The U.S. women’s national team hit a historic low this summer, exiting the Women’s World Cup in the round of 16 and falling out of the top two of FIFA’s world rankings for the first time since they started keeping track of them in 2003.
A myriad of problems for the USWNT compounded to raise existential questions about the future of U.S. team and its place as the globe’s gold standard. Many of those must be answered by the U.S. Soccer Federation, which is still in search of a new head coach after the resignation of Vlatko Andonovski.
But the National Women’s Soccer League must be part of that conversation, too. Of the 23 players that represented the U.S. at the World Cup, 22 of them play in the NWSL. Andonovski got the USWNT head coach job based entirely on his rise to fame within the NWSL. The league was, up until recently, literally managed and funded by U.S. Soccer, too.
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No, the NWSL is not the reason the U.S. failed at the World Cup — injuries, bad tactics and growing global investment are the…
