The criticism of the USWNT is a sign of progress

August 06, 2024

SYDNEY — The players are dancing after dismal performances and being scorned for it. They’re in peak athletic shape yet posing with medicinal cream and being paid handsomely for it. But more than just hamming and peddling, in the biggest World Cup ever, the U.S. women’s national team is growing.

The signs are everywhere. The results might suggest otherwise, and it now seems far-fetched that the Americans will make a return trip to Sydney for the Aug. 20 championship match. But look harder because there’s a bigger picture away from the pitch.

We can track this progress on the American players’ Instagram feeds, where it seems as if every other post is a paid partnership.

The 2019 team that earned a second consecutive World Cup title demanded and won fair compensation from its national federation. The specter of pay inequity loomed over its dominance in France. For this current team, however, corporate branding will define the experience in Australia and New Zealand. Players have found new hustles in hawking headphones, hard seltzers and even hatchbacks. Show them a product, and someone, anyone, on the U.S. team might gladly pitch it.

We can also mark this momentum in the voices of the Americans’ detractors, who have shed the velvet gloves traditionally worn by pundits and champions of women’s sports.

During its dreary three-match performance — especially the 0-0 result against Portugal, a defeat disguised as a draw that closed the group stage with a thud — the United States experienced something it hasn’t faced before: a buffet of deserved criticism. And criticism that had absolutely nothing to do with the team’s politics. Only its play.

When we look back at the U.S. national team’s experience at the 2023 World Cup, a retrospective that might happen sooner rather than later, we will see the best kind of growth. These women are gaining ground on the modern male athlete — cashing in on their moment while also feeling the heat of harsh yet fair scrutiny.

If the U.S. women flip a switch in the upcoming knockout stage and go on to win the whole thing, what would that prove? Nothing besides what we already know: The United States has the best developmental system of any nation, with ponytailed girls growing up and becoming rock stars on the national roster. This new generation of players celebrating an unprecedented third straight World Cup and adding a fifth star on their USA jerseys just might make them worthy to sit at the table with legends Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Michelle Akers. But isn’t the top-ranked team in the world supposed to win?

Instead, we should view growth the same way America does: by counting the dollar signs.

No matter how people might feel about the players as influencers — and ’99er Brandi Chastain has some thoughts — they are quintessential contemporary athletes. They chase the bag as much as a championship, as early and as often as possible. They expect to haul in three or four times more in group licensing royalties than the 2019 team did, according to an ESPN report. They are, equally, footballers and business moguls.

The 14 new players on this U.S. roster know nothing but prosperity. The older generation fought for equal pay and allowed the younger crowd to stand on its shoulders. And while up there, soaking up the sun, this new class thanks its predecessors by snapping some pics for Truly Orange Slices limited edition flavor.

It’s good ol’ fashioned capitalism, and it’s about time a woman in sports can shamelessly pitch any product like a man.

And finally, the women are being judged as the bona fide athletes they always have been. In a country that too often either ignores women’s sports or views them strictly as feel-good stories, with patronizing coverage that cheers on but rarely scrutinizes on-field performances, this U.S. team is reaching new ground.

Think of the 2004 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team. That summer, the Americans, with a roster of NBA all-stars, were the favorites but played like strangers in pickup games and got embarrassed on the world stage. The stench of that experience was so bad, the federation had to remix the next Olympic squad as “The Redeem Team.” This 2023 U.S. women’s soccer squad hasn’t reached that point, but it has started to hear a similar refrain of criticism.

Carli Lloyd, who played on the previous two World Cup-winning teams, works as a Fox studio analyst. When she watched several ’23ers dance following their draw to Portugal, she called out the team for its misdirected passion.

“I’m all for positivity — they have advanced out of the group,” Lloyd said. “But at the same time, the cheering, the dancing — I’ve got a problem with that because I wouldn’t be happy. I know several of their players, former players, ’99ers [champions] — they wouldn’t be happy with that tie.”

U.S. Coach Vlatko Andonovski defended his players and described Lloyd’s criticism — specifically, that his team lacked the mentality to win — as “insane.” But it would be “insane” — and condescending and regressive — to overlook how the front-runner in the biggest tournament in the world has underachieved. And dancing after draws doesn’t help the perception that the team needs better focus, as Chastain noted during her appearance on the soccer podcast “After the Whistle” with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe.

“You’re getting your next contract, or you’re getting your commercial, or you’re getting your face out there. How many Instagram followers do you have,” Chastain said about the current players. “It’s a different time. Full stop. We didn’t have social media, and we have said, ‘Thank God we didn’t, because it’s a distraction.’ ... They need a reality check. What are we here for? It’s the football. It’s not all the other things.”

Later in the show, Chastain dropped the mic with this truth:

“We have to be better in every phase of the game. We have to be better with the ball. We have to be better in transition. We have to be better in defending as a collective. We have to be better in our mental approach. And we have to be better in just respecting the game, for Christ’s sake. This game deserves more than we’ve given it. It’s a beautiful game, and we have almost bastardized the hell out of it.”

Nowhere in these lines of rebuke have the women been accused of dividing the nation or miscast as unpatriotic.

In 2019, Megan Rapinoe gave some people the heebie-jeebies because she had purple-dyed hair or because she’s gay or just because she dared to exist as a woman with opinions. She was the avatar of that team — in your face, whether you like it or not. It was a team with its share of marketable stars and yet a team unafraid to speak up on racial, social and political matters. If Lloyd, who seems to have some political differences with her former teammates, used her platform just to score points, then shame on her. The United States should be discussed and dissected as any superteam would. That’s respect — and growth.

On their timelines and within the crosshairs of criticism, the U.S. women are expanding. For once, it’s their soccer that needs to catch up.

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