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One of a kind WUSA has advantage with lack of other women's leagues
BOSTON (AP) -- The top U.S. women soccer players are hoping to parlay their success in the World Cup and Olympics into a professional league at home. The men did it with Major League Soccer, so why not? And unlike the men, the women's league has a chance to be the best of its kind in the world. "What sets apart this league is they're the top players all over the world competing," U.S. national team and Boston Breakers forward Kristine Lilly said Tuesday at a meeting of The Associated Press Sports Editors of the Northeast region. "This is going to be the elite league." The Women's United Soccer Association will begin play in April in eight cities: Atlanta, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco Bay area and Washington. It will feature nearly every member of the 1999 World Cup championship team, including Lilly, Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy, Tiffeny Milbrett, Carla Overbeck and Briana Scurry. Sixteen of the top foreign players have also signed on. Since the demise of the North American Soccer League in 1984, the United States had been without a top-flight professional men's soccer league. MLS followed the coattails of the 1994 World Cup, but the league has yet to turn a profit. One problem MLS faces is that, despite its name, many hardcore soccer fans don't consider it "major league" in comparison to the elite leagues in Europe. That's one problem the women won't face. "MLS is fighting with the rest of the world for some of the top players," Lilly said. "They have a bigger battle because they're battling with the rest of the world, which has had soccer forever." Women's soccer, on the other hand, is a new addition: The first women's World Cup was held in 1991, and it first became an Olympic sport in 1996. The U.S. women won the gold medal at the Atlanta Games, won the World Cup in 1999 and took silver at the 2000 Games. The American men have never finished higher than their fourth-place finish in Sydney this year. "I think that what has helped us is we have been successful," Lilly said. "Americans love success. They love a winning team."
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