--- description: The United States Sunday will fight to win its third Women's World Cup and extend a quarter-century run of dominance in women's soccer. title: Why the USA Is So Strong in Women's Soccer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89fcaf0690e3c451/69885998cd1bba62286fc20c/women-world-cup.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Sports](/section/sports/) ## Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why the USA Is So Strong in Women's Soccer by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 5, 2015 11:09 PM CUT  USA midfielder Carli Lloyd celebrates her goal with teammates during the final football match between USA and Japan during their 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on July 5, 2015. USA midfielder Carli Lloyd celebrates her goal with teammates during the final football match between USA and Japan during their 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on July 5, 2015.Franck Fife—AFP/Getty Images by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 5, 2015 11:09 PM CUT The United States Sunday will fight to win its third Women’s World Cup and extend a quarter-century run of dominance in women’s soccer. The national team has never finished worse than third in the competition and has consistently ranked near the top of the worldwide rankings since FIFA started keeping such [records ](http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/women/ "undefined")in 2003\. Four Olympic gold medals in five tries adds to the Americans’ haul. Victory is normal. Losses are rare — and painful. So, the obvious question is: Why are we so good at women’s soccer? And it’s especially notable considering the U.S. men’s soccer team didn’t even crack the top-10 ranking until 2005. [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News._](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/world-cup/level-playing-field-why-usa-so-strong-womens-soccer-n385346?cid=par-time-article%5F20150705 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946058/womens-world-cup-usa-soccer-title-ix/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946058/womens-world-cup-usa-soccer-title-ix/"},"headline":"Why the USA Is So Strong in Women's Soccer","datePublished":"2015-07-05T23:09:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:58:20.855Z","description":"Experts credit Title IX, which bars gender discrimination in college sports.","url":"https://time.com/3946058/womens-world-cup-usa-soccer-title-ix/","keywords":["Soccer","Women's World Cup"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89fcaf0690e3c451/69885998cd1bba62286fc20c/women-world-cup.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89fcaf0690e3c451/69885998cd1bba62286fc20c/women-world-cup.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"USA midfielder Carli Lloyd (10) celebrates her goal with teammates during the final football match between USA and Japan during their 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on July 5, 2015. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFEFRANCK FIFE/AF","caption":"USA midfielder Carli Lloyd (10) celebrates her goal with teammates during the final football match between USA and Japan during their 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on July 5, 2015. AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFEFRANCK FIFE/AFP","creditText":"Franck Fife—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946058/womens-world-cup-usa-soccer-title-ix/","name":"Why the USA Is So Strong in Women's Soccer"}}]}] ```