(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
The Women’s World Cup begins June 6 across six different cities in Canada, and ends with the final in Vancouver on July 5. The U.S. hasn’t won the tournament since 1999, though it did come close in 2011, losing a heartbreaker to Japan in penalty kicks. The Americans, ranked No. 2 in the world behind Germany, are expected to make it to the championship match though they do have the toughest group to start with games against Australia, Sweden and Nigeria.
For The Win spoke with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati ahead of the World Cup about Team USA’s chances.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports)
FTW: How are you feeling about this group heading into Canada?
Sunil Gulati: This team has always set very high bench marks for itself and very high goals, so certainly the goal for this summer is to be on the winner’s stand in Vancouver. Anything short of that will be less than the players and many ways the entire country, from a soccer spectator point of view, want.
But it won’t be easy because there are a number of teams and countries around the world that have invested heavily in the game that are all capable on a particular day of winning. It’s not the situation of 20 years ago where maybe there were half a dozen teams that were very competitive. There are far more than that now. That’s easy to notice by the expansion of the World Cup itself (from 16 teams to 24) and we’ll see how those results go. But it’s not often that you’re winning the games 5, 6, 7-0 that 20 years ago we might have. We might have some of those games, but they’re against team that are very new to the sport in terms of investment.
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FTW: What is the next step for development in the U.S. women’s game? The rest of the world is starting to bridge the gap in a way they haven’t before, so how does the U.S. plan to stay ahead of everyone?
Sunil Gulati: Other people are putting in more resources, but we’re still putting far more resources in this game than anyone else in the world, whether it’s the college level, youth level or the national team level, and now having started the (NWSL) league three years ago, that’s continued.
It’s not a time trial. We’re not just getting better from a 4-minute mile. It’s a competition against the world. We’ll continue to make those sorts of investments and make changes where necessary and try to stay at the leadership of the game. But no one on the men’s side or the women’s side wins every World Cup. So we’ll continue to make sure we’re in the mix and in the conversation, and at least as of now it’s still the case that all of our teams do well in international competitions. Doesn’t mean they win them all. And all countries around the world look to us for leadership.
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FTW: If the U.S. doesn’t win this summer, do you think Abby Wambach would really retire without a World Cup?
Sunil Gulati: Abbby’s decision is a very personal one. I think it’s safe to say if we don’t win it this summer she would end up retiring without a Women’s World Cup trophy because it’s another four years. What she decides to do another year from now about the Olympics is really up to her.
FTW: What do you think about Sepp Blatter recently calling himself the “godfather” of the women’s game?
Sunil Gulati: [Gulati declined comment.]
(AP Photo/Rich Schultz)
FTW: Since all the World Cup games in Canada are being played on turf, why are all the U.S. send-off series games on natural grass when Jill Ellis wanted at least two to be played on turf?
Sunil Gulati: We chose to play in three phenomenal stadiums, all of which have natural grass. And all of the soccer specific stadiums that have been built in the U.S. for MLS all have natural grass, which is a preferable surface, there’s no doubt about that. So we chose to play in three stadiums in different parts of the country and my guess is we’ll have three sell outs, so it would be pretty hard to argue about that.
The players play enough on artificial surfaces so they know what it’s like and Jill will certainly do some of that in Canada as part of their training.
