After a resounding 6-0 win over Jamaica on Sunday night, the United States women’s national team clinched a spot in next summer’s World Cup in France, the program’s ninth straight berth since the inaugural tournament in 1991. On the thin surface layer of international competition, the three-time world champions are thriving, but beneath that glamorous front is a suffering domestic league.
Carli Lloyd, who amazed a worldwide audience with a magical 16-minute hat-trick in the 2015 World Cup final against Japan, is a personification of the juxtaposition between club and country. In the stars and stripes, she is a goddess for a team of footballing titans that asserts its strength on the world.