The exchange took place at the end of December. U.S. women’s national team star Carli Lloyd was giving a deposition in the USWNT players gender-discrimination case against U.S. Soccer, and a federation lawyer asked her a loaded question.
“Do you think that the team could be competitive against the senior men’s national team?”
“I'm not sure,” Lloyd replied. “Shall we fight it out to see who wins and then we get paid more?"
The exchange went public in filings released on February 20, and Lloyd’s response immediately became a catchphrase for supporters of the USWNT. What’s more, the lawyer’s question was a bellwether of the legal strategy that U.