The U.S. women's national team's Women's World Cup encounter with the Netherlands may be a rematch of the 2019 final, with many of the same players involved in the game. Off the field, though, it's a different story.
The USWNT celebrated a fourth World Cup title in France four years ago as equal pay chants rang around the stadium, in the midst of the team's longstanding pay dispute against U.S. Soccer. The players eventually clinched the biggest win of their careers last year when they agreed to a collective bargaining agreement that ensured equal pay and working conditions, which gives this World Cup a notably different feel for the USWNT than any other.
"We were fighting a legal battle off the field and trying to also win over the world on the field, win over the world's hearts and minds and prove ourselves," Alex Morgan said ahead of a rematch against the Netherlands. "This time around, we don't have to worry about anything off the field. All we have to worry about is putting the work in, doing everything we need to do from sun up to sun down to get our bodies and our minds right for the next game in front of us and that feels really good."
Morgan shared a sense of relief now that the equal pay battle is very much behind the team and U.S. Soccer.
"Any time you take your focus off of playing, off of what's in front of you and what your job is, of course, that's taking focus away from what you need to be doing," she added. "That's distractions that are unnecessary, so not having distractions like that, like having to fight for equal pay, equal working conditions moving forward, at all, ever again, it feels really good and I hope that will soon be the case for all of the players around the world at the international level."
The forward acknowledged, though, that the fight for equality is still ongoing for many other women's soccer teams. Several teams at the World Cup are in the midst of funding disputes with their federation, including England and Canada -- England players paused negotiations over bonuses to focus on the tournament, while Canada Soccer reached an interim funding deal after it was locked in a labor dispute with the women's national team in the winter.
Morgan commended a global shift in the narrative around equal pay and working conditions, which will only assist players around the world in their fight for parity.
"Women's soccer in general has grown so much in the last four years," the USWNT co-captain said. "The conversations that have been brought up, the questions that media [members] are asking about equal pay, that was not something that was going around with all teams. It was really a focus on us, so I'm really glad that there are so many other focuses on other teams and the inequalities that the other players are facing."
She also pledged to continue supporting their international colleagues, much like the USWNT did when they protested alongside Canada's players during this year's SheBelieves Cup.
"U.S. Soccer has done a great job in supporting us and that's not the case with a lot of the other federations around the world and we know that," she said. "We'll continue to support all of the other players around the world who are fighting the battle that we fought for so long."
