TOKYO – When Sweden and Canada meet in the match for the gold medal in women’s football, they will make a subtle story: for the first time, the two finalists of an Olympics or a women’s World Cup beat the United States to get there.
It’s not even a fluke. The Swedes were the best team in this tournament; they played five games and were behind only once, for four minutes. While US fans are wondering what happened to their team, the most relevant answer comes from across borders. Sweden happened. Canada happened. Europe happened. The global popularity explosion of the sport has occurred.
Any discussion at the end of the tournament is full of analytical holes: recency bias, overreaction, predicting the future. The point here is not that Sweden has overtaken the United States as the number one world power in women’s football. It is that the popularity of the game is spreading, more countries are busy competing and, logically, it is more difficult for a team to dominate.
This is good for women’s football. Heck, it’s fine for the world. But it’s not that great for people who want to see the US win every single time.
The Olympics are just a tournament. The United States won the last major competition, the Women’s World Cup in 2019. But the Olympics are instructive, not for what they say about the USWNT, but for what they say about artists like Sweden.
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Five years ago, when Sweden stunned the United States on penalties in Rio, there was a feeling that if the teams played 10 more times, the Americans would have won at least eight. This year, Sweden would probably be the favorite to win the most. Swedish coach Peter Gerhardsson, hired in 2017, said the country’s fuel system has advanced significantly since he took over.
“The game is stronger, and [there are] better clubs, “Gerhardsson said during a press conference at the Olympic Village on Thursday night.” From better clubs you get a better environment, better teammates. “.
Sweden played their first international women’s match, against Finland in 1973, but in the 1990s, as women’s football began to establish itself as a global spectator sport, the United States had a significant financial and talent advantage. This gave the Americans an edge, but the advantage dwindled.
When the United States sent NBA superstars to the 1992 Olympics, it was both a show of domination and an attempt to create parity. Three decades later, the United States remains the best men’s basketball nation in the world. But it’s nowhere near as dominant as it was in ’92.
Geoff Burke / USA TODAY Sport
The USWNT has never been more dominant than the basketball Dream Team. Furthermore, he has never had the advantage of an established and very popular professional league in the United States. American fans supported their national team and all the fans around the world. Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd are all more famous than anyone else on the roster of some Major League baseball teams, for example. But support from the National Women’s Soccer League, while on the right trajectory, has been patchy, and while the league has found solid ground as it enjoys its ninth season, its predecessors have all met their demise.
Meanwhile, clubs have sprung up all over Europe, either as part of clubs that have popular men’s teams or as independent women’s teams. When the Swedes defeated Brazil at the 2003 Women’s World Cup, 1.5 million out of eight million watched on TV. You can imagine what happened next. In 2003 there were around 40,000 women registered to play in Sweden; 16 years later, there were nearly 95,000.
In 2007 the Dutch federation organized a women’s professional league. This was replaced by a Belgian-Dutch league in 2012 but resumed playing in ’15. This year, the Dutch took the United States to penalties before losing the quarter-finals, two years after reaching the Women’s World Cup final against the United States and withering in the second half.
There are, literally, more of them where they come from. In the 2019 World Cup, eight of the 16 teams that passed the knockout stage were from Europe. But as Gerhardsson pointed out, “There are only three at the Olympics [in the whole tournament]. This is the rule “.
The USWNT, winner of this year’s bronze medal, was a group on the verge of transition, with a string of endangered legends. It would have been great for US players and fans if they had won gold, anyway, but speak well of the sport that they didn’t. Canada, who had knocked on the door of the top flight after the consecutive bronzes in London and Rio, are very good and have found a way to win the semi-final. Sweden have proven to be a better team than America right now. The United States will remain a power, but it will continue to have company.
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