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[quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad]The existence of a WNT isn't the same as taking it seriously.

Norway and China were ahead of the curve, and they were the USA's biggest rivals in the 90s. But they've fallen back a bit.

The USA simply had better opportunities than women from other countries for a long time. In the 90s, you could make a persuasive case that the best women's soccer league in the world was the ACC. In the early 00s, add the WUSA to the mix -- at the time, women had few opportunities elsewhere, and the best players in the world all came here.

Today ...

- U.S. college soccer is still pretty strong, though we're starting to see players go pro earlier -- so far just a few, as opposed to the dam-bursting in men's soccer.

- The NWSL has a firmer foundation than previous U.S. leagues. But ...

- European women's club soccer has taken off and gotten much more competitive. Lyon, the megabucks club, didn't even win the French championship this year. England's WSL is growing -- you can actually see their games now on U.S. TV. Barcelona became a juggernaut overnight.

I thought the USA was still the best team at the last World Cup. But they needed a couple of dodgy penalty decisions to win it.

What's more concerning is at youth level ...

U.S. U-20s in World Cups: 
- 2002: Champions
- 2004: Third
- 2006: Fourth
- 2008: Champions
- 2010: Quarterfinals
- 2012: Champions
- 2014: Quarterfinals
- 2016: Fourth place
- 2018: Group stage

In other words, not in the top three since 2012.

U.S. Under-17s: 
- 2008: Runners-up
- 2010: did not qualify
- 2012: Group stage
- 2014: did not qualify
- 2016: Group stage
- 2018: Group stage - beat Cameroon 3-0, lost 0-3 to North Korea, lost 0-4 to Germany

In the past, you could argue that the U-17s would improve on their path to the WNT because they spend the rest of their formative years in college soccer and then maybe the pros, while other countries' players would have limited opportunities. No more. Pro women's soccer is now a legitimate career choice in many European countries.

So the USA will need to respond with greater investment. That'll mean creating a better scouting network with the cooperation of all stakeholders in the youth game and changing the focus of equality from a retroactive eight-figure payout for the 2015 World Cup to fairer deals for both the MNT (still playing under an expired CBA) and the WNT (clock is ticking).

Good luck with that.[/quote]

Success of youth national team is not a proper metric and does not equate to senior national teams. This is for a lot of reasons. One of which is that rarely do you see the best players in that age group playing in the youth teams. They’re usually playing with the senior team. Brazil is the only team to win a 17 and senior World Cup. England too but their WC was in 1966.

Think about how good the USWNT is. If they don’t win the World Cup, it will cause hysteria. They are that much better than everyone. I don’t know of any team in sports that has that kind of pressure on them.[/quote]

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