Lessons The U.S.A. Women's National Soccer Team Taught In Winning Their Second Straight World Cup

When you are a team that is expected to win, there are two ways you can go. You can live up to that expectation and accomplished that goal, no pun intended or you will crumble in the face of that expectation. For the United States Women’s National Soccer team (USWNST), they not only rose to the expectation of winning another World Cup, they exceeded it and taught their nation and the world some very important lessons along the way. 

The first lesson the now four-time FIFA World Cup champions after their 2-0 win in the Finals over the Netherlands at Stade de Lyon in France on Sunday showed that their teamwork and collective togetherness got them to their goal along with their individual talent. 

As a reward, they will be celebrated an honored at a victory parade down the Canyon of Heroes beginning at Battery Park in New York City, NY on Wednesday morning starting in Battery Park beginning at 9:30 a.m. 

With a team that consists of the like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, the Silver Boot Award recipient for the 2019 World Cup, Kelley O’Hara, Carli Lloyd, Rose Lavelle, The Bronze Ball recipient as the third best player in the tournament, Tobin Heath and Rockville Centre, NY’s Crystal Dunn, it can be really easy to try to overshadow each other to be lead in a supremely talented cast of players. 

Rapinoe and Morgan each had six goals and three assists to tie for the lead in those categories for the US in 490 minutes played by Morgan and 428 minutes played by Rapinoe. 

Like the World Cup titles before them in 1991, the inaugural World Cup, 1999 and 2015, the 2019 squad's triumph came down to coming together as a team and making each other better. Working together. Believing in each other and putting each other in position to win. 

Like how the 2019 FIFA Golden Ball (MVP) and Golden Boot recipient Rapinoe, the team captain for the U.S.A. converted a penalty kick in the 61^st minute to put the Team U.S.A. on the board 1-0 to become the oldest player at 34 years and two days old to ever score a goal in FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. 

That opportunity for head coach Jill Ellis’ team came courtesy of Morgan getting fouled by Stefanie van der Gragt of the Netherlands team. 

Then Rose Lavelle, who was just four years old when she watched the U.S.A. win their third World Cup 20 years ago expanded the U.S.’s lead with by scoring a goal in the 69^th minute. At 24 she became the second youngest player to score in a World Cup final, with her teammate in Morgan being the youngest at 22 when she scored in the 2011 World Cup Final. 

“She’s been missing, just that little bit all tournament. She’s been on the dribble, so dangerous for us, she’s opened up everything for us” Rapinoe, the 2019 FIFA World Cup player of the match said of the 24-year-old Lavelle to FOX Sports sideline reporter for this tournament Alex Curry. “For her to get that reward tonight on the biggest stage that you possibly can. I’m so proud of her. She’s a superstar, not even in the making. She’s straight up superstar at this point.” 

Putting these great players in position to become stars was in the hands of Coach Ellis, whose every move during this tournament came up smelling like roses as her team set a new FIFA Women’s World Cup Record for goals in a single tournament with 26, surpassing the 25 set by the U.S. 1991 squad and 2004 Germany squad each with 25. 

Coach Ellis with her second consecutive World victory as manager of the U.S. Women’s squad tied Men’s head coach Vittorio Pozzo, who led the Italian men’s team to World Cup wins in 1934 and 1938.  

“I mean, this is just an amazing group of players, but an even better group of people,” Coach Ellis, who became the first to win two FIFA Women’s World Cup titles said to Curry. “It’s just chemistry. They put their hearts and souls into this journey, and I can’t thank them enough. It’s been fantastic.” 

The U.S. Women’s Unbeaten streak of 14 games at World Cup is the longest in the history of the tournament. 

The second thing this team taught those that watched when you have the opportunity to jump on your opponent right from the jump of a competition and you can put them away you do it. 

That is what they did in the group stage of the tournament when they took down Thailand 13-0 on June 11 to open the 2019 FIFA World Cup, scoring a World Cup record 13 goals in front of a pro-American audience of 19.951 at Stade Auguste-Delaune. 

Seven different U.S. players scored a goal with Morgan tied her with former American great Michelle Akers for the most in a single World Cup match. Akers’ performance came in the US’s first World Cup title in 1991. 

Morgan’s teammates in Lavelle and fellow midfielder Samantha Mewis each scored two goals as the U.S. also set a record as the first nation with three players to have multi-goal performances in one soccer match. 

It was the first World Cup scores for Lavelle and Mewis, as well as for Midfielder Lindsey Horan and forward Mallory Pugh. 

Unfortunately, the headlines that came from that were primarily negative by not only how they ran up the score but how they capped each goal by collectively and individually celebrating as described in a June 13^th Washington Post article by Steven Goff as “too enthusiastically.”  They specifically took amends to Rapinoe’s celebratory twirl and slide after the ninth goal really galled some observers.   

“I feel like we were pent up, and that sort of explosion of joy was very genuine,” Rapinoe said of her celebration during an appearance on FOX’s World Cup television broadcast with that particular Thursday. 

Mewis, 26 added, “It can be really consuming if you are caught up in it. A lot of us have spent less time on social media or looking at media in general. At times, there are so many positive things and you want to interact with people. I get a lot of messages from friends, but [the team is] just staying focused on our goal here, and everything else is not super important.” 

What these celebrations and this victory did more than anything is provide inspiration for future generations of women who want to be in the same position as these women of the USWNT were in this World Cup. 

“Think of a mom to have these kinds of girls as a role models for my daughter, incredible,” one mom with her daughter said to ABC’s Eva Pilgrim in Lower Manhattan, NY on Monday. 

Another young lady said to Pilgrim that these 23 women are “so important for the younger generation to just see this. And to have women be fierce and strong.” 

While one other young girl said to ABC News said what the USWNT did on Sunday in France, “absolute magic.” 

Rapinoe saw that magic firsthand when she was in the stands during the 1999 World Cup Final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA to see her inspirations in Kristine Lilly, who was a part of the awards presentation and many of her 1999 teammates were in attendance for the final on Sunday. 

U.S. defender Brandi Chastain helped to win the third World Cup 20 years ago in front of an audience of 90,185 spectators, setting a world record for a women’s sporting event with the game-winning goal in that shootout scored the winning penalty in the shootout and created one of the most iconic moments in U.S. sports history when she celebrated by removing her jersey and revealing her sports bra and ripped physique. That moment appeared on all the front covers of all the major magazines and newspapers in the nation.  

Rapinoe had her own celebration displays when she received her aforementioned awards of the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, as the top scorer with six goals during this tournament. 

A friend of Rapinoe’s sent her a picture from that day when she was 13 years old, which was shown on the Monday night edition of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” with David Muir. 

“All those kids that were over their supporting us, and supporting us at home, you could be standing in front of these microphones any day,” Rapinoe said in Lower Manhattan, NY on Monday afternoon to ABC’s Eva Pilgrim and other members of the media. 

Heather O’Reilly, who was part of the 2015 Women’s World Cup championship team said that squad winning it all was about capturing that one prize that had eluded them in 2011 and 2007 in Germany and China respectably. The 2019 team as she put it “cemented themselves as legends.” 

“Incredible. Their winners. Their icons. They do things their way. They get it done on the field, and they enjoy it off the field.”  

That brings us to the third lesson of sticking together and not letting outside of the confines of the situation distract you. 

Coach Ellis’ squad faced a serious challenge in their Semifinals match against England last Tuesday as Rapinoe was sidelined due to a hamstring strain. 

The U.S. broke the seal of this Semifinal when Rapinoe’s replacement Christen Press scored a goal as for the sixth consecutive game in the opening 12 minutes. 

England tied things up at 1-1 nine minutes later thanks to a score by Ellen White. 

The teams continued to trade shots with both goal keepers in Carly Telford for England and Alyssa Naeher for the U.S.A. keeping their respective opponents from scoring into the 25^th minute of action. 

Morgan broke the standoff scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal at the half-hour mark on her 30^th Birthday. 

While Morgan’s goal got the US within one game of repeating as World Cup champions, the timely saving of Naeher by the tip of a finger saving the game-tying goal just before intermission. 

The 31-year-old Naeher proved that she could make a big save with the game hanging in the balance, just like the supremely talented and controversial Hope Solo. 

“She’s has been my No. 1,” Coach Ellis said. “There’s a theme of the tournament, ‘Dare to shine.’ So, I said to my players the other day, ‘We’re going to add to that, dare to shine the brightest.’ I said to her she shined tonight. She was the brightest.” 

“People are starting to see glimpses of what I see everyday in training. She is making her own mark and creating her own legacy.” 

A legacy of not just winning championships but one of togetherness amongst others, belief in one’s self to reach their goals and that we are all equal and that we should be treated with the same level of respect, especially when it comes to what they are paid. 

FIFA recently has faced criticism of its pay gap between the Men’s and Women’s Soccer national teams. 

While the women’s prize pay for this tournament was set at $30 million, the pay for the men was set at $400 million in Russia last year. 

The President of FIFA Gianni Infantino proposed to double the World Cup prize money for the women to $60 million for 2022, which falls $380 million short of the $440 million projected for the men.  

While the women have been getting the job done on the field in the last two World Cups, the level of interest in men’s soccer has been higher, which has resulted in them getting paid more, despite their play on the field. 

That play has been on the low side, especially after their 1-0 loss in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final loss versus Mexico on Sunday night at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. 

“If you don’t win. If you don’t generate TV ratings merchandise sales, ticket sales you’re not gonna make as much money,” “Chasing News,’” sports anchor George Falkowski said on Monday night’s edition. “The women have taken over soccer in the United States on a national level and with the men losing, the fact just last night to Mexico in the Gold Cup, which is sort of like a little lower tournament it just brings it home.” 

“The women are getting the ratings. Their selling the merchandise. They should be getting paid as well as the men.” 

In a time where we see more divisiveness in sports that one can remember from former San Francisco 49es quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling in protest of the Star Spangled Banner to how U.S.A. Women’s National Soccer team dragging the American flag the question is whether this is the right time to be having this discussion about pay, especially after what this team accomplished. 

As Communication Strategist Ronica Cleary said this moment by the USWNT demonstrates their short-term focus to wear they should be talking about fair pay, instead of equal pay. 

“I don’t know a lot about soccer, but it sounds like these women might be better players than the men,” she said on Monday night. “Why are they asking for the same pay that these losers can’t even get out of the Gold Cup?” 

“I just feel like they should be asking for what they deserve.” 

Councilman Peter Brown (D-NJ) added to that by saying sports this day in age has become big business and what the two-time champs are pointing out is their people at the top of their league to put a lot more heft into promoting them and their sport. 

He feels though that the team can go about making their point of the major pay gap in a better manner, especially how they go express their feeling about President Donald Trump, who congratulated the ladies on their win via Twitter @realDonaldTrump saying, “Congratulations to the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team on winning the World Cup! Great and exciting play. America is proud of you all!” 

“Swatting the flag, we shouldn’t be doing it,” Councilman Brown said. “This is America’s team and if you’re asking to invest in it you got to embrace America as well.” 

On Sunday, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team completed their journey of winning back-to-back FIFA World Cup titles and their fourth all-time, the most in the history of this tournament. They played to the level where that was equal to the 1991 team; the 1999 team that was full of moms; and the 2015 squad, while creating a legacy of their own. 

They performed as a team to where they displayed a confidence, relentlessness, determination, and fortitude that gained respect from their opponents, gave inspiration to their fans in attendance and watched at home in the states and answered their critics with an unrelenting, undeterred confidence that was all their own. They also started a long overdue conversation of being paid to a level that is worthy of their accomplishments. 

On Wednesday in New York, NY the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup champions will be celebrated and revered for what they accomplished, how they did it and how they began a conversation that will one day result in the next generation and generations after them being seen and treated and paid at the level they are worth. Something that Coach Ellis made sure through her horse voice that she got across to her record setting team. 

“I could barely speak, but I just said to them their unbelievable. Congratulations. They made history. Enjoy it. I mean, this is unbelievable,” She said to Curry. 

FOX’s World Cup studio analyst Alexi Lalas added by saying “Never once did they nor should they apologize for what they did. They were bold. They were brash. They were arrogant, whatever word you want to use. But ultimately, when somebody is like that or when a team is like that there’s a lot of people that come and look to see them fail. And yet with all that pressure, and all that understanding they didn’t fail.” 

“They brought it and they lived up to all the hype, and it was fun to watch because it was a different type of personality, and character for a US team, but ultimately with the same result.” 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 7/3/19 New York Newsday article, “Naeher Saves Best For Last,” by Michael Lewis; 7/7/19 11 a.m. 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final between “United States versus Netherlands” on WNYW FOX 5 with commentators JP Dellacamera, Aly Wagner and sideline reporter Alex Curry, and studio analysts Rob Stone, Kelly Smith, Heather O’Reilly, and Alexi Lalas; 7/7/19 ESPN news crawl; 7/8/19 6:30 p.m. edition of “ABC World News Tonight,” with David Muir, with report from Eva Pilgrim; 7/8/19 New York Newsday articles, “U.S. Women Rulers,” and “LI’s Dunn Shows Versatility,” by Michael Lewis; 7/8/19 11 p.m. edition of “Chasing News” on WWOR TV My 9 with Bill Spade, and the A+ panel of Communications Strategist Ronica Cleary, Linden, NJ Councilman Peter Brown (D-NJ) and sports anchor George Falkowski; 7/13/19 www.washingtonpost.com sports story, “With Larger Goals In Mind, USWNT says It’s Not Worried About How It Celebrates Them,” by Steven Goff;  https://www.ussoccer.com/competitions/fifa-womens-world-cup-2019;   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_FIFA_Women’s_World_Cup#Final; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_O’Reilly.