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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power, politics and society.

On each episode, I will talk to an American expert or an expert on America

about something that's going on in America in 2023. I am delighted to be joined by the

Spectators Washington editor, Amber Athe, and we are going to be talking about America's women's soccer team,

who, as many listeners will know, crashed out of the World Cup this weekend on Sunday morning

after losing penalties to Sweden. And there was quite a bit of Chardonfreude, about their defeat because

they were the heavy favourites. And I think it's fair to say, Amber, they've made themselves

quite unpopular in recent months with a lot of people in America and around the world for being

quite complacent, quite arrogant,

for getting involved in politics a bit too much, perhaps. And there was an advertising campaign.

It was not really their fault, but they're being blamed for it, that showed sort of other teams

sort of trying to think of ways in which they can beat the U.S. women's football

team and then the women's football team were saying, yeah, good luck with that sort of thing.

Tell us a bit about the women's team. I know you're not a great soccer fan, are you?

No, but I actually do watch the Women's World Cup.

And what's interesting about the U.S. women's soccer team is that I think the United States is one of the few countries around the world where the women's team is more popular than the men's.

And it's because the women have enjoyed this really great success in the World Cup over the past 10 to 15 years, starting with that really almost top 10 sports moment of Brandy Chastain ripping off her shirt after she

scored a winning penalty kick in the Olympics back in 1999. And then the women's team then winning back to back World Cups.

They were going for their third in a row this tournament.

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