The game of soccer enjoys great popularity all over the world. However, it took a long time for women soccer players to be accepted. In the U.S., soccer was not an established part of the culture. This may have created a disadvantage for a women’s national soccer team. However, it also gave women a blank slate of opportunity. No one believed women could play soccer so they had the opportunity to prove them wrong.
The passing of Title IX
In the early 1970s, women’s international soccer didn’t really exist. In the U.S., the passing of Title IX in 1972 brought a number of changes. It banned sex discrimination in education. Administrators embraced soccer to help them comply in the most cost-effective way.
Participation rates for girls and women in soccer increased greatly at high schools, universities, and club teams. In 1974, a survey counted 6,446 girls playing soccer in 321 schools in seven states. Shifts didn’t really begin until the latter 1980s when college programs started creating scholarship opportunities. The women’s soccer programs at universities grew and continue to grow.
It was after the Supreme Court struck down the PASPA Act in 2018 that another change took place. Legal online sports betting sports betting started expanding across the United States. By 2023, sportsbooks were offering a range of future betting markets and betting odds on every group stage game and knockout stage clash of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
From 1986 to 1991
When Anson Dorrance became head coach of the national team in 1986, training camps were few and far between and the USWNT didn’t have much support. Dorrance went in believing the team had an opportunity to make its mark. He was head coach of the team for eight years and from the start he had the idea in his head that the team would be the best in the world.
America won the World Cup for the first time in 1991 while he was coach. The second win in 1999 drew great international attention. The final was a tense one with the team only gaining victory right at the end. USWNT has been dominant on the world stage since then.
A history of prejudice
Some of the oldest football clubs in the world were established in the 1850s and only had men players. Women found it very difficult to break into this world. In England, women were banned from playing soccer at venues hosting men’s teams from 1921 to 1971. In Germany, they were banned from playing soccer from 1955 to 1970.
FIFA report 2006
In a 2006 report by FIFA, women only made up about 11% of registered soccer players worldwide. Only about 13 percent of them were young players. In the same report, the U.S. had over 1.5 million young female registered players. Taking them out of the equation meant only 8% of young soccer players across the world in 2006 were female.
Youth or high school participation usually creates a potential talent pool. The U.S. definitely has a numbers advantage when it comes to young players. However, soccer still doesn’t evoke the same national passion as it does in some other countries. If all else were equal, the U.S. should have no problem beating Germany every time. Germany is the only other nation to have won multiple women’s World Cup titles.
The national women’s soccer team won the Women’s World Cup again in 2015 and 2019. It reached at least the semi-finals in every event until the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. This time round the Spanish team won the title. This won’t stop USWNT from trying its best to win the next one.
