Can Women’s Soccer in the U.S. Keep Up?

In late November, the Washington Spirit and Gotham F.C. met at PayPal Park, in San Jose, California, for the National Women’s Soccer League’s championship game. During a scoreless first half, Trinity Rodman, the Spirit’s star forward, sat on the sideline, but she was never far from mind. She’d been out for weeks recovering from an injured knee, but she had been cleared to play, and everyone knew that she had the skill and the daring to change the game in an instant. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, she had been part of the dominant front line of the U.S. Women’s National Team that accounted for ten of the team’s twelve goals on its gold-medal run. I