Photographs by Mike Russell/Prost Amerika

TUKWILA, Wash. — Seattle has never had a women’s professional soccer team, but the Sounders Women have a pretty good squad for a semiprofessional outfit.

With five capped U.S. national team players, another behind the bench and one Mexican national team player, the Sounders Women have started strong in the United Soccer Leagues W-League Western Conference this season. The Sounders are 3-0 with their full complement of international stars (8-2-1 over all), outscoring opponents 9-1 in those games.

After signing Michelle French as the head coach, the club obtained the Mexican midfielder Veronica Perez and the U.S. national team players Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Sydney Leroux and Stephanie Cox.

“Seattle is just a great soccer city,” Morgan said after a recent game. “You can just tell, with the fans that come out to the women’s game, the fans that come out to the men’s game. It’s been really exciting, being able to play in front of such a large crowd for a semiprofessional team.”

The foundation to support a star-studded roster was started in 2001 by the current team’s co-owner Mike Jennings. Adrian Hanauer, the majority shareholder and general manager of the club when it was in the United Soccer Leagues, and local coach Teddy Mitalas joined Jennings in starting a women’s team to complement the men’s club, which is now in Major League Soccer (with Hanauer remaining as the acting general manager).

When the Sounders entered M.L.S. in 2009, the women’s club was sold to Jennings, who also owned the Tacoma Tide, a local Premier Development League men’s club. The Tide struggled financially in recent years, playing in empty stadiums for its final two seasons before being absorbed by the Sounders.

The Tide is now known as the Sounders’ under-23 team, and the women’s team also now plays under the Sounders’ banner. The new incarnation of the Sounders Women wears the same rave green uniforms as the big club when it plays on the artificial turf at CenturyLink Field.

It is no secret that the collapse of Women’s Professional Soccer, the three-year-old Division I league, gave clubs like the Sounders Women a chance to sign the national team stars.

“It’s nice that we have the W-League,” Cox said. “But I know it was hard. The announcement came pretty quick, with the transfer window, so a lot of players who were maybe looking to go overseas or had other plans, it was hard for them to kind of transition.”

Every year, W.P.S. and its predecessor, W.U.S.A., struggled to stay afloat. Only a handful of clubs managed to make ends meet and stay in business, while the West Coast was left out of the equation after teams in Los Angeles and the Bay Area came and went.

“I think you kind of just get used to it,” Cox said of the uncertain situation. “Every year with the league was like, O.K., somebody’s folding — is it going to come back? Especially the last two years.”

Of the former W.P.S. clubs, the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars and Western New York Flash are the only three left. They play in the Women’s Premier Soccer League, which like the W-League, is considered semiprofessional and a rung below a first division.

Players and fans eternally hope for the return of a Division I women’s league. And Seattle certainly makes a strong case for inclusion as it keeps attracting impressive crowds. Even when the Sounders men’s team played at home on June 20, the women still managed to attract 3,500 fans to the 4,500-seat Starfire Stadium.

“We’re attracting a lot of fans and supporters,” Perez said. “They’ve done a really good job of marketing us.”

Morgan added, “The organization of this team has been tremendous, and I really hope that they do come together as a professional team.”

That would have to happen quickly, however, or more of the elite American players will go overseas, players like Keelin Winters, a former Sounders midfielder and uncapped national team player who now plays for the German Bundesliga champion and UEFA Champions League semifinalist Turbine Potsdam. After the W-League season, Sounders forward Megan Manthey is going overseas to play for Saint-Etienne in France.

“I don’t think there’s much of an option because with a semiprofessional league here in the States, it’s only a three- or four-month league, and for me personally, it’s not enough to play four months out of the year,” Morgan said. “I need to be in a league that’s somewhere from 8 to 10 months, and that’s what overseas gives you.”

Cox said players would rather stay home if they have the opportunity and the salaries are comparable. What the European teams usually have going for them are closer working relationships with clubs that sponsor both men’s and women’s teams.

“As far as pay goes, I think that some of the American players over there, especially national team players, are kind of rare, so the pay is a little bit more,” Cox said. “As far as the level goes, I know that the W.P.S. — even though there were only five or six teams — the disparity between the teams was so small. Every game was a challenge, and that’s not true of other leagues. They have more teams, but from top to bottom, it’s not as strong compared to the W.P.S.”

For now, the W-League will have to do, but the real test will come in the next two years, Cox said, both for the Sounders and the women’s game in the United States.

“Next year will be real interesting, to see what happens,” she said. “There won’t be a World Cup. It will kind of be an off year for the national team. So it will be interesting to see what all of the national team players decide to do.”

Liviu Bird reports on all things Cascadia for Prost Amerika (prostamerika.com). He is also a semiprofessional goalkeeper for the Kitsap Pumas in Bremerton, Wash. Follow him on Twitter.