Tag: international

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Adrianna Franch

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Adrianna Franch

Position: Goalie

Club: Portland Thorns FC

Number: 21

National team experience: Franch has made one appearance for the national team. She played in a 2-2 draw with England during the 2019 SheBelieves Cup.

What to expect from Adrianna Franch in 2019: Something would have to go terribly wrong for us to see Adrianna Franch in the 2019 World Cup. That’s not an insult to her as a goalkeeper, it’s just a recognition that she is the third goalie and would need some combination of injuries and horrific play from Alyssa Naeher and Ashlyn Harris to see the field. It’s really a shame though, because Franch is a terrific player. As the starting goalie on the Portland Thorns, she was selected as best goalie of the year in the NWSL in both of the last two seasons. She’s explosive and calm in the air. Calmness is an underrated quality for goalies. It’s great to get your hands on a shot, but it’s so easy for the ball to skid off of your hands and go into the back of the net or rebound out to the feet of an opponent. When you watch Franch’s highlights, you get the sense that any ball she can get a finger on will be caught or directed to safety. To see more of her, we’re all just going to have to become NWSL fans after the World Cup.

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Non-gendered personal interest item: As a young black goalie, Franch was inevitably compared to USWNT legend Brianna Scurry, also a black goalie. Although I subscribe to the belief that player comparisons should only be allowed across races, it makes sense that Franch would also have looked up to Scurry herself. As luck would have it, the only time Franch has gotten a chance to start for the USNWT was the game when players were asked to choose a role model’s name to wear on their backs in lieu of their own. Franch chose Scurry.

Links: A couple of good articles about Franch from Equalizer Soccer, Yahoo Sports, and Pro Soccer USA, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Emily Sonnett

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Emily Sonnett

Position: Defender

Club: Portland Thorns FC

Number: 14

National team experience: Sonnet has played 33 games for the USWNT and scored zero goals. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she was used as a substitute in two of three games.

What to expect from Emily Sonnett in 2019: Like so many of the players on the USWNT, Emily Sonnett was a star player in college who was selected number one overall in the NWSL draft. You’d think that players who fit that profile would be locks to make the national team and star on the international stage as well. That’s not always the case — as an article from her club team, the Portland Thorns, points out – only half of the players who get to play a game with the national team make it to their tenth “cap” or appearance with the team. Many of those players have similarly amazing backgrounds. After somewhat consistent time with the national team starting in 2015, Sonnett was dropped out of the rotation for much of 2017. Now she’s back as a reserve wing back, playing most frequently behind Kelly O’Hara on the right side of the field.

Unlike the starting wing backs for the team, Sonnett actually is primarily a defender. Although she played striker as a kid (her twin sister was the fullback of the family,) she switched to defense at the start of college and has played consistently there ever since. She’s the type of defender that you want to have if you’re (like I was in my playing days,) a slightly slower player, prone to mistakes, because Sonnett is fast enough, clever enough, and tenacious enough to clean up for your errors. As we already know from the USWNT’s lineup changes for Game One of the 2019 World Cup, the depth of the team on defense is thinner than at other positions and has already suffered an injury. A couple more, and Sonnett will be thrown into the mix. We also might see her in Game Three against Sweden if the game is not important to advancing to the knockout stage.

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Links: A couple of good articles about Sonnett from ESPN and the Portland Timbers/Thorns website, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Samantha Mewis

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Samantha Mewis

Position: Midfielder

Club: NC Courage

Number: 3

National team experience: Mewis has played 51 games for the USWNT and scored 14 goals. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she played one full game, was a substitute in another, and was left out of the lineup in the third game.

What to expect from Samantha Mewis in 2019: There is really very little that differentiates Mewis from Lindsey Horan. Both are central midfielders. Both are tall, physical players. At 6 feet, Mewis is actually a bit taller. Both players are conduits for the team, helping transition from defense to offense. Both are distributors par excellence and can score when called upon as well. So why is it that Horan is lauded as one of the best players in the world and Mewis is so often an afterthought? I… am not totally sure. There’s some element of play that Horan has that Mewis does not. When you watch the two of them, Mewis seems like a world class player and Horan seems like a swashbuckler. Everything just feels more threatening to the opposing team when it’s Horan with the ball at her feet, rather than Mewis. Whatever it is, the difficult to define difference between the two makes Mewis one of the first subs off the bench and Horan a fixture in the starting lineup.

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Non-gendered personal interest item: Mewis grew up competing with her older sister, Kristie, who was a star forward. She still competes with her in the NWSL where Kristie plays for the Houston Dash.

Links: Mewis’ Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Lindsey Horan

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Lindsey Horan

Position: Midfielder

Club: Portland Thorns FC

Number: 9

National team experience: Horan has played 68 games with the national team and has eight goals. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she was out with a quad injury.

What to expect from Lindsey Horan in 2019 (Guest written by my friend, Gillian Stewart!!): Any time Horan appears on the pitch, Ezra goes “Look Gillian! It’s your girl!” – and it’s true. I love watching Horan play, because while she rarely takes center stage, she shows up at the edge of every play, ready to dive in and get shit done. In the spirit of full disclosure, my love of Lindsey Horan originated during the 2016 SheBelieves Cup because her facial expressions reminded me of someone I had a crush on at the time, which is relatively arbitrary way to choose a favorite player. However, my hormones appear not to have led me astray (at least in this case): Horan is a BAMF.

Horan plays central or attacking midfield for the Portland Thorns, and like any great midfielder, she can do pretty much anything pretty dang well. Her 2018 NWSL season stats are incredible – she shows up on the leaderboard in every single non-goalie category. She led the league in total touches, total duels, duels won…and yellow cards. Unsurprisingly, she was the league MVP. On the national team, she stands out for her forward passing, her physicality, and her ability to win head-to-head (called aerial duels in technical parlance, which I really enjoy). She may not be as fast as Pugh or have the goal scoring prowess of Morgan or Lloyd or the vision of Pinoe or the fancy feet of Heath – but she’s there to pick up the slack wherever it may be. And to win fights. Any player should think twice before going toe-to-toe (or head-to-head) with Horan – she’s fast enough to get to the ball first, skilled enough to win possession, fearless enough to charge full speed, and smart enough to know which duels she can win.

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My favorite video of her is from the Thorns’ last regular-season game of 2018. Seattle had scored early, and Portland were trying to equalize. Christine Sinclair, captain of the Canadian team and one of the world’s greats, receives a beautiful cross to the center of the box, winds up…and gets tackled and goes down. Horan runs in from out of frame to fire the ball into the net with the force and accuracy of a Marvel character zooming in to save the day. Did she need to hit it that hard? Probably not. Is it deeply satisfying to watch an amazing player land a perfect shot? Absolutely.

Non-gendered personal interest item: Horan was the first American woman to skip college and go pro. At 18, she turned down a scholarship at UNC to take a six-figure deal with Paris Saint-Germain, where she spent three and a half seasons as a striker, racking up 46 goals in 58 appearances. Returning to France after three seasons in the NWSL for her first world cup experience has a lovely symmetry, and I’m pretty sure she’s finally learned to speak French. She does use “football” and “soccer” interchangeably when speaking, which I also find deeply charming.

Links: A couple of good articles about Horan from Slate, Oregon Live, and the Washington Post, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Rose Lavelle

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Rose Lavelle

Position: Midfielder

Club: Washington Spirit

Number: 16

National team experience: Lavelle has played 27 games for the national team with seven goals. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she started two games, playing the full 90 minutes in one and being subbed in for in the other. She did not play in the third game.

What to expect from Rose Lavelle in 2019: Rose Lavelle is the USNWT’s wild card. She’s the joker in a card game, the knight in chess. She moves a little differently than everyone else. She’s less predictable. The USWNT’s offense is projected to be a well oiled machine. Alex Morgan in the front, running at the defense and scoring goals. Megan Rapinoe and Tobin Heath on the wings, breaking ankles and sending arcing crosses into the box. Lindsey Horan in the center, distributing the ball. Kelly O’Hara and Crystal Dunn sprinting up the sidelines from their wing back positions. Rose Lavelle is expected to fill the last slot in what is essentially a six player attack, but what exactly will she be doing? If all goes well (and injury-wise for Lavelle, things have so often not gone well during her career,) Lavelle will be wandering, probing the defense for weaknesses, thinking three steps ahead so that she’s open well before anyone is even thinking of passing it. Once she has the ball, watch out. She has (almost) Tobin Heath’s one-on-one ability AND (almost) Megan Rapinoe’s vision AND (almost) Christen Press’ shooting touch. She can be, as Noah Davis claimed in a Bleacher Report article, the “American Messi.” Will this be the tournament that Lavelle becomes a household name? Hard to see when the U.S. attack is so crowded with bigger names already but I’ll be rooting for it. She’s just so fun to watch when she’s firing on all cylinders.

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Non-gendered personal interest item: Rose Lavelle was selected first overall in the 2017 NWSL draft by the Boston Breakers. The team was dissolved at the end of the season, making her (for now) the last first draft pick of a team whose brand had been around for longer than most women’s teams, having been a part of the WUSA starting in 2000. I still hope the team is somehow reanimated!

Links: A piece from Bleacher Report that claims Lavelle is the “American Messi” and one from Forbes about her “magic”, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Tobin Heath

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Tobin Heath

Position: Forward

Club: Portland Thorns

Number: 17

National team experience: 150 appearances and 30 goals. This will be Tobin Heath’s third World Cup. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, Heath played all but five minutes of the tournament.

What I wrote in 2015: You know that kid on your youth soccer team who just never stopped running? He or she might not have been the biggest, the most skilled, the strongest, the most aggressive, or the most clever player, but they just never, ever, ever stopped running. When your team was on the attack, she was there. When your team needed an extra set of legs on defense, there she was. And she never, ever, ever seemed even a little bit tired. That’s Tobin Heath. Heath plays an attacking midfielder role for the national team. In this World Cup, she’ll most likely be coming off the bench to replace Christen Press or another starting midfielder.

What to expect from Tobin Heath in 2019: Of all the players from the 2015 World Cup team, Tobin Heath has improved the most over the past four years. She is still an extraordinary one on one player but because many of the other facets of her game have risen to match her ball skills, that facet of her game is less notable. She’s now a well-balanced attacking midfielder with the ability to score with her head and her feet, up close and from far away. In the past she could get isolated quite easily out on the wing — she would sprint onto a ball, beat a few defenders, often making them look foolish in the process, and then waste the ball with an errant shot or a pass to an empty spot on the field. Now she’s more connected to the players around her, her talents more in sync with the team. She should be an absolute fixture on one side of the midfield, with Megan Rapinoe, giving the United States the best pair of outside attacking midfielders in the world.

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Non-gendered personal interest item:  Tobin Heath is a rascal addicted to nutmegging her teammates and coaches.

Links: Her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Mallory Pugh

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Mallory Pugh

Position: Forward

Club: Washington Spirit

Number: 2

National team experience: Pugh has played 53 games for the USWNT and scored 16 goals. In the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she started all three games and was subbed in each of them. More recently she has been coming off the bench.

What to expect from Mallory Pugh in 2019: When Mallory Pugh first came on the scene for the USWNT in 2016, she was 17 and seemed like a revelation. She was tiny, preternaturally fast, and seemed like she could more than hold her own at the senior level. It’s therefore somewhat disappointing that at 21 she’s not starting regularly for this edition of the team. This often happens to prodigy-like players who get a lot of exposure early. The truth is, it’s a hard path from 17 to 21, and the weight of expectations and public attention doesn’t make it any easier. Bodies change and take getting used to. What seems like pure fun at 17 feels different when you’re still only 21 and you’ve been doing it professionally for a few years now. Injuries add up and slow your development. Pugh seems to have experienced a little of all of that over the last three years. Her work in progress is currently in a positive state, but it’s that of the first player off the bench as a sub in most games, not as a starter. Her speed and imaginative movement are still noticeable when she gets on the field and it would not be surprising at all to see her spark a come from behind win in a game in this World Cup. There’s literally no shame to being behind Tobin Heath, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe at 21.

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Non-gendered personal interest item:  When Pugh was 14, she broke her femur during a game and was back on the field in FOUR MONTHS. AGHHHHA.

Links: A Bleacher Report article about Pugh, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Tierna Davidson

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Tierna Davidson

Position: Defender

Club: Chicago Red Stars

Number: 12

National team experience: Davidson has 20 appearances for the national team and one goal. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she played the full 90 minutes in two of three games and was used as a late sub in the other.

What to expect from Tierna Davidson in 2019: Being the youngest player on an USWNT World Cup roster is partially a function of luck (if you’re 18 on a World Cup year, you won’t be 22 until the next one) but it’s also a badge of honor. Davidson is very much worthy of that honor and she could potentially be a very important player for the team as well. She plays a position of strength for the team, central defense, but it’s also quite shallow. If presumed starter, Abby Dahlkemper isn’t up to the task or co-captain Becky Sauerbrunn (perish the thought) gets injured, Davidson would probably be called on to step up and fill the void. By all accounts, she could do it. When she was called up to the national team as a 19 year-old, she played all 90 minutes of her first five games. She’s as solid as they come. Since that time, she broke her ankle and left college (not totally unrelated) to become the first overall draft pick in the NWSL draft. Her choice had a lot to do with challenging herself to get ready for this World Cup and I’m glad she did it. Nonetheless, if all goes well, we might not see her on the World Cup stage for another four years. Well – maybe coach Ellis will get her into the third group stage match.

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Non-gendered personal interest item: It wasn’t until relatively recently that Davidson’s path to professional soccer was clear. Until then, she had wanted to be an astronaut. What’s the connection between astronaut and central defender? Being calm under pressure, having enormous self-confidence, and enjoying solving problems as they come up.

Links: Articles from Top Drawer Soccer, All For XI, ESPN, and The 18 about Davidson, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Morgan Brian

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Morgan Brian

Position: Midfielder

Club: Chicago Red Stars

Number: 6

National team experience: Brian has made 82 appearances for the national team and has scored six goals. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, she was not on the national team roster. For the last two friendlies of the year, she was on the team but did not get into the games.

What I wrote in 2015: At 22, Brian is the youngest player on the United States team… Although she was a prolific scorer in college, in the context of the national team, she’s played a more defensive or holding midfield position. It’s not a natural fit for someone of her size (5’7″ but so slight that her college teammates nicknamed her, “Plankton”) but she’s more than held her own. When you watch the team, you probably won’t notice Brian, but she’s an essential part of the glue that connects defense to offense and makes sure nothing slips through.

What to expect from Morgan Brian in 2019: Seen as the spark that ignited the USWNT’s run through the knockout rounds of the 2015 World Cup, you’d expect Brian to have spent the last four years solidifying her spot on the team. Instead, it’s been a terrible time of seemingly dozens of injuries that have taken her out of the lineup entirely at times. She’s never regained her heroic 2015 form and is on this year’s team as just one of several midfield options off the bench. Perhaps it was inevitable – one of the team’s slightest players playing defensive midfield, soccer’s most physically demanding position. At only 26, there’s hope for Brian to come back to star in a World Cup again, it just won’t be this one.

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Non-gendered personal interest item:  As per her US Soccer page, Brian “grew up in Georgia on St. Simon’s Island, a tiny island that is three miles wide. When she worked on fundamentals in her driveway, she’d trample the crabs that crept up out of the marsh.” Okay, that’s amazing.

Links: An Equalizer Soccer article about Brian, plus her Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.

Meet the 2019 USWNT: Megan Rapinoe

The 2019 soccer Women’s World Cup begins on Friday, June 7 in France. The United States team is the defending champions but their path to repeating is a perilous one. The field is stronger than it ever has been before and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of the top ten teams lifting the trophy on July 7.

To help prepare you to root for team and country, we’re going to run a short profile of every player on the 23-person roster. When female athletes take their turn in the spotlight, they often receive coverage that is slanted toward non-game aspects of their stories — marriage, children, sexual preference, perceived lack-of or bountiful sexiness, social media activity, etc. In the hope of balancing things out, just a tiny bit, these previews will strive to stay on the field, with only a little bit of non-gendered personal interest when possible.

Megan Rapinoe

Position: Forward

Club: Reign FC

Number: 15

National team experience: 153 appearances with 44 goals scored. During the 2019 SheBelieves Cup, Rapinoe played all but seven minutes and was a co-captain.

What I wrote in 2015: Megan Rapinoe is a world class playmaker. She has exceptional vision… She seems to know exactly where to put the ball. Her other exceptional skill… is her technical ability to pass the ball to just the spot she wants. In the flow of play, Rapinoe’s approach to playing midfielder is acquire the ball, survey the field, move the ball to the player in the position most dangerous to the opposing team. Rapinoe takes the majority of the more technical set pieces, including corner kicks. Her skill on the ball allows her to be a formidable goal-scorer, especially on shots from a distance, but it’s not her primary focus.

What to expect from Megan Rapinoe in 2019: Four years later and coming of a serious knee injury, everything I wrote about Megan Rapinoe is… still true. She’s a fixture on the left wing, still making herself available for service and doing wonderful things with the ball once she has it. In recent years, she can get slight tunnel vision on scoring instead of applying herself to what is her greater skill of playmaking. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that on the world’s biggest stage, she can put aside her goal scoring ambitions in lieu of contributing to team victories. A less celebrated facet of Rapinoe’s game is her defensive ability. She rarely needs to show it during national team games, but when called upon, Rapinoe can be a determined defender with an impressive slide tackle.

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Non-gendered personal interest item:  One of the very earliest athletes to support Coliln Kaepernick’s activism, Rapinoe will continue protesting injustice, racial and otherwise, during this year’s World Cup by standing silently during the anthem with her hands by her sides.

Links: Rapinoe’s Wikipedia page, U.S. Soccer page, and Twitter.