US World Cup winners ready for New York parade
Christophe Simon, AFP | USA's players including forward Megan Rapinoe (C) celebrate with the trophy after the France 2019 Women’s World Cup football final match between USA and the Netherlands, on July 7, 2019

Tens of thousands of fans are poised to pack the streets of New York on Wednesday to salute the World Cup-winning US women's team in a ticker-tape parade.

Four years after roaring fans lined the route of Lower Manhattan's fabled "Canyon of Heroes" to cheer the US women winning the 2015 World Cup, the Big Apple is poised for another raucous celebration.

An open-top bus will transport the team along the route, which runs from Battery Park up Broadway before finally arriving at City Hall for a ceremony hosted by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Wednesday's parade, which is due to get under way at 9:30 am local time (1330 GMT), is in line with a city tradition that dates back more than a century.

AFP/File / Philippe DESMAZES The US team returned home from France Monday, 24 hours after defeating the Netherlands 2-0 in the final to clinch a record-extending fourth World Cup crown

While the honour has been bestowed on everyone from astronauts, to record-breakers, soldiers and world leaders, in recent decades it has more commonly been used to celebrate sports victories by teams such as baseball's New York Yankees or the NFL's New York Giants.



- 'Victory Tour' -



Player of the tournament Megan Rapinoe and her teammates smiled and sang the Queen anthem "We Are the Champions" after emerging from a charter jet at Newark Liberty International Airport.


AFP/File / CHRISTOPHE SIMON US Football Federation President Carlos Cordeiro hugs Megan Rapinoe, co-captain of the World Cup winning US football team that is suing the federation for equal pay with male players

The team is suing the United States Soccer Federation to demand equal pay with their male counterparts, and fan chants of "equal pay" cascaded from the stands at the Stade de Lyon after Sunday's victory.

The outspoken Rapinoe has also been unafraid to criticise President Donald Trump, saying last month that she would not accept an invitation from him to visit the White House if the USA won the World Cup.



She also reiterated that she would not be going to the White House, saying on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that: "I would not go and every teammate that I've talked to explicitly about it would not go."
