Securing a spot at next year’s World Cup was the priority. Locking up a spot at the Paris Olympics was a nice bonus.
The real benefit of the Concacaf championship, however, was that the U.S. women’s next generation learned what it takes to win a title. And that could lead to many, many more of them down the road.
“It is very obvious the team is significantly younger than the previous time we played Canada,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said after the USWNT beat their neighbors to the north 1-0 on Alex Morgan’s penalty in the 78th minute Monday night to clinch the Concacaf title and a spot in the Paris Olympics.
“We changed five players in the starting lineup. They’re going to be here for at least three, maybe four World Cups,” he added. “So get used to it.”
The glee in Andonovski’s voice as he said that will no doubt carry all the way to Europe.
The story in women’s soccer the last few years has been the rise of the European teams, fueled by federations that are finally putting money into their women’s programs and domestic leagues doing the same. Three of the last four teams playing at the 2019 World Cup were from Europe. ESPN’s list of the top 50 players in the world last month was dominated by European teams, England and Spain in particular.
The suggestion is that the dominance of the USWNT, winners of four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, if not over, will at least be severely challenged.
But what has made the USWNT so formidable across so…
