Last evening, the U.S. women’s national soccer team played a friendly against Ireland. It was in front of a seam-bursting crowd at the new soccer-specific stadium in St. Louis.
And yet, people who wanted to watch the game were finding themselves behind a paywall: the match was only being shown on Home Box Office’s paid streaming service, HBO Max.
Thing is, last evening, there were a half-dozen other women’s soccer matches featuring teams which could contend for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
This included a 2-1 win by France of Canada, a 2-0 win by the Australian Matildas over the England Lionesses, a 4-1 win by Holland over Poland, a 3-3 draw between Norway and Sweden, a Brazil 2-1 win over Germany, ascendant Spain winning 3-0 over China, and Nigeria flexing a 3-0 win over New Zealand.
The problem? None of these games were available for viewing on U.S. television. Not on Paramount, or HBO Max, or even the venerable ESPN Plus.
Now, I get the fact that some federations — especially the ones playing at home — control the television distribution rights and don’t want other coaches to get a look at a new formation or new wrinkle that a team may be using to gain an advantage on an opponent.
That’s fair enough.
But for a sport which is catching on amongst fans around the world, I’m befuddled at the television silence surrounding the friendlies which were played yesterday.
TopOfTheCircle.com 
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