Trinity Rodman is the Face of the USWNT

ESPN rolled out with this horrible take yesterday:

USWNT has no face of the team now. Which player will step up?

Uh, Jeff Kassouf is dead wrong.

During the 1990's, Mia Hamm was the Face of the USWNT:

She scored buckets of goals, won Women's World Cups, and was a merchandising machine.

During the 2000's, Hope Solo was the Face of the USWNT:

She recorded clean sheet after clean sheet, she won at a prolific rate for the national team, and she was beautiful (and crazy).

During the 2010's, Megan Rapinoe was the Face of the USWNT:

She was a social justice warrior, she scored tons of points, and became an even more polarizing character when the USWNT crashed out of the 2023 World Cup early.

During the 2020's, Trinity Rodman is the Face of the USWNT:

Daughter of Dennis Rodman, she represents the future of the women's game for the casual fan.

At 23, Rodman already has 47 caps and 11 goals for the USWNT. Rodman represents a soccer-first mentality that some of her predecessors have lacked. She already has the name recognition, all she has to do is lead her team to the 2027 Women's World Cup and endorsements and accolades will come flooding in.

The only thing that can stop her is her health, she has been plagued with back problems in her career.

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This is off topic, but back in the Summer of 2024, we predicted that the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League) would fold within 3 years. Why? Because they abolished the NWSL Draft.

We theorized that the good teams would continue to be good, bad teams would continue to be bad, and in 2 years bad teams would cease to exist. In 3 years, the model would be unsustainable.

Just to gloat, even though the season just started, the NWSL table is almost identical to the standings last August. The only notable exception is the Seattle Reign, which is significantly better. In 2024, the Reign suffered a bit of a hangover due to Megan Rapinoe's retirement, but they are back to their 2023 pace. Other than that though, the league remains largely unchanged.

That is bad for the health of the league. If bad teams have no hope to improve, they will cease to exist. If too many teams cease to exist, that capsizes the league. That's the truth of all fringe sports leagues since the beginning of time.

What Jeff Kassouf should worry about is: who's going to be the face of the NWSL? The longer that league is faceless, the more American Girls that are going to jump to European soccer.