Last week, when the interest in the US Open Cup couldn’t have been higher, several of our writers fired off articles tangentially related to competition. I wrote a piece on the need for ESPN+ to begin including the qualifying rounds of the tournament in their broadcast coverage. Dan Creel wrote a piece on the lack of women’s clubs playing in the Open Cup. After establishing that is wasn’t banned in the rules, his piece moved to it’s primary goal - “where is this USWOC?” His passion for WOSO getting an equal opportunity for an Open Cup was clear throughout his piece. When we ran the story, I looked it over and posted it as I always do with Dan’s work - he’s an accomplished writer with interesting takes, and I felt this was within the guidelines of our site and coverage.

Several hours later I received a text message from RJ Allen. If you don’t know who that is, I highly suggest checking out the site she edits and writes for, Backline Soccer. One of the best WOSO sites in the country, RJ is a leading voice in WOSO journalism and has been at it much longer than I have. We met when she was a guest on a podcast I hosted about 3 years ago and is one of those people in the soccer community who gets my attention - when she speaks, I listen. She knows what she’s talking about. The text encouraged me to remove the article from the site. I was stunned.

When I read the piece, as I’m sure Dan felt when he wrote the piece, I saw a piece that backed WOSO and encouraged equality and respect for the women’s game. A piece that was critical of the promotion of the men’s game over the women’s. A piece that encouraged change and reevaluation. So when I saw that message, my first response was to bristle and be defensive. RJ, who has always been patient with me, explained “the problem with pieces like that are [that] they tap into a lot of the things that we fight against from the trolls and from people who don’t take women soccer seriously.” She explained for several more messages and I began to think things over. I didn’t remove the piece, in fact, if you want to read it, it’s right here. But I did decide that night that I would talk to RJ about the article more and also reach out to other WOSO journalists who could offer their perspective on the issue. And that article is this one.

So for the purpose of this article, I spoke with RJ Allen (Backline Soccer) and another former podcasting buddy, Chelsey Bush. Chelsey has written for multiple sites but currently writes for another great WOSO site, The Equalizer. Both of these great writers were happy to share their perspectives on the USOC, the idea of women’s clubs in the tournament, a women’s only USOC, and finally what issues are facing women’s soccer currently.

“Why not play in the USOC?”

Both writers were quick to shoot down the idea of playing in the tournament currently. “It’s a flat out nonsensical suggestion,” RJ said. “The full USWNT loses to U17 boys clubs. Semi-pro women’s teams would be demolished and it would become a line in the sand for people who don’t understand why to believe that all the things they think are correct. It’s a lose/lose for the women’s teams that would enter.” Chelsey doubled down on the idea. “As much as I’d like to support it, I can’t. The fact remains that men and women are physically different. Yes, there are some players who could hang but a team by and large would not be able to compete for long…Now if a team wanted to enter simply to make a point about equality, then sure, I’d support it.”

While I, like so many passive fans of WOSO (or more specifically the USWNT), are amazed at the level of play by Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, it is a mistake to imagine these players could compete physically with the majority of professional male soccer players. I’ll admit, it pains my woke hands to even type that sentence, but this is science, not opinion. There are physiological differences that advantage men in the game. That doesn’t mean watching or supporting WOSO is fandom of some sort of lesser form of the sport, it’s just a different form. As the fan of a lower league side (UPSL) club, I do not mind that the players for FC Grande couldn’t compete with the average or even poorest MLS side. It doesn’t shake my support for my club.

“What about a USWOC?”