Women’s professional soccer has always been a bit of a tricky business in the United States. Following the USWNT’s home soil victory in the 1999 Women’s World Cup, the Women’s United Soccer Association was founded in 2000 as the first league in the world to pay every single one of its players as professionals. However, the WUSA folded after only three seasons, although many of the names and logos of the league’s franchises were kept intact. The next fully professional women’s league in America wouldn’t be formed until Women’s Professional Soccer began play in 2009. Like the WUSA, WPS also only played three seasons before dissolving.
As the women’s game continues to grow in the U.S., the Pride are one of the reasons why.
