You Owe It To Yourself to Watch Women's Soccer & The World Cup
This post was originally published in Nate’s newsletter on July 21
Jet lag is real.
At some point yesterday, I looked at Hope and realized I had no idea what day (or day of the week) it was. Our road to Auckland was silly (Seattle to Dubai to Singapore to Sydney to Auckland) but was necessitated by life circumstances and the packing/clothing requirements of going from northern hemisphere summer to southern hemisphere winter. Tonight when we go to sleep will be the first time we’ve spent back-to-back nights in a bed since June 15. I am far too old for all these red eye flights.
But we made it—I’m stoked for our third World Cup.
Last night, we were in Eden Park for the tournament's opening match. The hosts, the twenty-sixth ranked, New Zealand knocked off twelfth ranked Norway, 1-nil. Tomorrow we’ll return to Eden Park for the opening match for the US versus Vietnam (if you have access to a sportsbook, I suggest you bet the over, +/-6.5 goals).
As often is the case in my life, plans came together one night at a pub. While talking with some friends, we decided we should head up to Vancouver when Canada hosted the World Cup in 2015. We caught a few matches and really enjoyed the atmosphere. We decided on the drive back to Tacoma to make this our thing.
In 2019, the tournament was in France. We followed the US through the knockout rounds. The atmosphere at PSG’s Parc des Princes in the quarterfinal was electric, as tense as any football match I’ve ever attended. I have never heard anything as loud as the French crowd’s eruption when Wendie Renard scored in the 81st minute. The match result was in doubt deep into the match. We went to watch the US defeat England in the semi and the Netherlands in Lyon in the final.
In some ways, high-level women’s soccer is the best sporting experience in the world.
Players are accessible. I can’t imagine ever sitting down with Messi for an hour long chit-chat. But I interviewed arguably the best WOSO player in the world, Megan Rapinoe for an episode of Nerd Farmer. Several players from OL Reign (Seattle’s team in the NWSL, the professional WOSO league in the US) lived at Point Ruston before the team relocated to Seattle; a few players still live there.
The matches are affordable. Our tickets to last night’s opener were 30 Australian Dollars or about 20 USD ($20.29, if you’re nosey)—you can’t get in to see the Mariners lose for that much.
The US women are dominant. If you like winning, the United States is the Argentina + Brazil + Germany of WOSO. They enter the tournament seeking their third consecutive World Cup title. Meanwhile, the American men haven’t gotten out of the round of sixteen since 2002.
The game is at a really special point. It’s like the old baseball Negro Leagues or the ABA in the 1970s—arguably a better product—with less hype or recognition.
This can’t last.
In the book The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer by David Goldblat, he argues sports go through a transition from amateurism to professionalization to commercialization. WOSO in the US is professionalized. Players get paid (not enough, obviously). They play in professional facilities (I hated when OL Reign left Tacoma but they deserve to play on the same pitch as the region’s men’s team). They have a national TV deal with CBS/Paramount and are increasingly drawing larger audiences. There’s work to be done but with these structures in place, players have the chance to showcase their talent on grand stages.
But commercialization is coming.
The players deserve it but it will degrade the accessibility and affordability fans currently enjoy. Picture Alexi Lalas (bleck) bellowing “we’re coming to you live from the Subway Fresh Take Studios, here alongside the Raytheon Pitch at Facebook Stadium.” All the gross capitalistic trappings that have consumed European football and the big three US sports leagues are coming, but the barbarians aren’t quite there yet.
The US women kickoff tomorrow against Vietnam at 1pm from Eden Park here in Auckland. I’ll be there and you should be watching.