Why Donald Trump and the right can't leave women's soccer alone
The United States Women's National Team headed into this World Cup on a high. They had finally reached a deal with the U.S. Soccer Federation and won equal pay to the men's team in 2022 after a six-year legal battle. They were defending champions, having won not only in 2019, but 2015 too, and hoped to become the first team to win three World Cups in a row for either gender. All of their momentum on and off the field made the U.S. an obvious team to watch, but they were eliminated from the tournament on Sunday, exiting with their worst outcome ever and inspiring a barrage of hate from the right.
Ultimately, the U.S. fell to Sweden early Sunday morning after a still-scoreless overtime and penalty kicks that reached a sudden death round. It was their best game of the tournament yet . . . and a crushing defeat. Based on performance, the U.S. didn't necessarily deserve to move past Portugal after their 0-0 tie in the group stage, but they deserved to beat Sweden. While the team still clearly had kinks to work out, they started to look like their old selves again, and maybe this was what set off alarm bells for conservatives who have a long history of crying over athletes who protest inequality and women who dye their hair blue. Trump rushed to Truth Social to celebrate his country's loss. "WOKE EQUALS FAILURE," he wrote. "Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!!"
Other conservative internet personalities and troll accounts alike continued to pile on online, specifically targeting Megan Rapinoe, who announced that she is retiring at the end of the National Women's Soccer League season. "I'm thrilled they lost," Megyn Kelly said on her SiriusXM show. "Good. I'm glad they went down. You don't support America, I don't support you." Turning Point USA chief creative officer Benny Johnson mocked Rapinoe for missing a penalty kick and celebrated the "woke US Women's Soccer Humiliation" while another conservative strategist called Rapinoe a "woke piece of trash" and said he roots for the United States in every sport except women's soccer — showing that conservatives still rank women-hating above patriotism. Rapinoe, a gay woman who is outspoken across many social issues, first landed in the political conversation in 2017, when she began kneeling during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, reminding us that the right-wing hate thrown at the USWNT is not just about gender. Another person tweeted a photo of her kneeling and wrote "This is why I was laughing my a** off yesterday #NiceShotMegan." #NiceShotMegan is where a lot of this vitriol lives and where you can find conservatives celebrating the "woke choke" and the failure of their country on a global stage.
This photo is why I was laughing my ass off yesterday ?? #NiceShotMegan pic.twitter.com/FaNhDiR0UN
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) August 7, 2023
But, the United States did fail. Between injuries, retirements and a new group of next generation players, the team looked very different in their first tournament after achieving equal pay. Young 22-year-old players like Sophia Smith were expected to continue the legacy of veterans like Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Kelley O'Hara — and they had all the brand deals and commercial spots to prove it. The team never really hit their stride, underperforming, struggling to finish and failing to look like the cohesive, dominant team that took down both the Netherlands and the patriarchy with their last World Cup appearance. While Trump and conservatives were decisive with their response to the game, neither the media nor fans knew how to react.
Carli Lloyd – former USWNT member and the woman who scored a hat trick in the 2015 World Cup final versus Japan – received backlash when she criticized the team for celebrating with fans after their draw versus Portugal. "To be dancing, to be smiling?" she said. "The player of the match was that post. You are lucky to not be going home right now." Lloyd, despite being an incredible player whose contributions to U.S. soccer will be remembered for a long time, is a little bit of an outcast when it comes to the team. She was often one of the few players not kneeling during the national anthem with the rest of her team. Now, since retiring and becoming a commentator for Fox Sports, Lloyd has been a critic of the "mentality change" she's seen in the program, saying that players focus too much on what's going on off the field.
While Lloyd has a complicated legacy in the context of the U.S. Women's fight for equality, her comments in this particular instance shouldn't have been so controversial. It was weird to watch players celebrating after an uncharacteristic and disappointing performance. But, we were in uncharted waters: the U.S. was playing badly. It was hard to figure out how to talk about a team who had been exceptional for over a decade, particularly since their exceptional level of play was tied to validating that they deserved at least equal pay. Lloyd's words struck a chord and called into question how to navigate talking about women's sports, which is fraught with so much meaning politically.
Still, this tournament wasn't nearly as political as previous ones. Though it looks like some players opted to not sing or put their hands on their hearts during the national anthem, this World Cup generally drew fewer headlines. There was no warm-up gear with "Black Lives Matter" printed on it, and there were no feuds between superstar forward Rapinoe and Trump about going to the White House. Rapinoe doesn't even start anymore. Trump and the right-wing trolls were relatively quiet until the game versus Sweden, but they poked their heads out from their sad internet echo chamber just in time to make a few memes at Rapinoe's expense and contradict their America-loving, patriotic images. We can't be all too surprised, though. To be a female athlete means that you're often subject to exploitation, scrutiny and pile-ons, and even more so if you speak up for yourself. Just ask Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. Women's soccer will never be free of haters or be able to exist outside of politics because the right knows what the USWNT is capable of, and there's no saying what they'll accomplish next, especially if they fire head coach Vlako Andonovski.
It was a disappointing loss and even more disappointing tournament for the United States, but that's how sports go. We lost, but we'll rebuild and be back better next time. In the meantime, another women's soccer team is on its way to inspire another generation of young girls just like the USWNT did for me. For example, Jamaica made it to the knockout round after partly raising funds to make it to the tournament on GoFundMe, a Canadian player became the first out transgender person to compete in a World Cup, and a Moroccan player wore a hijab for the first time in the tournament too. The United States, Brazil and Germany have already been eliminated, and Colombia is making program history by reaching the quarterfinals. Anything can happen, and great soccer can be played by women not from the United States. While conservatives seem to be having fun at the USWNT's expense online, Megan Rapinoe and the USWNT, with multiple World Cup wins, Olympic medals and millions of adoring fans — and their new, higher salary equal to that of the men — will always have the last laugh.
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