Friend and I had a fascinating debate about this? SIAP, but it’s a interesting discussion to ponder. I think it’s a close call.
The Women's World Cup. A lot of poor squad selections and mismanagement over the years in the Gold Cup has been disguised by the fact that the U.S. has played 75 out of 76 matches at home. Even accounting for the unique "lack" of home field advantage that the US national team often has against certain opponents, it's still a gigantic advantage for the team.
FWIW a $100 bet on both winning their tournaments would net you $150 for The men and $350 for the women
That's funny. I was just thinking about the same comparison several days ago. I do feel like casual fans tend to overhype the accomplishments of the USWNT because they don't realize that there are maybe a dozen countries in the world that actually take the women's game seriously, and some of them (France, Holland, Italy, etc.) only started taking it seriously in the past 10 years or so. If you read about the conditions that the female players from Jamaica, Thailand, Argentina, Nigeria, etc. have to deal with, you'd see that it would really be a monumental moral victory for them to even have a close loss to the US. That said, I think there are still more quality women's programs at the women's WC than there are quality men's programs in CONCACAF, so I voted that the WWC is harder.
there is one good team at the wwc the us is sleep walking to another win. its embarrassing that france was even a minor threat and they were barely that they had a really tall player so they scored. the women just have to show up where it will be interesting is in the upcoming years now that other countries are making atleast minimal effort if they can continue to win this easy. you can see how the youth teams are struggling already adjusting to actual competition.
The Gold Cup due to the fact that the US women have a huge head start over every other country when it comes to playing and promoting the women’s game. For instance, Real Madrid is only now starting a women’s team. I expect it will be much harder for the US women to waltz through the tournament in 10 years time.
I believe the WWC will eventually be more competitive, but at this point, I’d say it’s a tie. France, Germany, England, Italy, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, and Netherlands seem to have semi-decent squads. Whereas, there’s obviously Mexico who is the big dog in CONCACAF, but people shouldn’t sleep on historically Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Canada. While people could argue differently; people still need to remember those countries have very competitive squads. Ultimately, Canada will eventually become a major player in the region, but the rest of CONCACAF is at its ceiling. I’d think the WWC will eventually become harder.
If The Gold Cup was on the road, I would pick that, but I think people underestimate our dominance against CONCACAF teams at home, particularly against teams that aren't Mexico. By my count, over the last 5 cycles The USMNT has played 75 competitive home games against non Mexico CONCACAF teams. Our record is 65 wins. 7 draws, and 3 losses. That's dominance that the women have not had at The World Cup level (though they've been dominate too) The US losing to any team at home not named Mexico, is a massive upset. Whereas there's 3-4 teams at The Women's level who I think could beat The US and not be all that shocked by it. The women were essentially thrown into a toss up game in the quarters, and though they're favorites in the semis, I wouldn't consider them massive ones. That would never happen in a Gold Cup The only difference is the women are never an underdog, we're usually a slight underdog to Mexico.
Yep. The permanent home-field advantage is key. I do think the answer to this question has changed a little since the early 2000s. In the 1990s, the US national team wasn't quite as established and the Gold Cup commonly invited guest teams (such as Brazil, who astonishingly never won the tournament. I know Brazil brought B teams, but it still is a slight surprise). While how many national teams really provided competition to the US Women in the 1990s and early 2000s - Norway, Germany, Sweden, China? Only in the mid-2000s did this really start to change. FIFA rankings for women's national teams weren't even introduced until 2003.
Good observation. I think this is why people are shocked when we don't dominate the same teams in WCQ.
Us has won 3/7 world cups and 6/15 gold cups. The gold cup comes down basically to a game againstMexico at home, but there aren’t really any teams to challenge the US at the WWC, especially when they get a lot of help from the referees.
Yeah, I was just thinking that as well. For as much as we say that the Gold Cup is all about US vs. Mexico, it hasn't been the past three tournaments. We'll see if this year changes things.
that's an interesting question isn't it? If you look at the overall record, the US is obviously the most dominant team in the world but it is becoming far more competitive. the US has won the whole thing 3 times out of 7 but 2 of the 3 were in the 90's when, over three world cups, only six different countries made it to the top four. In 7 world cups, the US only failed to make the finals 3 times. Even though I expect the US to win it's fourth WC and second in the 2010's I would have to say that the women's wc is now slightly more difficult for the US to win than the Gold Cup. Close though....and a case can definitely be made for the Gold Cup.