When the FIFA Men’s World Cup ended on July 19, it was a sad day for soccer fans—and not just because Argentina lost. No, that was fine. It was sad because the whole wonderful spectacle had come to a sudden close, not to return for four long years.
Actually, this summer’s soccer pageantry should be a reminder that the 2027 Women’s World Cup is now less than a year away. The tournament runs from June 24 through July 25 in Brazil.
While the U.S. men have struggled to break through on the world stage—once again failing to reach the quarterfinals—the U.S. women have long been an international powerhouse, with four FIFA World Cup titles and five Olympic golds to their credit.
They are also early favorites to win it all in Rio.
Many of the athletes behind the U.S. dominance are now household names, including Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Abby Wambach, and the Golden Bears’ own Alex Morgan ’14.
“We were getting sponsors coming to U.S. Soccer, saying, ‘We want to work with the women.’”
A four-time All-Pac-10 and All-American selection in her time at Cal (2007–10), Morgan went on to a 15-year career with the national team (2010–24) and was twice named Female Player of the Year by the U.S. Soccer Federation, in 2012 and 2018.
Only a few years later, she would help bring a gender discrimination lawsuit against the very same organization. “Yes, we sued our employer,” Morgan said in an interview with podcaster Alex Cooper last year.
“So, this started back in 2015, [when] we won the World Cup for the first time in 16 years. All of a sudden, we had sold-out stadiums and were generating revenue for U.S. Soccer like never before. We were getting sponsors coming to U.S. Soccer, saying, ‘We want to work with the women.’ … We were seeing … the returns at the end of the year, so you’re like, I know what you’re making, and I know what we’re generating, and this isn’t adding up.”
When the U.S. men’s team made it to the Round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup, they were awarded $5.38 million in bonuses.
A year later, when the women won it all at the World Cup in Canada, the payout was $1.73 million.
So, in 2016, Morgan and four other national team members filed a federal wage-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And, in 2019, just before Team USA won the Women’s World Cup in France, they filed a class-action suit. Morgan became the lead plaintiff in the landmark gender discrimination case, Morgan v. USSF.
In 2022, the women prevailed, securing a $24 million settlement that included backpay and also guaranteed equal contracts for the men’s and women’s soccer teams going forward.
Morgan, who retired from professional soccer in 2024, told Cooper she was holding her 3-year-old daughter as she signed the papers.
