Looks like the conversations about equal pay in sports might turn up a notch, but not in a good way for women. The 'US Women' team lost to a men's team in a million dollar tournament by a score of 12-0 and it wasn't pretty. The 'US Women' team was made up of former greats and current players. They played Wrexham AFC, a team from Wales who consists of former, current, and even some guest players.
The 'US Women' team was crushed in the 7 v 7 tournament by the Wrexham team. Wrexham easily took down the women's team who had a World Cup winning player in Heather O'Reilly. The US Women were coached by the legendary USWNT player Mia Hamm. But that wasn't enough as the women's team was outplayed in every way possible, not able to score a single goal.
It was very lopsided with the Wrexham team scoring 7 goals in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Wrexham team had 39 shots compared to the just five shots by the women's team.
Despite getting blown out in embarrassing fashion, O'Reilly of the women's team said: "We're super proud... Hopefully we've proved to anybody, just go for it, just live. What's the worst that could happen? We lose 16-0 to Wrexham? We don't care because we're living, we're being bold and we're being brave. Here we have two amazing products that American soccer fans are getting behind. It's just a ton of fun and it's brought all of us together," as quoted by CBS Sports.
However, this staggering loss may turn the 'equal pay' in women's sports conversations up a notch. It may have been fun for them to lose 12-0 to a group men's players, but the men made it look too easy, almost as if they were barely trying. The skill levels are just that much higher for the men's team, even if they're starting to get older.
The tournament they played in is called The Soccer Tournament. There's 32 teams and it will wrap up in North Carolina. They're playing for a $1 million prize.
