I’m not a sports oracle but I did predict that the US Women’s Soccer Team wasn’t going to dominate women’s soccer for long. I predicted that long before they flamed out in the last World Cup. This wasn’t hard to predict. If you knew anything about international soccer and “travel soccer” in the US this was like predicting the sun would set in the west. And it has.

The USWNT dominated the world stage because the rest of the world didn’t give a damn about women’s soccer. It’s that simple. The rest of the world cared about and watched men’s soccer because the rest of the world cared exclusively about men’s soccer. Girls and women didn’t get the resources. Women’s soccer wasn’t just an afterthought; it was a “no thought.” Not even girls and women in England or Germany or Brazil cared to develop female soccer players to play on the international stage. Yes, part of it was plain old misogyny, and part of it was… well, actually, it was all misogyny.

Every four years, the rest of the planet tuned in and watched the World Cup. No one on the rest of the planet thought of women when they thought of the “Word Cup.” While the rest of the world yawned at women’s soccer, the US was developing women’s soccer through feeder youth programs. In the U.S., talented girls became talented women. The rest of the planet didn’t care because the rest of the planet cared about men playing soccer. The US dominated because no other country had feeder programs like the US.

Then, things changed.

While Megan Rapinoe was making an ass of herself, the rest of the planet was catching up. At the Brazil Olympics, the US didn’t dominate because other teams played tactical soccer. And the US lost to Sweden.

Then last year, the US augered in at the World Cup because the rest of the world had caught up. The rest of the world was developing women to play soccer. It caught up.

On February 26th, the USWNT played a match against Mexico and the US got shellacked. They never had a chance of winning:

Mexico held the United States to a 2-0 loss with a confident performance in its third group game of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, winning Group A. The goals were the first that the USWNT had conceded to Mexico since 2010, also during a regional tournament. For the U.S., it was a game riddled with errors from a sub-optimal lineup that couldn’t figure out how to break Mexico’s pressure.

“We just didn’t play nearly our best,” forward Alex Morgan said after the match on Paramount+. “We found some pockets here and there, but not nearly enough. Didn’t execute on the chances we had. I don’t think we tested the goalkeeper, I think we got broken down way too easily.”

The unfortunate reality for the USWNT is that its days of cockiness and dominance are over. The world caught up. In some respects, that’s a good thing. Players like Megan Rapinoe are gone, and loudmouths like her won’t have the unfiltered forums to push nonsense agendas. We never had to listen to Rapinoe, but now she’s lost most of her capital. Now, instead of politics, maybe the USWNT can develop players instead of loudmouths?