IN 1999 JULIE FOUDY was on the field for one of the most iconic moments in the history of U.S. soccer—the World Cup final win over China, in penalties, in front of a packed house at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

That win sparked a revolution in women's soccer in America, including the launching of the first professional women's league. It also make Foudy and her "99er" teammates household names.

These days, in addition to her broadcast duties with ESPN, Foudy continues to work on promoting the women's game. She recently helped produce a video for TakePart, an organization promoting equality for female athletes. The mini-documentary, which features United States national team star Christen Press, focuses on the U.S. forward's experiences trying to make a living as a professional soccer player and addresses the challenges facing women's professional athletes in America today.

One of those issues is how the collapse of the first two professional leagues in America, the WUSA and the WPS, has affected the current U.S. national team pool. Foudy, speaking with American Soccer Now, concedes that the struggle to establish a stable domestic league may have caused the U.S. team to miss out on some talented players along the way.

"It definitely diminishes your pool—you have less to look at," Foudy said. "You could make the argument that you're missing out on a player like Shannon Boxx, who got a look at the national team first in 2003 only because she was having such a great year [in the league]."

Another issue faced by women in the NWSL is that the league's low salaries push many women into early "retirement" and the U.S. player pool misses out on any potential late bloomers for the national team.

"You definitely [miss out on some players]," Foudy, 44, acknowledged. "Even today you have women who say, 'I can't do it. I have a really good job opportunity elsewhere and I'm not sure it's going to come around again, so I can't just keep playing.' That is the reality."

"The challenge of any league is that you want to bring that bottom core up [in salary], but you also are just creating more expenses and we know what happened with the first two leagues. So, it's a balance."

Another difficulty faced by American women is that players who aren't in the national team pool only have a five-month season, while those who play for the national team have year-round training camps to stay fit and sharp. To many observers, that has a created a "have and have-nots" separating the national team players and the rest of the league.

It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to break through to the next level.

But Foudy says that while this does create a challenge, players who are outside the national team pool still can break in if they can stay motivated and find ways to train on their own.

"You can create an environment around you. Obviously, you have to work at it. You can find places to play, even for [the women] who don't have residency camps in the off-season," Foudy said. "We used to lose people all the time when we didn't have [regular] national team training...I used to go play with the University of California-Irvine boys, I'd play pickup games with boys all the time. You just went and found [opportunities], you have to be creative about it."

Beyond the hurdles presented by the U.S.'s up-and-down domestic leagues, Foudy thinks there are other issues facing the U.S. women's national team as it prepares for its second group stage game against Sweden in this summer's World Cup.

"The biggest challenges are, can they figure out that tandem up front, can they figure out the midfield chemistry?" said the Stanford alum. "I still haven't seen them put together an offensive game where you've said, 'Wow. That was really good with movement off the ball and creativity.' With no defensive center midfield presence, and the fact that the forwards haven't had that much time together due to injuries and due to people coming in and out, I see those as their biggest challenges."

Foudy also concedes that, tactically, the U.S. has not kept up with the rest of the world, too often relying on direct play and advantages in fitness to win games—something that was apparent in the U.S.' opening game win over Australia.

"We have flashes, but not enough of them. That's what I see. When you see Spain play, they're good on the ball—they have a technical proficiency that we don't. When you see France, when you see Japan, they have sophistication on the ball. We have that in spurts, but not consistently right now." Foudy continued, "That game against Australia wasn't our best. We're going to have to play better to beat the better teams."

After the U.S.' opening round game against Australia, many pundits and fans pointed the finger at aging veteran Abby Wambach for the team's direct style of play. But while Foudy admitted that Wambach needed to be better against the Matildas, she still believes that Wambach will be big for the U.S. when the right moment arrives.

Wambach "was too quiet," the San Diego native said. "But here's one thing I know about Abby. When there's a game when you want a big goal in a big moment, she's going to be The Woman. She is incredibly courageous in front of goal. She can get it done. You have to figure out that balance—maybe I wouldn't start her, maybe I bring her in for the last 30—because you know she's so dependable in that situation.

 "That's the thing when they get into the next stage: They want her healthy, and confident, and fit, and not fatigued from too many minutes on the field. And [U.S. head coach] Jill [Ellis] has done a really good job of that, not starting her leading up to the tournament, so it's not an issue when she doesn't start."

One issue that has emerged for the team over the past week is the off-the-field distraction caused by last Sunday's ESPN Outside the Lines report on U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo. The timing of the story, which released new details on Solo's domestic violence arrest from last summer, was certainly not ideal.

Re: Solo suspension: too many things #USWNT cant ignore. 7 days post trial dismissal. Doesn't tell team. Out at 2a while IN CAMP. Come on.

— Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy) January 22, 2015

Foudy, who has been outspoken about Solo in the past and has a unique perspective as both a former player and a current member of the media, sees the issue from both sides.

"The team's not going to like the timing of it, but it's not unexpected," the two-time World Cup champion said. "In the scheme [of things] you know with someone like Hope who has this history, you know there's always the potential for this and people are going to keep digging. I thought the news on Outside the Lines was relevant news—the sister is talking for the first time, they got the deposition unsealed so they had new details with that, they found out that U.S. Soccer hadn't talked with the police—which is an issue for me.

"It is timely in terms of talking about it for the media. As a player, you don't want to be talking about that, of course, as a distraction, but [the U.S.] is used to it. That's one good thing about having to deal with all these past instances is that they know how to deal with it.

"It could help them in the end because [the team] will want to protect her."

John D. Halloran is an American Soccer Now columnist. Follow him on Twitter.