LFG (2021 | USA | 104 minutes | Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine)
There’s no question that the US Women’s National Team has been infinitely more successful on the pitch than their male counterparts. While the USWNT has dominated the last two World Cups, the USMNT embarrassingly failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The argument that the USWNT should be paid any less than the USMNT (who do generate less revenue) is obscene and deeply amoral. It’s a scandal that this issue hasn’t been resolved in a way satisfactory to the WNT, and US Soccer’s behavior throughout has been shameful.
The new documentary LFG (which every sports fan that’s ever been on Twitter understands to mean “let’s fucking go!”) tells the story of USWNT’s fight for equal pay. It’s a well-made film that gives ample screentime to the remarkable Megan Rapinoe (a huge reason why I had been a season ticket holder for her club team OL Reign for many years). For those that followed USWNT’s fight for equal pay prior to 2019, it’s infuriating. At least it was for me.
Look, I believe in USWNT’s fight for equal pay and working conditions as much as anyone (and I think the thousands of dollars I’ve spent on tickets and gear proves that), but there are so many choices in what to include in this documentary that I found curious.
Due to US Soccer declining to participate in the filming of the documentary, this movie is highly biased towards USWNT (which is mostly fine, that’s the position I take, too), but I do think the details of the labor dispute get lost in the telling of this story in favor of the emotional story. I didn’t get a clear understanding of why exactly the collective bargaining agreement USWNT and US Soccer entered into in 2017 (and runs through this year) needed to be scrapped, other than being told over and over again that USWNT deserves equal pay (I always thought they deserve better pay than USMNT because the men’s team has always been somewhere between mediocre and awful on the international stage while USWNT has been a proven winner over the past 20+ years, but that’s another argument for another day.).
There’s no mention of what impact kicking Hope Solo off the team after the 2016 Olympics had, as she was one of the most outspoken players in the fight for equality and the greatest goalkeeper the USWNT has ever seen. Plus, the team also fired the hardline labor attorney she recommended. The filmmakers giving Jeffrey Epstein more attention than Hope Solo is puzzling and offensive.
But Solo is a flawed figure whose fierce activism on behalf of USWNT has been overshadowed by bad decisions she’s made off the pitch, and the filmmakers here pretend like she’s never existed. Certainly her exit from the team had some kind of impact on the future of the team.
I believe it was a mistake for USWNT to be more conciliatory towards US Soccer before signing the CBA in 2017, but that doesn’t interest the Fines. Rapinoe and defender Becky Sauerbrunn were the biggest advocates for this approach, according to the New York Times, and they’re both interviewed prominently in LFG but this never really comes up.
The documentary begins on what they call “Day One,” which is March 9, 2019, International Women’s Day and the day USWNT filed suit against US Soccer. The only time anyone before USWNT circa 2019 is mentioned is to marvel at how cool Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain were in 1999.
Another thing weirdly not mentioned here was that the best women’s soccer player in the world, Ada Hegerberg from Norway, chose to sit out the 2019 World Cup for the same reasons USWNT is fighting US Soccer. There’s also a massive differential between what FIFA pays the men’s World Cup winner and the women’s. The documentary, though, points out early that this isn’t about issues with FIFA, so there’s nothing to see here, even if US Soccer does have something of a point about what they are paid from FIFA for the men’s and women’s teams.
Much is made of USWNT’s decision to sue US Soccer as filing a lawsuit because the team is suing its employer, and it’s not something easy to do and does require a high level of bravery. “Day One” after all. But that is only a fraction of the story. USWNT’s leadership group (Lloyd, Morgan, Rapinoe, Sauerbrunn, and Solo) also filed an EEOC complaint against US Soccer in 2016. US Soccer also had to sue to prevent USWNT from striking before the 2016 Olympics (but maybe USWNT should’ve gone on strike as they failed to medal after an embarrassing loss to Sweden).
The fight for equality for USWNT has been going on for many years prior to 2019 and it’s been fought in and out of the courtroom and through PR. Carli Lloyd wrote an article in the New York Times called “Why I’m Fighting For Equal Pay” back in 2016.
USWNT’s battle for equal pay with US Soccer has been an ongoing fight that began long before LFG picked up the story and ran with it. It’s nowhere near as simple as this movie describes. I’m optimistic the USWNT will get the contract they deserve when the next CBA is worked out. I think they have too much power and goodwill to not get their completely reasonable demands. Moreover, now that it’s unequivocally clear that the women’s team matches bring in more ticket revenue than the men’s team does, there’s no reason for USWNT to accept anything less.
But I find the issue of whether or not USWNT deserves equal pay as the men’s team (duh) and whether LFG is worth the fan’s time. LFG felt to me like a soccer documentary by and for the casual fan. That’s totally fine, there’s plenty of room on the bandwagon. I just think this documentary does a disservice to the USWNT’s fight for equal pay by ignoring the work to get to the point, including what has been done by players still on the team.
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LFG is currently streaming on HBO Max.