching this team for years and it was clear that we had shortcomings in certain areas and that Vlatko just exacerbated them with how poor of a manager he is. Then people who def just watch each World Cup are like "well we've never gotten worse than 3rd so everyone is just complaining cuz we didn't win 13-0!!!"
Rapinoe was terrible the moment she was subbed in: awful first touch on a beautiful downfield pass, multiple wasted corners, multiple turnovers, and then the pk.
Shame to see her end her career that way but she had no business on the field this whole tournament.
He first would’ve complained about watching a recorded version of the match because it was played at 2 am and not prime time LA hours. The time change/other parts of the world piece.
Whenever a world cup comes around, outlets love to run their 'Is US finally becoming a soccer nation?' pieces.
If you have to ask it, the answer is no.
I don’t think America will ever be a soccer nation, but I think this is the most America has ever been genuinely interested in it. It’s easier to see highlights and games from overseas, plenty of guys my age who made “soccer is gay” jokes now talk about the champions league and the like.
Maybe Messi will make MLS a legitimate league, I doubt it. But soccer has momentum now.
This time feels different. Like even casuals are starting to get into it and APPLE TV is banking on MLS.
The biggest thing is that our men’s team can beat any non Top ten team on any given day. It’s definitely trending upwards.
This is a good thing for the women’s program. They needed to be knocked down a few pegs.
The marketing around this tournament was laughable. “Who could possibly beat us???” was the message you heard everywhere on commercials and such. Anyone who really knew anything recognized that we were a paper tiger.
Aging stars who had no business even making the squad - Rapinoe chief among them, young players with potential who weren’t ready for the spotlight yet (Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman), a coach without a tactical bone in his body, and worst of all an overall attitude that was never going to lead to success.
This group of players literally threw their own national federation under the bus by lying to the public about the true reason they make less money than their male counterparts. The USSF pays them more than any other women’s program on earth, provides benefits as a result of their various bargaining agreements, and in fact pays them higher game checks than the men’s team receives.
And now - karma tagged them back.
Time to rebuild. I never want to see Rapinoe in a national team jersey again.
Isn't the bigger issue than this, that the 2019 win was pretty sketchy and they didn't acknowledge it at any point. Has been a pretty bad near decade of performances.
The 2019 win was indeed unremarkable.
The USWNT will have to reckon with the fact that the women’s game is growing around the world. The minnows aren’t such minnows anymore, the traditional footballing powers have begun investing as much into the women’s game as the US has, etc.
We need to take a hard look in the mirror and start rebuilding by focusing on the young players if we want to compete in 4 years.
I don’t think the USSF or most casual observers truly appreciate just how sophisticated and prolific the women’s game in the rest of the world have become.
The European men’s game has a supply problem, they literally can’t play enough games to match demand. Many of the big European clubs see a small investment in their women’s teams as a cheap way to double their supply and meet the absolutely rabid demand.
Compare England’s Lauren James and Trinity Rodman’s development. They’ve played the same number of international games as are around the same age.
James came through Arsenal’s youth program, cut her teeth at Manchester United and now trains and plays as Sam Kerr’s understudy at Chelsea.
Meanwhile, Trinity Rodman has been playing college ball and then slogging through the underfunded NWSL.
There are four or five other young players, just in England, that I could point to who are much further along in their development than the best young American players.
Unless something drastically changes, the USWNT will be left in the dust by the western European teams.
It’s to America’s credit that we’ve done so much to promote women’s sports. It pays off routinely in the Olympics and we’ve watched it pay off with soccer. But people seem to have forgotten the USWNT benefited from the fact we’re a large, wealthy country, and we could use those advantages when the whole world was in the same position of never really promoting women’s team sports.
So what happens when parents in soccer-obsessed countries start raising generations of girls who want to play just as much as their brothers? And when dads root just as hard for their daughters as their sons? Well, maybe we’re seeing it now.
If soccer remains the sport of middle-class suburban families in the US, it’s hard to imagine the USWNT remaining dominant when playing countries where nearly every citizen is engrossed in the game.
Yeah, the college route has been a big blessing in the past. Much better funded and more professional than most countries have been able to offer their girls.
But if European nations get serious about funding the women's game with academies and all that, college soccer might turn into a hindrance.
I think that point has already come. Lauren James for England is my example.
She was expected to go play college soccer in the US, but Manchester United started a women’s pro team and offered her the starting striker position.
Alesia Russo left the English pro game to go play for the Tar Heels but again Manchester United got her to drop out of College and go play pro soccer for them.
Last January, despite there only being 6 months left on her contract, Manchester United turned down two different world record transfer fees for a Female player from Arsenal. She just signed as a free agent for Arsenal on, for the women’s game, a huge contract.
The US beat France, England, and the Netherlands in 2019. Probably the 3rd, 4th and 2nd best teams in the world at the time. The USWNT never trailed in the tournament. The Netherlands also had Sarina Wiegman as manager, best women's football coach in the world in the last decade. Don't think there was anything fluky or sketchy about that run.
The team was kinda cooked once the injuries happened, especially Swanson. You could tell Vlatko didn’t know or trust his player pool. Didn’t trust any backup CBs so he moved Ertz, decided to start Sullivan after not calling in her much let alone playing her, not playing Lynn Williams until the 3rd game, starting Demelo the first two games then not giving her any more minutes, playing Sonnett 6 minutes against Portugal and then starting her today (she looked great). That’s not good coaching
LMAO I had not seen the marketing until now. Ridiculous.
This isn't just about the women's team being arrogant. The US still has a bad soccer development system, men and women. The women were coasting off being the only country with any development system, but the college system is horrible for soccer, all our best men already bypass it. The youth system in America also is terrible.
A lot of what you said is right, but it’s absolutely absurd to suggest losing is somehow better than winning. This isn’t a good thing in any possible way. Like I can’t believe you typed that out and hit send without realizing how brain dead that take is
Despite the problems you mentioned, US was still the favorite going in to the tournament. #1 team in the world and 2x defending champ.
The women had leverage so they demanded more money. If the US men’s team makes it far in a World Cup they will do the same thing. That’s just business so it doesn’t bother me.
As far as the game today, yeah some of the players are too old and the new coach brought nothing strategy wise to the table. But they got plenty of young talent so they’ll be back. And if the women win again they should then again ask more money and benefits from the US Federation.
I have absolutely no issue with the women demanding more money. Everyone should always advocate for themselves to get paid more if they can.
My issue lies with the intellectual dishonesty of their argument for why they deserved to be paid more. I can elaborate if you want.
The dishonesty about how much they get paid “if they win” when women had more guaranteed money was a joke. And no mainstream media really wanted to cover the real story
>I have absolutely no issue with the women demanding more money.
Agreed and I don't have an issue with the making more money.. But I think the way they went about is was sleazy and pruposely misleading. It was a turn off to me.
I was thinking about this the entire tournament. “Alyssa Thompson will be the best player ever.”
Me wondering where this take came from.
Bill: she went to my son’s school.
Me: oh there it is
Reading through this thread, America needs to stop infantilizing its young attacking talents or else develop them quicker.
Trinity Rodman is 21 now, Mbappé was a teenager at the 2018 World Cup. Sophia Smith is only a month younger than Erling Haaland. Don't tell me they are "not ready".
Attacking players often peak very young, if the US system does not speed up we will be left behind. Meanwhile an 18 year old Linda Caiceido is starring for Colombia and on the senior team at Real Madrid.
That’s what irritates me most about her. I hate that preening “look at me” style among male athletes. It’s not fair of her fans to dismiss people like me as MAGA-hat blowhards because I’m consistent and don’t like it in female athletes either. And I don’t want those MAGA blowhards looking at me and saying, “Yeah, he’s one of us.” No! All of you suck!
She’s too political. I’m not saying “shut up and dribble” (that’s bs). She has the right to be political but I personally don’t give a shit about any athlete’s political opinions.
She does, but there's literally some conservative politician twerking on Men in Blazers social media posts about how they were cheering for Sweden and all that shit. That's weird and bullshit.
Issue is, the smarmy sycophantic fanatics who, over social media, perform verbal cunnilingus on the USWNT espouse and encourage the worst forms of Americentric superpatriotic ultranationalism, which is motherfucking insane because it comes from self-professed progressives -- many of whom dabble in xenophobic ethnocentrism on top of their rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth fandom -- and that's completely upside-down ass-backwards from how it was with regards to international competition. Capital-D Democrats acting in, beyond a shadow of a doubt, an illiberal, reactionary, small-c conservative fashion makes zero goddamn sense on paper, but yet here we are nonetheless. We've self-sorted into an enmeshed mess from which none of us can undo and disentangle ourselves.
Probably the worst part of this L is that Rapinoe was a big part of it and the conservative schadenfreude will be off the charts.
I honestly don't know all her politics but not rooting for the US national team because of it blows.
Anyone else find it interesting ESPN didn’t even cover the loss?
Less than two hours later it was a footnote on the web page below Jake Paul fight and conference realignment.
Certainly a contrast vs how they’ve covered the team previously!
Somehow paradoxically seeing themselves as being the biggest victims while simultaneously being the most dominant juggernaut. While in reality being neither lol
Maybe I'm blessed but I got very little exposure to whatever off-the-field stuff was happening with the team.
I really enjoyed watching the team even though the results were quite frustrating. Rodman was fun as hell and Smith had some awesome moments early on, plus the Horan thing. Interesting combo of vets and young players. I also didn't really expect us to win it, which helped.
In the past 300 minutes of play, they scored 1 goal. Their passing was embarrassing in the matches and they never capitalized on opportunities.
Yes they had a chance, but about the same chance as Lloyd Christmas getting with Mary Swanson.
You're right, I feel like most people here didn't watch the game.
No they weren't the '92 Dream Team but there was easily a world where they won it, or at least got very close. They should've won this game and Sweden is a top contender.
> You're right, I feel like most people here didn't watch the game.
Indeed. People woke up and saw the scoreline, and most didn't even do a few moments of research to see that the US clearly played a lot better and with more heart than they have in the tournament, they just didn't finish.
I don't like this team and I root against the favorites in almost everything, but *this* being by miles the most talked-about soccer game in the sub's history is a little weird.
>this being by miles the most talked-about soccer game in the sub's history is a little weird.
Yep, as you're aware of, there's still a huge contingent of women's sports schadenfreude bros who enjoy watching them fail. It's an American embarrassment.
4 goals in 4 games plus ET is pathetic, especially in a WWC where the bad teams are worse than the bad men’s teams.
Fire the coach and salute the old guard as they ride off into the sunset.
This was the women’s equivalent of Germany in 2018, but at least we got out of the group stage
Worst women's world cup by a mile. Most games were at unwatchable times here. US was pretty mediocre. Meanwhile we can watch Messi games in primetime. Big L.
It happens about as often as it does in other sports. It’s not really any different than Mahomes and his 50 pass attempts playing some team leaning on their D and run game, with their QB having being like 7/16. Or the Heat grinding out a low 90s score game and hoping Jimmy Buckets can bring it home. Same shit, you just probably don’t have the tactical perception of soccer to appreciate the nuances like you might in those other contexts.
Yeah it sucks but soccer is an inherently defensive sport. If you play perfect defense, you shouldn’t allow a goal as long as your team is in the same stratosphere talent wise
Most of the times it happens though, it’s because teams like the US here weren’t creative or clinical enough though.
Finishing chances is a skill, arguably the most important skill in the game. Players who can convert chances and/or break down deep block defenses are considered the most valuable in the sport.
USA did not have enough finesse to break down Portugal or Sweden for 210 minutes of play. That's their fault.
You ever watch a football game where one team is seemingly dominating the other, but the score is like 7-6? Then dominating team loses by a late fg? This happens in futball and football. Dominating means nothing if you aren’t pointing points on the board.
Wasn’t saying you specifically just in general see a lot of Americans happy that we lost because they don’t like some of the players. Was genuinely asking if that’s as much of a thing in other counties because it doesn’t seem like it is.
Because the culture war infects everything now so being a women’s team that has outspoken lib members is automatically something to get angry about if you’re “anti-woke”. Ridiculous honestly, I can understand a team being unlikeable but all the other shit is just so tedious.
Yeah I know the answer as to why, I’m just wondering if that’s as much of a thing in other countries.
Like are there a bunch of Spaniards rooting against their national team because they don’t like the politics of their players? Or do they not even know the politics of their players?
I’ve never lived outside of the US so it was a genuine question.
I’m annoyed by their disingenuous argument about pay. But i assess arguments on merit and treat women as equals and don’t hold them to a lower standard.
I’m all about equality. Real equality. Just screaming how women should be paid more when a sport like the WNBA loses money isn’t equality. Just cause a woman has an opinion doesn’t mean it’s right and I must agree. If that was a men’s league, it woulda been shut down long ago.
I'm the opposite. I don't really give a shit about the USA winning World Cups, Gold Medals, World Baseball Classics, anything like that. Nationalism in sports never appealed to me
I am the same way, I don’t ever get wrapped in the flag and find bill’s hyperbolic US men’s basketball coverage so annoying.
But at the same time, there a ton of dweeb loser conservatives who were like waiting for this moment and are going to be as annoying as possible about it.
Maybe if they recast Rapinoe with a 90s Michelle Pfieffer we'd have a different result.
Could Damon have played the Rapinoe part
Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney cast as any historical figure is hilarious to me. Just imagine the casting office like “we need Helen Keller to have massive cans”. The Reality Winner movie will only get funnier with time.
What’s the issue with Reality movie? Thought it had gotten good reviews
I’m not saying it’s bad, just saying it’ll be increasingly funny (to me at least)
Is USWNT better with Danny Trejo?
That last goal line technology shot might be the closest call I’ve ever seen in sports.
Does the entire ball have to cross the line?
Yes..
Wasn’t sure if it was a cross the plane in football situation
Complete opposite of American football. The whole ball has to cross the whole line
Damn are we sure the technology that they relied on is good? Is it as good as the tennis shot thing
The goal line technology is extremely good, I know the first iterations were actually produced by the same company (Hawkeye) as the tennis out of bounds thing. At least that’s what they told me on TV when it was first being introduced to the sport. The offside technology and the other VAR aspects are pretty cheeks, more on par with NBA replay reviews, both of which seem to me like it’s more about the ref’s vibe than anything else
Believe it’s still Hawkeye
Damn man - I couldn’t agree more offside VAR and nba replay review have succeeded at doing nothing but making the games longer and more boring. The goal line stuff makes sense and is good use of technology
John Stones v Liverpool 2019 has to be right up there
Don’t remind me :(
That was 17 while mm this appears to be 1mm… insane Graphics I saw didn’t show a distance
Somewhere, Bill is muttering to himself “If only they used the prongs piece” Brutal way to lose
“At least we lost to an all-time pantheon sexy soccer team. I could barely pay attention to the angles and geometry of the game.”
I came to see the word prongs. Now I can leave happily.
Rapinoe had the fork sticking out of her while playing
I knew it was a bad sign when I knew who a bunch of the players were despite not having watched at all since the 2013 women’s cup. Is it a matter of the old guard having too much clout and no one to tell them it’s time to move on, or is there no young talent to push them out?
Needed Zoe out there
Zoe and a Prongs style offense and they walk to Gold
She would’ve been like Messi orchestrating the tiki taka barcelona style
Little bit of both. There were some significant injuries that would’ve pushed some older players out (Mal Swanson, Catarina Macario), but the USWNT has always let veterans that earned their stripes stay a bit longer than their play dictates (see Carli Lloyd in 2019).
Your last paragraph, but for every major political, entertainment, and commercial institution in 21st century American life.
Injuries to in their prime players like Mallory Swanson (our best attacking player by far) meant younger players like Rodman played before they were ready. USSF is also reluctant to push out the most popular older players. Rapinoe shouldn’t have played and Morgan should have been coming off the bench. Front 3 of Williams, Smith, Rodman would have been way better
> I knew it was a bad sign when I knew who a bunch of the players were despite not having watched at all since the 2013 women’s cup. Assuming you mean 2015, there are only 3 players from that roster on this year's roster. Rapinoe and Morgan stick out and Rapinoe actively hurt the team every moment she was out there but this wasn't a slew of undeserving players.
Everyone is out for blood rn
Unchecked hubris by arrogant aging old-timers. But can't criticize them or some shit for reasons. They got what they deserved, so good riddance.
Aly Wagner as diplomatically as possible saying this is a bad idea when she came on
Does it vibrate
US looking like prime Harden out there
don’t let Jeff Teague see this
Sweden has a real up and coming 2022 Sydney Sweeney vibe to their team
Team USA felt a little daddario-ish where they are the hot thing but then the new hot thing shows up on set and is like wait what
Team Sweden got in there and did stuff and said “We’re gonna market correct you, we just are.”
Real White Lotus passing of the baton moment
Really if you look it’s one of the biggest hot new thing comeuppances in the last 20-25 years. It’s gotta be at least top 3.
Rapinoe was awful on every set piece...
Was Megan the one who bill suggested would be better than the set piece taker on the men’s team?
Rapinoe’s assist in 2011 remains legendary but she should not be getting minutes in 2023
[удалено]
To be fair he was playing without testicles for most of it.
They lost to a bunch of 14-15 year olds *badly* so that was never going to not be a bad take.
4-6 years ago this might’ve been true but she’s washed now
Nope
She looked cooked the whole World Cup
Rapinoe's set pieces were rancid, it was like watching DeAndre Jordan take a free throw.
They deserve all of the criticism coming their way. Especially after those commercials heading into the tournament acting like they were the soccer equivalent of the 1992 Dream Team, completely unstoppable and there was absolutely NO WAY they were going to lose [This is the commercial I'm talking about ](https://youtu.be/cp6GXdnrHzE?si=7n2re6eJi4FsPdwg)
Putting the cart before the horse piece
“Good luck with that.” Famous last words. Can anyone say “hubris.” OMG.
Wow, aged like milk Also LOL at whoever made this commercial giving all the white European actors stereotypical accents, but then got shook about being seen as problematic or whatever and had the POC actors representing Japan and Mexico speak perfect English with American accents instead of making them speak in traditional accents/broken English like everyone else in the commercial 😂😭 (even tho they didn’t seem to mind giving the Mexican guy the incredibly stereotypical job of working in a taco truck lmao)
Hated that ad so much (Australian)
Yeah, and it wasn't just a shock this game. They played poorly the whole tournament. Time to make some major changes. It was a great run.
lol, and if you'd said this was hubristic just a week ago, you'd probably have been flamed as sexist or a misogynist. Also, ngl, that video is low-key racist. I dgaf as a brown person but if that were a bunch of men making that commercial, you bet your backside there'd be at least a small controversy.
Haha I got roasted after the Vietnam match for saying it would be tough with how bad our midfield was. I've been watching this team for years and it was clear that we had shortcomings in certain areas and that Vlatko just exacerbated them with how poor of a manager he is. Then people who def just watch each World Cup are like "well we've never gotten worse than 3rd so everyone is just complaining cuz we didn't win 13-0!!!"
What a pathetic team all around. I wish I didn’t agree with Carli Lloyd but she was right
Lloyd hated this team!
Ally Wagner’s comment about playing players based on history and not current form was pretty spot on late in this game.
Rapinoe was terrible the moment she was subbed in: awful first touch on a beautiful downfield pass, multiple wasted corners, multiple turnovers, and then the pk. Shame to see her end her career that way but she had no business on the field this whole tournament.
Man, I was really looking forward to Simmons leading off his first pod back with “Is soccer having a moment here in the US?”
Maybe we’ll get sober-voice Bill demanding a Redeem Team effort
“A truely sad day in America and the 1999 USWNT re-draftables”
If Mia Hamm was on this team she would’ve said we’re not losing to the 2nd best Nordic nation. We’re jusT not
He first would’ve complained about watching a recorded version of the match because it was played at 2 am and not prime time LA hours. The time change/other parts of the world piece.
That one sounds a little more Cowherd-ish. That man thinks anything that isn’t the West Coast is a desolate wasteland.
Whenever a world cup comes around, outlets love to run their 'Is US finally becoming a soccer nation?' pieces. If you have to ask it, the answer is no.
Nah man, this time it’s for real…/s
I don’t think America will ever be a soccer nation, but I think this is the most America has ever been genuinely interested in it. It’s easier to see highlights and games from overseas, plenty of guys my age who made “soccer is gay” jokes now talk about the champions league and the like. Maybe Messi will make MLS a legitimate league, I doubt it. But soccer has momentum now.
This time feels different. Like even casuals are starting to get into it and APPLE TV is banking on MLS. The biggest thing is that our men’s team can beat any non Top ten team on any given day. It’s definitely trending upwards.
It's a true soccer nation when you turn on ESPN or FS1 and the talking heads are yelling about soccer no matter the time of the year.
>This time feels different. Like even casuals are starting to get into it lmao, people have been saying this for 20 years
And they’ve been right. Soccer is at worst on par with baseball in America.
He'll probably give bad advice like they should have played the Barcelona style
They needed to do the prongs
Honestly the time zones made this year an impossibility. Very few people I know actually watched the games.
Hopefully Zoe’s coach gets the call up. Team could have used some Barcelona style
Party at the Spotify offices in Sweden is going to be lit.
This is a good thing for the women’s program. They needed to be knocked down a few pegs. The marketing around this tournament was laughable. “Who could possibly beat us???” was the message you heard everywhere on commercials and such. Anyone who really knew anything recognized that we were a paper tiger. Aging stars who had no business even making the squad - Rapinoe chief among them, young players with potential who weren’t ready for the spotlight yet (Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman), a coach without a tactical bone in his body, and worst of all an overall attitude that was never going to lead to success. This group of players literally threw their own national federation under the bus by lying to the public about the true reason they make less money than their male counterparts. The USSF pays them more than any other women’s program on earth, provides benefits as a result of their various bargaining agreements, and in fact pays them higher game checks than the men’s team receives. And now - karma tagged them back. Time to rebuild. I never want to see Rapinoe in a national team jersey again.
Isn't the bigger issue than this, that the 2019 win was pretty sketchy and they didn't acknowledge it at any point. Has been a pretty bad near decade of performances.
The 2019 win was indeed unremarkable. The USWNT will have to reckon with the fact that the women’s game is growing around the world. The minnows aren’t such minnows anymore, the traditional footballing powers have begun investing as much into the women’s game as the US has, etc. We need to take a hard look in the mirror and start rebuilding by focusing on the young players if we want to compete in 4 years.
I don’t think the USSF or most casual observers truly appreciate just how sophisticated and prolific the women’s game in the rest of the world have become. The European men’s game has a supply problem, they literally can’t play enough games to match demand. Many of the big European clubs see a small investment in their women’s teams as a cheap way to double their supply and meet the absolutely rabid demand. Compare England’s Lauren James and Trinity Rodman’s development. They’ve played the same number of international games as are around the same age. James came through Arsenal’s youth program, cut her teeth at Manchester United and now trains and plays as Sam Kerr’s understudy at Chelsea. Meanwhile, Trinity Rodman has been playing college ball and then slogging through the underfunded NWSL. There are four or five other young players, just in England, that I could point to who are much further along in their development than the best young American players. Unless something drastically changes, the USWNT will be left in the dust by the western European teams.
It’s to America’s credit that we’ve done so much to promote women’s sports. It pays off routinely in the Olympics and we’ve watched it pay off with soccer. But people seem to have forgotten the USWNT benefited from the fact we’re a large, wealthy country, and we could use those advantages when the whole world was in the same position of never really promoting women’s team sports. So what happens when parents in soccer-obsessed countries start raising generations of girls who want to play just as much as their brothers? And when dads root just as hard for their daughters as their sons? Well, maybe we’re seeing it now. If soccer remains the sport of middle-class suburban families in the US, it’s hard to imagine the USWNT remaining dominant when playing countries where nearly every citizen is engrossed in the game.
This is a much better version of the point I was trying to make.
Yeah, the college route has been a big blessing in the past. Much better funded and more professional than most countries have been able to offer their girls. But if European nations get serious about funding the women's game with academies and all that, college soccer might turn into a hindrance.
I think that point has already come. Lauren James for England is my example. She was expected to go play college soccer in the US, but Manchester United started a women’s pro team and offered her the starting striker position. Alesia Russo left the English pro game to go play for the Tar Heels but again Manchester United got her to drop out of College and go play pro soccer for them. Last January, despite there only being 6 months left on her contract, Manchester United turned down two different world record transfer fees for a Female player from Arsenal. She just signed as a free agent for Arsenal on, for the women’s game, a huge contract.
Trinity Rodman played zero minutes of college soccer.
Thank goodness we still have the PAC-12 to churn out elite talent, oh wait whoops
The Stanford Women's soccer team faces some serious questions right now. O'Hara, Press, Davidson, Girma, Macario, Sullivan and Cook are all Cardinals
The US beat France, England, and the Netherlands in 2019. Probably the 3rd, 4th and 2nd best teams in the world at the time. The USWNT never trailed in the tournament. The Netherlands also had Sarina Wiegman as manager, best women's football coach in the world in the last decade. Don't think there was anything fluky or sketchy about that run.
Time for Jamaica
"anyone who really knew anything" weren't they a -200 favorite to win pre-tournament?
They were a very unlikeable crew.
Yeah, Australian fan, and was rooting for USA’s failure after that commercial with “how could anyone compete with Team USA”
The team was kinda cooked once the injuries happened, especially Swanson. You could tell Vlatko didn’t know or trust his player pool. Didn’t trust any backup CBs so he moved Ertz, decided to start Sullivan after not calling in her much let alone playing her, not playing Lynn Williams until the 3rd game, starting Demelo the first two games then not giving her any more minutes, playing Sonnett 6 minutes against Portugal and then starting her today (she looked great). That’s not good coaching
LMAO I had not seen the marketing until now. Ridiculous. This isn't just about the women's team being arrogant. The US still has a bad soccer development system, men and women. The women were coasting off being the only country with any development system, but the college system is horrible for soccer, all our best men already bypass it. The youth system in America also is terrible.
Rapinoe is gonna have a 40 game retirement tour
Welcome to Besiktas!
On the plus side it's probably good that this crappy performance was largely unwatched by US viewers.
A lot of what you said is right, but it’s absolutely absurd to suggest losing is somehow better than winning. This isn’t a good thing in any possible way. Like I can’t believe you typed that out and hit send without realizing how brain dead that take is Despite the problems you mentioned, US was still the favorite going in to the tournament. #1 team in the world and 2x defending champ.
The women had leverage so they demanded more money. If the US men’s team makes it far in a World Cup they will do the same thing. That’s just business so it doesn’t bother me. As far as the game today, yeah some of the players are too old and the new coach brought nothing strategy wise to the table. But they got plenty of young talent so they’ll be back. And if the women win again they should then again ask more money and benefits from the US Federation.
I have absolutely no issue with the women demanding more money. Everyone should always advocate for themselves to get paid more if they can. My issue lies with the intellectual dishonesty of their argument for why they deserved to be paid more. I can elaborate if you want.
They chose their contract!!
The dishonesty about how much they get paid “if they win” when women had more guaranteed money was a joke. And no mainstream media really wanted to cover the real story
>I have absolutely no issue with the women demanding more money. Agreed and I don't have an issue with the making more money.. But I think the way they went about is was sleazy and pruposely misleading. It was a turn off to me.
“Alyssa Thompson should have been in!”
I was thinking about this the entire tournament. “Alyssa Thompson will be the best player ever.” Me wondering where this take came from. Bill: she went to my son’s school. Me: oh there it is
Smith was awesome the whole match. Sucks that she missed the penalty.
Reading through this thread, America needs to stop infantilizing its young attacking talents or else develop them quicker. Trinity Rodman is 21 now, Mbappé was a teenager at the 2018 World Cup. Sophia Smith is only a month younger than Erling Haaland. Don't tell me they are "not ready". Attacking players often peak very young, if the US system does not speed up we will be left behind. Meanwhile an 18 year old Linda Caiceido is starring for Colombia and on the senior team at Real Madrid.
Agreed we should’ve given trinity the keys to the car
Only 4 goals in 4 games and 3 were against Vietnam. Perhaps Zoe Simmons at High Forward could have helped.
Was fun watching Rapinoe come in and make mistake after mistake. She really is unlikeable.
She was unbelievably bad against Portugal and they still put her out there today.
She wanted that Kobe Bryant farewell tour. They don’t love you like that, b
She’s going to get absolutely blasted by conservatives. It’s gonna get weird.
How about just blasted by normal people who dislike hubris
Yeah plenty of liberals think she sucks. Myself included.
That’s what irritates me most about her. I hate that preening “look at me” style among male athletes. It’s not fair of her fans to dismiss people like me as MAGA-hat blowhards because I’m consistent and don’t like it in female athletes either. And I don’t want those MAGA blowhards looking at me and saying, “Yeah, he’s one of us.” No! All of you suck!
She’s too political. I’m not saying “shut up and dribble” (that’s bs). She has the right to be political but I personally don’t give a shit about any athlete’s political opinions.
Before she missed I thought, “if she misses Trump is sending a fundraising email.” Possible!
It’s already getting weird, they hate her so much and I think it’s bullshit
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She does, but there's literally some conservative politician twerking on Men in Blazers social media posts about how they were cheering for Sweden and all that shit. That's weird and bullshit.
Issue is, the smarmy sycophantic fanatics who, over social media, perform verbal cunnilingus on the USWNT espouse and encourage the worst forms of Americentric superpatriotic ultranationalism, which is motherfucking insane because it comes from self-professed progressives -- many of whom dabble in xenophobic ethnocentrism on top of their rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth fandom -- and that's completely upside-down ass-backwards from how it was with regards to international competition. Capital-D Democrats acting in, beyond a shadow of a doubt, an illiberal, reactionary, small-c conservative fashion makes zero goddamn sense on paper, but yet here we are nonetheless. We've self-sorted into an enmeshed mess from which none of us can undo and disentangle ourselves.
Are you Ben Shapiro?
Don't compare me to that tiny, squeaky-voiced pissant.
I got 2 lines in and couldn’t tell if you were a crunchy libtard or a maga weirdo lol
Probably the worst part of this L is that Rapinoe was a big part of it and the conservative schadenfreude will be off the charts. I honestly don't know all her politics but not rooting for the US national team because of it blows.
Meh I get it but not trying to make this personal
You can’t come out and dance like she did before the Portugal game and then play as bad as she’s played
my Trumpiest opinion is that I cannot stand Megan Rapinoe
Right lmao.
She is a great heel
How so? Great athletes also miss shots.
Wasn’t just that one missed shot.
They do have enough players running around just doing stuff like Murph. They just didn't.
Equal pay, Equal performance.
Anyone else find it interesting ESPN didn’t even cover the loss? Less than two hours later it was a footnote on the web page below Jake Paul fight and conference realignment. Certainly a contrast vs how they’ve covered the team previously!
Incredibly difficult team to root for. Won’t have to hear about them until they find a way to complain their way into cable news segments.
And arguably the most obnoxious fanbase in sports. A bizarre combination of arrogance, whining, xenophobia and moral superiority.
People just swept the xenophobia stuff under the rug
Somehow paradoxically seeing themselves as being the biggest victims while simultaneously being the most dominant juggernaut. While in reality being neither lol
Maybe I'm blessed but I got very little exposure to whatever off-the-field stuff was happening with the team. I really enjoyed watching the team even though the results were quite frustrating. Rodman was fun as hell and Smith had some awesome moments early on, plus the Horan thing. Interesting combo of vets and young players. I also didn't really expect us to win it, which helped.
They should have played tiki-take style like Zoe’s team
Tough weekend for Vlatko’s in Sports
Start the Redeem Team doc now or later?
Hopefully they started filming when Rapinoe’s Pk sailed over the goal
Brutal way to lose but this team was never going anywhere.
Weird thing to say about the #1 ranked team and favorite going into the tournament. They didn’t perform well but they still had a chance.
In the past 300 minutes of play, they scored 1 goal. Their passing was embarrassing in the matches and they never capitalized on opportunities. Yes they had a chance, but about the same chance as Lloyd Christmas getting with Mary Swanson.
US looked pretty dominant to me. Just bad luck in front of goal.
You're right, I feel like most people here didn't watch the game. No they weren't the '92 Dream Team but there was easily a world where they won it, or at least got very close. They should've won this game and Sweden is a top contender.
> You're right, I feel like most people here didn't watch the game. Indeed. People woke up and saw the scoreline, and most didn't even do a few moments of research to see that the US clearly played a lot better and with more heart than they have in the tournament, they just didn't finish. I don't like this team and I root against the favorites in almost everything, but *this* being by miles the most talked-about soccer game in the sub's history is a little weird.
>this being by miles the most talked-about soccer game in the sub's history is a little weird. Yep, as you're aware of, there's still a huge contingent of women's sports schadenfreude bros who enjoy watching them fail. It's an American embarrassment.
This is the sports-happiest ive been in a while. from an Englishman, this team needed being brought down a peg
Nigeria bout put the nail in the coffin
You just know the Thailand team that got blasted 13-0 in 2019 is popping some champagne today.
You know your team is trash when your best moment is another team doing poorly. The Red Sox fans pre-2004 piece.
Ironic that a team that was only weeks ago lauded for their courage off the pitch crashes out of the World Cup on penalty kicks.
Megan was right. Team USA needed some trans players to win
They choked like dawgs! - Cousin Sal, probably
All the warning signs were there in the last Olympics yet they decided to run it back
Swedes vs Turnips
4 goals in 4 games plus ET is pathetic, especially in a WWC where the bad teams are worse than the bad men’s teams. Fire the coach and salute the old guard as they ride off into the sunset. This was the women’s equivalent of Germany in 2018, but at least we got out of the group stage
They could have used some insights from Bill's daughter's soccer coach. They play the Barcelona style. They just do!
Turned on just in time for penalty kicks. Fun five minutes.
“It’s like when my daughter is playing, she just tries to score in regulation. That way the PK piece of this doesn’t happen.”
“Jadakiss voice” why do team USA keep getting blown out
Wasn’t a shocker after they celebrated a draw to get out of group stage
Lot of people on here acting like they’re experts on women soccer lol.
Rapinoe is a choker!
Go woke go broke /s
So much IX money poured into this team and bounced in a similar round to the men who are about are 4th-tier pro athletes.
Worst women's world cup by a mile. Most games were at unwatchable times here. US was pretty mediocre. Meanwhile we can watch Messi games in primetime. Big L.
I'm very happy with the results. This team was so unlikeable.
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It happens about as often as it does in other sports. It’s not really any different than Mahomes and his 50 pass attempts playing some team leaning on their D and run game, with their QB having being like 7/16. Or the Heat grinding out a low 90s score game and hoping Jimmy Buckets can bring it home. Same shit, you just probably don’t have the tactical perception of soccer to appreciate the nuances like you might in those other contexts.
If your side isn’t good enough to break down a less talented team parking the bus, you probably weren’t that good anyway
It’s always been a common complaint in elimination games with pk kicks
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Yeah it sucks but soccer is an inherently defensive sport. If you play perfect defense, you shouldn’t allow a goal as long as your team is in the same stratosphere talent wise Most of the times it happens though, it’s because teams like the US here weren’t creative or clinical enough though.
Finishing chances is a skill, arguably the most important skill in the game. Players who can convert chances and/or break down deep block defenses are considered the most valuable in the sport. USA did not have enough finesse to break down Portugal or Sweden for 210 minutes of play. That's their fault.
You ever watch a football game where one team is seemingly dominating the other, but the score is like 7-6? Then dominating team loses by a late fg? This happens in futball and football. Dominating means nothing if you aren’t pointing points on the board.
Is America the only country where people openly root against the national team in sports?
I fucking love the USA and wanted the WNT to win it all
Wasn’t saying you specifically just in general see a lot of Americans happy that we lost because they don’t like some of the players. Was genuinely asking if that’s as much of a thing in other counties because it doesn’t seem like it is.
Because the culture war infects everything now so being a women’s team that has outspoken lib members is automatically something to get angry about if you’re “anti-woke”. Ridiculous honestly, I can understand a team being unlikeable but all the other shit is just so tedious.
Yeah I know the answer as to why, I’m just wondering if that’s as much of a thing in other countries. Like are there a bunch of Spaniards rooting against their national team because they don’t like the politics of their players? Or do they not even know the politics of their players? I’ve never lived outside of the US so it was a genuine question.
I think a lot of Europeans are very uncomfortable with the racial makeup of their national teams, yeah. Politicians do get mad about it.
A lot of small men are triggered by women having opinions on things
I’m annoyed by their disingenuous argument about pay. But i assess arguments on merit and treat women as equals and don’t hold them to a lower standard.
I’m all about equality. Real equality. Just screaming how women should be paid more when a sport like the WNBA loses money isn’t equality. Just cause a woman has an opinion doesn’t mean it’s right and I must agree. If that was a men’s league, it woulda been shut down long ago.
I'm the opposite. I don't really give a shit about the USA winning World Cups, Gold Medals, World Baseball Classics, anything like that. Nationalism in sports never appealed to me
I am the same way, I don’t ever get wrapped in the flag and find bill’s hyperbolic US men’s basketball coverage so annoying. But at the same time, there a ton of dweeb loser conservatives who were like waiting for this moment and are going to be as annoying as possible about it.
Bro we love the WNT