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Paying the cost to be a player U.S. women's soccer team is in a league of its own with funding

By Peter Brewington and Jose Alfredo Flores (contributing)
USA TODAY

HERSHEY, Pa. -- What happened in the opening game of soccer's Women's Gold Cup last week was the equivalent of dropping a bomb on an already-beaten nation.

The U.S. team routed Trinidad & Tobago 11-0. The Americans scored early and often and even stormed in for the final goal in the 90th minute.

But sunny Trinidad shook the loss off.

''The blows that don't break your back strengthen it,'' Trinidad's coach, Jamaal Shabazz, says optimistically.

The score the public doesn't see: more than a $5 million budget for the U.S. women's national team vs. budgets so small for such developing soccer nations as Trinidad, Costa Rica and Guatemala that their players cannot even be paid.

The discrepancies between the haves and have-nots are on full display in this Women's Gold Cup, an eight-team event that also features powerful China and Brazil and ends July 3 in Foxboro, Mass.

While the Americans sit on top of the women's soccer pyramid as two-time World Cup champions, Trinidad, Costa Rica and Guatemala are taking their lumps in the Gold Cup. Combined, the three teams are 0-6 and have been outscored 59-0. On Sunday the USA scored another touchdown, burying Costa Rica 8-0.

Through the U.S. Soccer Federation, which approved raises to players this year, the American veterans earn a minimum of $5,000 a month. New players not part of the 1999 World Cup team earn $3,500 a month. And most of the veterans on the national team easily pull in six figures thanks to endorsements.

''It's by far the most well-funded team in the world,'' says Tom King, the U.S. Soccer Federation's chief operating officer.

The USA even has its own team psychologist.

Trinidad, Costa Rica and Guatemala, on the other hand, offer players little more than limited per diems.

''We have no salary, absolutely none. Those who play on our teams do it for the love of the sport only, no other reason,'' says Costa Rican forward Ericka Castro, 19.

The Guatemalans even have to buy their own cleats. Although most play on teams sponsored by pro teams or their employers, the fields are poor and covered with puddles. ''We call these American fieldssupercanchas,'' or super fields, says Costa Rica forward Jacqueline Alvarez, 22.

Dedicated to their goal

But don't question the smaller nations' commitment to the world's most popular game.

* Alvarez lost her job as an inspector of electronics at the Department of Consumer Care to participate in the Gold Cup. ''They would not give me the time off I needed, so I left,'' she says. ''Hopefully, they'll give me my job back after the tournament.''

Costa Rica, she says, remains a male-dominated society. ''Men don't like competition from females,'' Alvarez says, ''especially when it comes from 'their' sport: football.''

* Trinidad starting defender Natasha Thomas, 27, who works as a machine operator at a loading dock, plays in games before work at 7 a.m., then again at 3:30. A member of an amateur team called Caridoc Stingrays, Thomas worked hard to win a scholarship to NCAA Division II Kentucky Wesleyan. She is one of seven Trinidadians who'll play for American college teams starting this fall.

* Castro owns an abasteyor, or a tiny corner convenience stand in Costa Rica's capital, San Jose. When she wants to play soccer, ''I get my family to mind the store.''

* Guatemala's starting goalkeeper is Susana DeLeon, 32, a mother of four. ''It's difficult to be a full-time mother,'' she says, ''and still play.''

* One Guatemalan player divorced her husband because he didn't want her to play, according to Igor Gonzalez, vice president of the Guatemalan women's league.

Roles for the future

Time off for any non-work-related activity is a strain for most female players in the developing soccer nations. Before the Gold Cup, the Costa Rican team could only practice every other day for two weeks.

The U.S. players? They were enjoying the benefits of a soccer federation that meets their every need, such as providing a special strength and fitness coach who helped the team achieve unprecedented levels of physical fitness.

''It really is almost impossible to compete against a team that has everything at its disposal,'' says Guatemalan defender Linda Castillejos, 22. ''The U.S. is such a big country and are able to pick and choose from a much larger pool than Guatemala.

''They have had a team forever. We've only had one for three years.''

Judging by the Gold Cup, it might take teams like Guatemala decades, if ever, to qualify for the Women's World Cup. Playing just a handful of games a year, these nations rarely got a chance to build a sense of team. In contrast, the Americans played their first match in 1985, losing to Italy 1-0. By 1991 the team was good enough to win the first Women's World Cup, in China.

Much credit for the U.S. success goes back to Title IX, which mandated equal opportunities for women and triggered the subsequent boon in college soccer. The U.S. Soccer Federation also has had a role, funding the team even before it had a high profile.

Players such as Mia Hamm, 28, are icons now. Fans wear her No. 9 jersey and even know her golf handicap (12) and taste in music (eclectic, from John Coltrane to Natalie Merchant).

Nevertheless the Americans have not forgotten their pioneer past. Veteran Michelle Akers, 34, recalls helping unload the gear for the men's team during a joint road trip. ''We were so far below the radar screen all we could do was play for each other,'' Akers says.

''It's not always been this way for us,'' says the USA's Tiffeny Milbrett, 27. ''We've had to make so many sacrifices over the years. But, yeah, it's nice to be looked at as role models.''

That's a goal players in the developing nations would welcome. ''In physical education class in high school there was no soccer for girls,'' says Costa Rica defender Wendy Araya, 22. ''Playing football has opened up more opportunities for me. Now look where I am.''

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