I truly hope that they don't make Olympics U23. At least, not in the near future. Yes, there needs to happen changes like bigger rosters. But Olympics means so much in women's soccer. And it's not good for it that there will be just one major tournament for not European countries. Women's soccer is growing but there aren't that much young talent yet, that it would be good product.

The NWSL is the best league because it is the only real, self supporting women’s league in the world. The WSL is made up of charity side projects of men’s football clubs who are encouraged by the FA to effectively donate money to women’s football in order to run the league. As long as these European leagues are run on charity, the more they exist at the whims of men’s football clubs and their boardrooms and all of the progress they have made can be taken away in a moment.

NWSL is slightly above than WSL. There as few WSL teams that could really compete for talents, while NWSL have their best homegrown plus player from abroad, and they could retain them. But that may soon change, because as of now, female players needs to prioritize salary over legacy, and you can't devalue them for that which is not the case for men. But when time comes where they don't have to do, players would start to choose playing in Europe which have more established history and have champions league.

I don't think it's about being selfish when European football starts talking about making the Olympics U23. I think it's about safety for the players. We've had so manya ACL injuries on top players for the last 3- 4 years that we have to reduce the amount of matches they have to play over the entire year. And when you look at the different tournaments in which European teams and players participate, the Olympics is in many ways the least important, since only three Euorpean teams can qulifay. Somethings got to give and to make the Olympics a U23 is an easy solution. But I can also see UEFA making this a rule for Euoropean teams only.

Too early, these leagues are being built up at the moment, the WSL is now being taken over by the Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL), more money, better organisation, funded by the EPL big things are expected, I foresee similar changes in Spain and other European countries, with increasing connections to the men's teams exciting times lie ahead, the big advantage for the WSL is connection to the juggernaut premier league clubs, the plan is for Arsenal women to play matches at the Emirates stadium for example which expands the financial stream.

As much as US owners claim that they want parity, they still push for super teams. You see the cyclical nature of dynasties in NFL, MLB, NHL and the NBA. MLS is no different. If they truly wanted parity, they wouldn't have tried to create super teams with the LA Galaxy in the 2000s and Inter Miami now.

When it comes to infrastructure and sponsorship,no European league can compete with nwsl,but when it comes to football European league is better.

The NWSL can never be the best league, because of its structure, theres no relegation. So its like playing a bunch of friendlies and every team can just go at any team because there are no consequences to loosing, theres this weird thing of playoffs. So i think the sole purpose of that league is for entertainment, which in turn results into revenue and players are paid well i would like to believe. There great players there dont get me wrong but the league is just not it. I mean a team can loose the whole season and nothing will happen

Women’s football needs all these leagues. It would be nice if we had a club cup where they did play each other it might help

The banter in the WSL games is fun whereas in the men's it can be nasty

NWSL the best league? not really, ok you won the Olympics but did nothing in the last world cup Thinking about it the WSL, Spanish, & German are probably better in depth

European league is the best league in the world period

NWSL fans were talking so much shit before the games and after they got beaten they started with the excuses and now say 'why are we comparing' or friendlies don't matter🤦don't dish it if you can't take it

why would the Olympics be inferior to the World Cup? The exact same national teams participate in both competitions. The NWSL is the best in the world because they have many, many more paying fans going to stadiums thanks to their style of constantly attacking football which is more entertaining and exciting to watch than possession football. Also, the number of international players who choose to play here is a good indicator. Correct me if I am wrong but the only European team that won in real competition in the US was Olympique Lyonnais.

The NWSL needs to petition for entry into the Champions League. Surely you got the qualifications for membership, let's just take it to the pitch. It can happen, there are European Leagues that play out of season in the CL.

Liga F is the best league in the world not just because Barcelona but it's the League with more clubs closed to Barcelona level. They "stole" young girls from other academies that lead them to reach that level before the others clubs. And there are a lot of people saying Liga F is the best league… but they are saying in spanish. Usually spaniards share ciberspace with the rest of spanish speaker community of the world that are 22 countries

I think in general it is just banter, but some people don't take the banter well. When you mention the difference in crowds, where NWSL opposition fans high five, etc. I'd put that down simply to the teams being somewhat new (in the scheme of things), whereas in England, people are born into familes that might be die hard Man United, etc. It's a longer history, and it's very much a football nation where people are incredibly passionate about their team. I like watching many leagues (I'm Australian), but I personally prefer the WSL to the others. I think if America really wanted to know where their club sides are at, let them play in the Champions League.

Well, before the Olympics, there had been quite a bit of banter about the USWNT having fallen behind the best in the world. There will be a Club World Cup in 2026. We'll see how that goes.

Currently nwsl is trying to put more tournaments in with the champions cup and summer cup but it's still less games than the european leagues. I think nwsl was the best league to prepare players for the intensity and short rest times in between games for olympics But it might not be the best when we get to the world cup format. You're not afraid to lose in nwsl since there's no relegation but WSL you have to strategize more to prevent losing so nwsl plays more with high risk high reward whereas WSL engages in a war of attrition to ultimately win a championship. This philosophy goes with that european style of valuing ball possession, which plays slower, which doesn't go for high risk play. Anyways i don't think any league is better. Seems ridiculous and contradictory to conclude nwsl is better just because the players come from nwsl but the coach, emma hayes, has been in wsl for 12 years 😂 usa won gold cus of a wsl coach

I think the olympics highlight the toll that the euros qualifiers and champions league had on the european teams. The support and funding of adequate medical staff for the team recovery is also very obvious. I see Japan lacking physicality and having a young generation of players that haven't polished up due to lack of experience. I see columbia and brazil just riddled with injuries probably because their recovery staff team is not as good as usa and germany. Spain looked sluggish and tired probably due to having the euros qualifiers and champions league games in their legs. Just because there's some firings at the federation level doesn't mean they suddenly have top tier ancillary staff to help with recovery. On top of that they don't have a good loving relationship with their coach like usa and england. I think there's also lingering barcelona vs real madrid tension between the players. Canada got as far as they did out of sheer emotions and a new coach that put in belief for the players. You cAn see lots of cramps in brazil which put them at a disadvantage. If they had the aftercare that is the same as usa, i think they could have won gold. I don't buy into any of the nwsl vs wsl drama. I think it all boils down to amount of extra games and level of recovery provided at the international teams

I disagree with seeing the Olympics as a down-tier tournament. (Not saying you said this but in general) The men only do U-23 because FIFA didn’t want to share the attention of a World Cup with the Olympics. It doesn’t take away how it’s a harder tournament. Secondly, the Spanish players got humiliated badly by the Brazilian players, and their terrible sportsmanship showed when they said they didn’t play "Real Football," which is typical for these Europeans to say about anyone in the Amerícas when they lose. Considering how many World Cups the continent has won from the men’s and women’s sides, it's a downgrading and incredibly stupid thing to say.

It's not just the style of play, it's also the level of play. For one, as long as the NWSL has playoffs, myself that lives in the US and everyone in Europe is not going to find the NWSL interesting. Why fight to finish top when you can settle for middle of the top then give everything you got in the playoff. Since the league started in 2012, one twice did a team finish top and went on to be crown champion, North Carolina Courage. Not to mention Seattle Reign has finish top three different times and never won the chip

I just have this feeling Leah Williamson's generation are going to be very tempted to move to NWSL rather than Lyon/Barca when they're ready for a change. Not sure what would tempt young US talent to move the other way? You've got the banter thing spot on. It is a cultural stress relief valve here. Some live to take it to extremes. Sweden used to have the best league and we don't even talk about them any more 🤷

The Spanish league is not in the conversation because Barcelona is the only dominant team in Spain but if you look at last WSL season chelsea won it on the last day on goal difference this shows how competitive the league is

Those who claim Gotham was missing some players come on chelsea was missing around 7 first team players and Chelsea used many academy players so cry more Americans😂 and remember chelsea has not played for months

Nwsl teams were defeated before even the WSL started😂 sorry Americans learn more about football

11:15 They do now: the Concacaf W Champions Cup just started a few days ago. And in 2026, we'll hopefully be seeing some NWSL teams play actual matches against top European teams in the Women's Club World Cup. This was a great video, as always. I do agree that it's mostly a subjective topic, and it doesn't really matter which league is better.

The best league is where players are paid well, respected, and not grabbed by the p.....

Both games are not serious games. The washington Spirit and Ny/nj gotem players do not attend for those games, so wsl clubs, as far as I am, consider they're not winer.

The Olympics aren't prestigious for BroSo precisely because it's U23. Why should 30 years worth of WoSo throw that away just to match them? It's almost always UEFA (mostly English) and/or BroSo fans that disparage the Olympics for WoSo. And if the timeline is too compact, they could play the Group Stage prior to the Olympics?

Olympics will become U23 at some point. Federations need to be given time to set up U23 programs for their respective countries. Unlikely to be by LA ‘28. Maybe by Brisbane in 2032.

The last Olympics that Fifa would allow Euro women's first national teams to participate in because of Marketing is the 2027 Olympics, after that it'll surely never happen again due to due to the European, Asian & Australian football schedule.

Think it also depends on the country you grew up in- for example Katie McCabe is on record saying she never dreamed of been an Olympian.. but she did grow up wanting to compete at a Euros and World Cup. And this is very common among Euro countries.. Where as you would have other continents and countries who grew up wanting to be an Olympian possibly bc they don’t have Euros the following year and have qualifiers in the Olympic year.. U23 for Europe works best because they don’t have as many competitions where as the senior teams who are competing constantly for World Cup, Euro & now as of late nations league spots to rank their country for easier qualification routes. The other solution in Europe would perhaps be to disqualify teams who are regular tournament goers and leave it so that the lower ranked teams have a tournament they could possibly qualify for but then that’s unfair on the countries who don’t have Euros also bc they don’t get to compete with high ranking euro nations but the way Euro Olympic qualifiers work atm most countries don’t even have the opportunity to try qualify so therefore as a whole the continent don’t really see it as the best of the best

Hey all! One thing I wanted to mention in the video is that if the Olympics were to become U23, the many federations without a u23 program would likely move to create them. While this would be good in the long run, there would be a big disparity in the early years seen between quality and resources put into supporting these programs around the world. This in turn would lead to an unbalanced U23 Olympics that heavily benefits nations with already established programs, mainly European teams. This isn't necessarily a reason to not make the Olympics U23, but it does raise a question of if senior teams around the world are still lacking in their own quality of play, who is most benefitting from taking away a competitive tournament from them to give to a newly established U23 squad who may not have a strong pool of players to draw from.

What a player. Beautify goals and assists

The UK population has nothing to do with the representation at elite sport. Black men only make up 1% of the UK population but 40% of the Premier League, even the men's England team for the Euros was 68% black players. It is suspicious that the men's game can be so diverse and the women's game is not. 15 years ago the Lionesses were 50% black players. What has happened is English FA made huge mistakes in the professionalisation of the women's games in England, by shutting down the elite soccer schools in England in the big diverse cities for girls and relocating them to rural white areas. This one decision turned women's soccer in England into a white upper middle class sport

Irony is the English women's football used to be diverse, but the English FA made huge mistakes in the professionalisation of the women's games in England, by shutting down the elite soccer schools in England in the big diverse cities for girls and relocating them to rural white areas. This one decision turned women's soccer in England into a white upper middle class sport because only the girls who had parents who could arrange travel to these elite schools could be professionals and working class girls and girls of colour where shut out of the system. Imagine if the men's game did this and said they would stop developing talent from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle and only players with rich parents become professionals. There would be no Saka, Bellingham, Kane, Grealish, Foden, Walker, basically all the England currently. What a huge mistake and they still haven't corrected this because it has made women's football super white.

Was für Reflexe, alter Schwede!!

God bless Babra banda

The lack of diversity in the Arsenal is caused by Jonas Eidevall. Arsenal used to be the most diverse team in the WSL. just look at how they treated Mana Nwabuchi for instance. JE is the problem

I would love to see that All-Star Game. But for it to actually happen, it would have to take place during and international break. Players like Berger and Banda would be unavailable because they would be with their national teams.

Also evident in 2024 🎉 Olympics. Brazil and US teams are basically NWSL teams. Scariest and most exciting part is ahead. US would’ve been even LEVELS better if US started turning the corner sooner with more diverse players. Worse players on US team generally were the Europe based players. By definition it’s hard to match the hustle and work ethic of oppressed people.

so you telling me the drone is worst then china's ped 😆

Hi, just found your videos, love them. I do have a suggestion. I’m thinking if it’s the USWNT, and if this should ever happen, it would be during FIFA window so some your choices of other national team players would not probably be available for you to pick so it might be wise to just stick with NWSL players that’s not on the national team your team just a question.

Nice video! And some pretty good picks. Like the Di Bernardo one, she's very underrated

Excellent research and reporting - very thorough, objective, factual & with great insight. Job well done! Keep up the good work

The players have to know because the only value of spying on training is to learn the opposition's set piece plays and how players are taking spot kicks (and CanWNT won both of its penalty shootout games at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, defeating Brazil in the quarterfinals and Sweden in the final) and that information would have to be communicated to the players. Everything else is obviously public except maybe injury determination which wouldn't have much use for Canada. I've described the CanWNT's squeaking through to win gold in Tokyo as a "kissed by God" performance; it is clear now that that wasn't legitimate and should be taken away from them. As an American I'm not outraged because I'd let the Canadians play with 12 players if I thought it would provide better competition for us in this conference (speaking of which, how did CanMNT win the conference then absolutely fall flat on its face at the WC?). I feel badly for the players because both sides of the program have been painstakingly built to a credible level and now all of their accomplishments are in question.

Good job! Especially picking Marie Müller made me smile!

madison curry mention! she's been SO good this season at both LB and CB and wherever angel city need her...hope she gets a ROTY nod. obviously' she's not been the best rookie, but i think top 3!

Well said good job.