Two Teams, Two Legacies: What Makes a Soccer Nation? Pt. 1

This summer, the entire world will gather in North America for the biggest sporting event globally. The FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The biggest question going into this competition, if you are a USMNT fan, is whether the US takes it all, and can we finally declare ourselves a soccer nation? 

To answer the first part of the question: I don't think the USMNT will win this year's World Cup, even if they are capable of a deep run in the tournament. For the second part of the question, I think the USA is a soccer nation, but it depends on what side of the coin you are looking at. 

In women's soccer, the United States Women's National Team enjoyed early dominance with the introduction of the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup, and when women's soccer became an Olympic sport at the 1996 Atlanta Games.  They have won four World Cup titles and five Olympic gold medals–the most for any national team, man or woman. Despite the narrowing gap, the USWNT remains competitive, with its lowest FIFA ranking being five (if you are a believer of the FIFA ranking). To understand the USWNT's early success and advantage over the rest of the world, one must consider Title IX and impactful it was for the foundation of the team. 

About fifty years ago, Title IX dramatically increased the funding for young girls' sports in public elementary schools all the way to the collegiate level. Basically, if you were going to fund your men's football team, then you need to equally fund your women's soccer team. At that time, no other country was funding women's sport, let alone women's soccer, at the same rate as the US. This was a boon for women's sports in the US. It increased girls' youth and high school sports participation, created a massive pipeline for NCAA sports, and made college scholarships a real incentive for families to invest in girls' sports.

I like to believe that the US has a strong sports identity compared to the rest of the world. It's why we are always at the top of the medal count for both Olympics. And while we have a history as a country to celebrate the success of male athletes, men had the ability to enjoy that success long before Title IX. However, when it comes to soccer, the men have not enjoyed the same success on the international level. It got me thinking, why haven't the men's team enjoyed the same level of success as our women's team? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Current Global Soccer Landscape (and why does it feel unequal?)

  Soccer is the number one sport in the world–approximately 240 to 270 million people play "the beautiful game" worldwide. FIFA, the governing body of soccer, established the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. It took 61 years for the women's game to receive the same recognition worldwide. The women's game has seen significant strides in the last thirty years, including the creation of a women's sports league in Europe and in the USA. As someone who has grown to love soccer since I first watched the 2010 World Cup, I have especially grown to love the women's game because it's fun to see the United States dominate at a sport where we call it soccer and everyone else calls it football. Watching both the men's and women's international soccer, I can't help but notice some disparities that I find intriguing. First, Europe is big when it comes to soccer, and so is South America. However, while Europe has seen successful women's national teams, ...
Read more

How To Build a Team: From Underdogs to Contenders

   In the early days of women's international soccer, the USWNT and Germany were the dominant teams in international soccer. For a while, they both tied for the most World Cup titles, until the USWNT won its third title in 2025.   While the usual suspects kept winning at the international stage, this encouraged many countries to start funding their women's programs, and of course, made the game far more competitive.  Using the USWNT as a benchmark, there have been several times where the women's team has been outmatched during their storied career. As a USWNT fan, it hurts when they lose. As a fan of the game, it's nice to see the women's game grow.  What I love about the women's game is that different countries, which may not have success in the men's game, are competitive in women's soccer. In men's soccer, the power is concentrated. You may not know who is going to win the World Cup, but you do know it'll most likely be a team from Europe or ...
Read more