El Floppo
Footballguy
no.
the differential is huge in the women's game. there are still countries that limit what women can and can't do- let alone provide funding for a sport like soccer.
as I mentioned early in the thread- title IX was huge in developing women's sports in the US, and at a time when the rest of even the non-misogynistic world wasn't. for a long while, a lot of players for other countries in the women's world cup have been US dual-nationals, born and raised here, playing college soccer. with the growth of the professional game over the last ten or so years for women- here, but also through europe and selectively in s america, countries' reliance on US players has diminished. so those countries and players get even more development while the others languish.
you also have to take into consideration that each world region gets a certain amount of automatic spots in the WC... Asia must be particularly weak with a team like Thailand making it.
the men come down to money, population, soccer-culture, and generational talents. the US is starting to push #1, has #2, growing #3 with more access, parents who played and can teach their kids who have grown up with an actual pro league as a dream job, with earlier access to professional academies. #4 hasn't happened yet- although we have some younger players who might be (pulisic, adams, weah, reyna). the US will need all four to click before we start genuinely pushing the top powers on more than a one-off situation.
