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World Cup: US Women's Soccer Team Strives For Wins On The Field And In The Courtroom

 June 4, 2019 at 10:39 AM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 [inaudible]. Speaker 2: 00:07 That was four years ago in Canada and now the US women's national soccer team is preparing to defend it's World Cup title as the tournament gets underway this weekend in France. But while the team has been successful on the field winning three World Cup titles in four Olympic gold medals off the field, it's a different story. A new book gives a behind the scenes history of the team from its formation in the 1980s to the run up to the 2019 World Cup. Caitlin Murray is a soccer journalist and author of the new book, the national team, the inside story of women who changed soccer. She joins us via Skype. Caitlin, welcome. Hi. Thanks for having me. So earlier this year the US women's national soccer team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit accusing US Soccer Federation of paying lower wages to women in writing this book. What else did you learn about the other ways in which female players are treated differently from their male counterparts? Speaker 3: 01:05 Yeah, equal pay has become an issue on the US women's national team for the past couple of years. And one of the things I learned in working on this book is that these sorts of fights with the federation have actually been going on throughout the team's history. It's just that usually it was happening behind the scenes, behind the scenes, the players were organizing boycotts. And there's a great, a anecdote in my book where Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy are sitting in a conference room with the president of us soccer in 1999 and they're essentially sort of telling him off and telling him that they're not going to play soccer for the US federation ever again if the federation doesn't treat the players better. And that was really interesting to learn because I think that equal pay and issues of equality in sports have become bigger issues recently. Certainly with the women filing this gender discrimination lawsuit in March, that has brought it to the forefront. Speaker 3: 02:06 But this is really been something that the team has been doing for a long time and this kind of part of the team's DNA just constantly pushing and standing up for itself. So how has the teams fight for equality evolved over the years? Have the players made any gains? Yeah, I mean going back to the nineties, I mean the players, um, you know, they were getting $10 a day per diem and that was it. They didn't have pretty basic things like the men's team were provided meals for the training sessions and the women were not provided. Those. One player I talk about in my book, I had never heard this story before. One of the players was kicked off the team when she got pregnant and they had to fight for a pregnancy protection in their contracts. So there've been a lot of gains over the years. Speaker 3: 02:56 I think some of those gains were for pretty basic things. Um, you know, none of these players were getting rich off being members of the US women's national team in the early days and now I think the conversation has adjusted in a way where they're not asking for such basic things anymore. But there are still things like the men's team pretty much plays all their games on natural grass. The women have had to play a significant portion of their games on artificial turf, which soccer players say is a lot harsher on their bodies and harder to recover from. So that's part of this lawsuit. It's not just about money, it's a higher level, it's more professional and they have main gay made gains. But clearly, you know, there's still work to do. And in what ways have the u s national women's soccer team changed the sport? Speaker 3: 03:47 Well, I think soccer really wasn't on the map in the United States until the 1999 women's World Cup. I think most people remember that moment when Brandy chestain scored that penalty kick against China and she rips off her shirt. And the image of her in her sports bra is on the cover of sports illustrated. And to this day, I think it's one of the most iconic images and moments in sports. And prior to that point, soccer wasn't really a sport that people cared or talked about in the United States. One year before that at the 1998 men's World Cup, the men's USA team came in last place and they were sort of a laughing stock and there wasn't really much reason to be excited about soccer in this country until that 1999 women's World Cup was the biggest story of that summer. It was the biggest sporting event of that year. And what's the status of the discrimination lawsuit and how has us soccer federation responded to the players allegations? Speaker 3: 04:49 Yeah, it's interesting. US Soccer did uh, respond legally. They just had to answer and basically deny everything that was in the lawsuit. So that has happened and now it looks like this will probably end up going to trial. It's going to take a long time. If it goes to trial, it'll probably be next year. It may be us soccer denying the allegations, claiming that the men bring in more revenue than the women, which you know, is a whole other issue. Um, but it'll be months before we kind of know where this is going to end up for now. The players just have to get through the World Cup and kind of, you know, push it out of their minds. So is all of this, what inspired you to write this book? Yeah, and you know, part of it is this team, the US women's national team is one of the most dominant women's teams in sports and they're really important team. Speaker 3: 05:47 But no one had ever really told the full story of this team and kind of the context of how this team came to be, what it is. And I really wanted to take in the locker rooms, in the board rooms, kind of dig into some of these stories that frankly I just hadn't heard before. A weren't really out there and do the team justice because this is a team, you know, they've won multiple world cups, they won multiple gold medals, they have sell out crowds, the record TV ratings, all of those things. And yet there were still a lot that we just didn't know about the team. So for me it was really about doing the team justice. Speaker 2: 06:23 Okay. And you're going to be in France for the World Cup. So what are some of your predictions for how the u s will perform in the 2019 World Cup? Speaker 3: 06:32 Yeah, I think that people are expecting the US to repeat and I just think that's very difficult. It's very rare for teams to win back to back World Cups, both on the men's and the women's side. And um, I think this is a world cup where we can see a first time winner because the women's game has progressed so much in so many teams are better now. France, the host have never made it to a final, but they've always been super talented. Uh, there's just been sort of a mentality piece that has been missing. So I'm interested to see how being the host and having the crowds behind them, how that's going to help France, you know, other teams I'll be watching for Australia and England are two teams that I've never made a final as well. But I think they look really good. Um, it's hard to make a prediction. I think the US did get a difficult draw where it looks like at this point we'll have to see how the game just play out. But at this point, the u s could have to play Germany or France in the quarter final, and those are two incredibly difficult teams that could very easily when the World Cup. So it's going to be a tough, tough path for the u s and they are going to repeat. Speaker 2: 07:41 I've been speaking with Caitlin Murray, journalist and author of the new book, the national team, the inside story of the women who changed soccer. Caitlin, it was great speaking with you. Yeah. Thanks for having me. The 2019 women's World Cup starts this Friday with a match between host country France and South Korea at noon. Speaker 1: 08:00 [inaudible].

Ahead of the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, soccer journalist Caitlin Murray discusses her new book about the history behind the U.S. Women’s National Team and its long struggle for greater equity.
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