New goal: U.S. women's soccer eyes equal pay

Key members of the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) have filed a lawsuit demanding pay parity from U.S. soccer's governing body.

The five players who filed the suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn, did so through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal body that tackles workplace discrimination.

They say that they filed the complaint on behalf on the entire team, which sometimes earns as little as between a half and a quarter of their male counterparts, depending on bonuses.

The case should be the legal equivalent of an open goal, some analysts say. Not only are the U.S. women much more successful than the men, they also generate much more revenue for U.S. Soccer.

"It's been noted... that the women's team itself has generated more money by far -- by $20 million in 2015 than the men's team did," sportscaster, journalist and author John Bacon tells CNN's Natalie Allen.

"Their case is based on how much they're getting paid, how much they're winning, but also how much they're generating for the U.S. Soccer Federation."

He says that "pretty clearly" they should at least close the pay gap on their male colleagues, and says, "you might argue they should be getting more than the men.

"Winning does help, doesn't it?"

In a statement released March 31, U.S. Soccer said that its "efforts to be advocates for women's soccer are unwavering," adding that it is committed to negotiating a new collective bargaining

agreement for the women's team at the end of 2016.