U.S. Women’s Soccer Versus Germany, ESPN – U.S. News & World Report (blog)

A victory by the U.S. women’s national soccer team on Tuesday against
Germany would seal a trip to the final World Cup match, but the match between the
second-ranked Americans and first-place Germany is gathering almost as
much attention as a championship. The game could see record television viewership for the
U.S. women’s team – which has the chance to avenge the defeat
of their male counterparts in the 2014 men’s World Cup. The match airs at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

While the U.S. has one of the best women’s soccer teams in the world and is led by Abby Wambach, who holds the international goal-scoring record for both
male and female players, American networks have not lavished the same amount of attention on the women’s team, or women athletes in general, as is reserved for men. Only 2 percent of airtime on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” devoted coverage to any women’s sports during 2014,
according to a study conducted by researchers from Purdue University and
the University of Southern California. 

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A U.S. victory on Tuesday would be a source of national pride and a chance for women’s
soccer to gain more broadcasting credibility at home. Here are some other top statistics that show
the significance of the match between the top-ranked German and U.S. rivals:

Soccer is slowly winning American
audiences:

The Nielsen Company shows that Americans are watching more Major League Soccer
games in recent years, but that growth pales in comparison to viewership of sports like
American football and basketball. Broadcasters in the U.S. devoted 74.5 percent
of their men’s sports coverage in 2014 to basketball, football and baseball,
according to the study conducted by USC and Purdue researchers. That study also
determined that the paltry coverage of women’s sports given by Los Angeles broadcast affiliates and ESPN’s “SportsCenter” was
devoted to basketball 81.6 percent of the time.

Women’s World Cup Viewers in 2015:
So far, a combined average audience of 4.4 million Americans tuned in to watch the first four
U.S. games of the World Cup, not including the win against China on June 25, according
to ratings from the Nielsen Company. Ratings from the company show the Women’s
World Cup in 1999 averaged 2.1 million viewers per game, which shrank to an
average of 679,000 in 2003, and dipped again to 288,000 viewers in 2007, while recovering
slightly to an average of 375,000 Americans in 2011. The U.S. women’s national
team ranked third in the tournament in 2003 and 2007, while placing
second to Germany in 2011.

The U.S. men’s soccer team got a larger audience during the tournament last year. During the 2014 Men’s World Cup 24.7 million Americans tuned in to watch the U.S. play Portugal, according to Nielsen ratings cited by NPR. An average of 4.5 million Americans watched each of the 64 matches during the 2014 tournament – on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC – according to a press release from ESPN. 

Women’s sports are sidelined in the
U.S.: Team USA is getting more attention now that they are once again in
the tournament semifinals, but viewership probably won’t even come close to the U.S. audience for a championship game in men’s sports. The NBA Finals in both
2014 and 2015 boasted a height of approximately 18 million viewers during
certain matches of the championship series, America’s top television event, the
Super Bowl, attracted approximately 112 million viewers in 2014, the ratings
show. The TV audience for that one NFL game was nearly as high as the U.S. viewership
during the entire 2014 World Cup tournament, which generated 119 million viewers,
the report shows.

World Cup Scoring record: Wambach, Team USA’s striker, already has the world
record for goals during international matches for both male and female players,
tallying 183. But on Tuesday she could break the record for the most goals ever during the Women’s World
Cup. Ahead of the match against Germany, she had scored 14 goals during tournament matches, tying her for second place with now-retired
German player Birgit Prinz. The
tournament record of 15 goals is held by Brazilian player Marta Vieira da Silva.
Think of Wambach the next time someone says “you play like a girl.”

Gender equality wins championships: Women’s national soccer teams that come from countries with higher indicators of gender equality often score more points during the World Cup, according to Public Radio International. Better luck next time, Colombia.

To see data for individual countries, view the full graph here.