My take on the U.S Women's National Team is that their level of soccer does not compare to the mens side at all. Men's soccer has always been what everyone watches because of a man's ability to physically do more than what women can. That statement might be a little bit much but it's the sad truth. The argument that people have made is that the USMNT makes more money than the USWNT despite the USWNT having much better results in international play. The USMNT has never won the World Cup and the USWNT are defending the title of the World Cup so they deserve equal pay for what they have done for American soccer. With soccer not being the United States main sport of choice, the women are increasingly making soccer more popular with the results they are getting.
The U.S Soccer Federation (USSF) is being attacked by the USWNT demanding for equal pay opportunities. Five members of the USWNT came to the USSF asking them for equal pay with the USMNT and asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate the USSF over the gap in pay between the two teams. If you want an exact example on how differently the USSF sees the men's team to the women, you only have to know that the USMNT players receive $5,000 per loss, while the women receive $1,350 for a win. In an article from USA Today, talks about the difference in pay between the USWNT and the USMNT, it states: "the mens team does not have a good track record with their World Cup games. The women received $1.725 million for winning the 2015 event, according to the lawsuit — though it's important to note that this was prior to their current CBA, which was finalized in 2017. Meanwhile, the men received $5.375 million for just reaching the Round of 16 in 2014, the lawsuit alleges." That statistic is crazy, the fact that the USWNT has won the whole competition and still gets underpaid for it is ridiculous.
In the men's defense, women's soccer is no where near as competitive as men's soccer. For example the USWNT played a scrimmage against F.C Dallas U-15 boys for preparation for their two upcoming games against Russia. The result: little 15 year old kids beat the reigning Women's World Cup champions 5-2. Some say that the women's team where not going all out and that they were just trying to build chemistry. The USWNT has not had that many roster changes in the past couple years so working on that "World Cup Champion" chemistry is not an excuse to lose against 15 year olds. In conclusion, I still have massive respect for what the women's team as done for soccer in the United States. Being a soccer player all my life, I had always wished that I was watching soccer on Sunday, Monday, and Friday nights instead of American football. But you cannot deny the facts about the difference in men and women sports in general. Men's games bring in more broadcasting revenue than do women's games which is very true despite the Women's World Cup of 2018 getting more views than it ever has before. Unfortunately, women's soccer doesn't have the same standing in the world as men's soccer.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2019/07/10/breaking-down-pay-gap-between-uswnt-and-usmnt-players/1671361001/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/sports/uswnt-equal-pay-fight/?utm_term=.d8b78e490d0d
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/
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