The USA team can't get the best athletic women to even play soccer so the rest of the world has closed the gap on Hamm and crew. It's the same for the men. As long as basketball and football get MJ and Barry Sanders and Jackie and Marion run track get use to losing the WWC. We don't live in Brazil. The Dream Team show cased the best we have after Ali of course. If USA wants to dominated women soccer like that then it had better become a ghetto sport, cause Pele don't live the suburban community of Rio.
1. Forechecking is pressuring the other team's defense in their own end. In hockey (unlike soccer)you can hit/check the last person to touch the puck/ball. But hockey or soccer, the idea is to force defensive mistakes and then capitalize on them. It takes a lot of effort and aggression and it can look scrambly at times but it can also be very effective. 2. For all their possession in the opponent's end, the USWNT hasn't been good at converting that advantage into goals in the run of play. Germany, Sweden and Canada seem to be more much effective in this regard. On the other hand, China suffers the same problem as the USWNT only worse. Solving this problem is the area of most leverage for both teams. 3. Germany (and Europe in general) is more into track and field than the USA is. They also lose top athletes to track, maybe more than the USA. 4. I agree with most of the points made by JohnR and Adam Z. The women's game will improve more rapidly (relatively) than the men's game and the USWNT will likely never again be as dominant as they once were. Both will occur for the same reason. As JohnR said, "Easier to close the gap than to extend it". It's all about the law of diminishing returns.