Only for the national team players. US soccer subsidizes their pay. Otherwise some work two-three other jobs. But! Budweiser became an official corporate sponsor of the league today and ESPN bought the rights to the second half of the season so this World Cup has brought some great changes and I expect more to follow.
Are the clubs aligned with MLS sides? A cursory wikipedia search makes a couple of the teams look similar to MLS sides in the areas. Houston, Utah and Orlando to be specific.
Can argue England had a better performance against the US than this Dutch side; either that or the US just stepped it up a gear this game
Portland, Houston, and Orlando are connected, iirc. Not sure all of them are, though. Portland is the most equal of all of them/should hopefully become the basis going forward.
some of them have the same ownership, but not all do. i don't think there is any offical alignment other than owners/locations
Good game to watch. US clearly still a class above. Really do have some class players, that’s the standard that teams should be aspiring to. The Dutch were decent in the game but lacked cutting edge and were too reluctant to get shots off. The standard of football across the whole tournament has massively improved from 4 years back. Most games have been competitive and some thrilling to watch. It’s a shame we’ve left the tournament empty handed. It’ll be interesting to see the impact this has in viewing figures for the WSL next season. England’s next game vs Germany has already sold more than 20000 tickets so the interest is there at the moment and hopefully it can be sustained and the interest in the game will transition in to more top class players coming through the regional training centres.
Don't like the tie breaker for the golden boot being assists and then who's played less minutes. Should be the number of different games scored in and open play goals count for more than pens. (Basically just give it to Ellen White dammit!)
Am I the only one that thinks Lavelle deserved the Golden Ball more than Rapinoe? At least based on the games I have watched.
Mewis and Ertz will be the unsung heroes of this World Cup. Essential players. Mewis to the point she kept arguably the best US player on the bench when it mattered.