By the time I started watching, all the American boys teams were eliminated. It was PSG, Roma, and some Brazilian team I hadn't heard of still in it.

One thing I didn't realize was that it is a relatively recent thing for the big European clubs to have youth girls teams. I watched the girls Barcelona team manhandle the top PDA ECNL team in the finals. The PDA girls were mostly taller, bigger, and faster, but Barcelona passed around them like they weren't there. Especially early on. Near the end when the Barca girls got tired/subbed PDA had some good chances, but still ended up losing 2-0.

Makes me wonder if American (female) dominance is going to be seriously challenged in the decade(s) to come. It was quite eye opening. I thought PDA was going to embarrass them beforehand.

Yeah, if other soccer-centric nations area able to replicate their academy set-ups for their girls to a large extent, then they'll pass up their American counterparts who are still largely being served by our pay-to-play development model.

You can already see it on the national level, even at the World Cup this year.