It was July 7th and the US was facing the Netherlands in a tense final match. Temperatures rose well into the 80’s as the two faced off at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, filled to the brim with fans. However, the 57,900 in attendance barely scratched the surface of the number of viewers as nearly 20 million people streamed the game from the US alone. The game was extremely tense, with the favored US team unable to break the draw at nil nil until after the first hour had elapsed. Previously, the US women’s national team had been the first to score in each of their world cup matches - and each time before the 13th minute. Victorious in each of their six matches preceding the final, the US was in a strong position. They had already beat the host country France in the quarter finals and had two of the tournament’s leading goal scorers on their attacking lineup. Alex Morgan had scored six times in the tournament already, and Meghan Rapinoe had five times. Both had good odds in the running for the Golden Boot. They had already set two world records by the time they arrived on the pitch that afternoon having beat Thailand in their opening game by a staggering 13 - 0: the largest score gap to ever be reached in a world cup game. Not only that, but the victory allowed the US women to set the record for the most goals scored during the group stage. Spoiler alert, following their eventual victory in the final, the US women set at least two more records: the most goals scored in a women’s world cup tournament (26, especially helped by the 13 in their first match) and the most world cup wins for a women’s team. The US now holds four titles with their nearest competitor, Germany, holding only two.
The Women’s World Cup, held every four years just like the men’s, is a time for people to get together and cheer on their favorite teams. That objective has been difficult to achieve for the US men’s team however. The best they did was win 3rd place in 1930 when the US first joined the competition. At the time, teams played in the group stage and then went straight to the semi-finals. Since then, there have been a total of 20 more men’s world cups and the US has qualified for 9 of them. Their next highest place was 8th, when the team made it to the quarterfinals in 2002. Otherwise, the men have been eliminated from the tournament either in the group stage or round of 16 and failed to even qualify in 2018 with losses against Tobago and Trinidad. Although the women’s national team has only played in the World Cup in 1991, since then they have won four times, placed second once, and been in third place the remaining three times. They have yet to fail to qualify or place high enough for a medal. While the men have currently scored 37 goals and yielded 62 in their 10 tournaments, the women have scored 138 goals and yielded 38 in their 8 appearances. That is more than a threefold increase in goals scored. Of the 50 matches they have played, the women have won 80% of them (40) and lost only four. Given their less than stellar performance, the men have only played 33 matches, only 8 of which they have won. They have lost 19 times.
Upon the final whistle, the US women exploded into celebration. So too did the American fans in the stands. They started cheering and chanting. However, they weren’t screaming “Ra-pi-noe” or “Mor-gan” or even “U-S-A”. They were calling for “equal pay.” FIFA gives a substantial monetary prize to the victors of the World Cup, this year awarding $30 million to the participating teams. In 2023 they have announced the sum will double. Nonetheless, the French national team brought home their winning cut of $400 million last year upon winning in Russia and the next dividend is said to be $440 million (not a doubling like the women’s prize, but a $40 million increase when the women will be awarded only $30 million more). In 2015, the women’s winning cut was $2 million. In 2014, the German winners’ cut was $35 million. In comparison, the women made 6 cents for every dollar earned by the men. The US men’s team brought home more than four times the money for placing 11th than the women did for winning. At home, the US women’s national team have filed to sue the USSF once again, having already done so after their world cup victory in 2015. According to the lawsuit filed by every player on the women’s national team at the time, “a top-tier women’s national player would earn 38 percent of the compensation of a comparable men’s player”. This is despite the fact that the women’s league has reportedly brought in $8 million in net revenue between the 2016 and ‘17 seasons, while the men had a net revenue of $350,000 over 2015 and ‘16. In early 2016, Alex Morgan, the highest paid US women’s player, was reported to make $450,000 aside from endorsements. Neymar Jr., holding the record for the highest transfer fee from Barcelona to PSG and now the highest paid player in the world, cost $263 million to move and will receive an annual salary of $53 million. The women on the US national team will file another suit against the USSF for gender-based pay discrimination. The practice was made illegal when the Equal Pay Act was signed into law in 1963. That was more than a half century ago.