If there is one certainty in soccer, it is this: The quickest road to becoming a winning soccer team is to have a great goalkeeper.
— Julie Foudy
With acceptance comes opportunities. And with opportunities come numbers and, most importantly, hope.
I have non-breaking news for you: FIFA does not care what you think. Over the years, FIFA has never seemed influenced by what is written or said in papers, articles, tweets, blogs, and on television about how it operates.
Do your homework. Find your voice. Be authentic. And then dive in with purpose.
We all can agree we want our kids active and moving and healthy. But we also have a right to know whether the turf fields our kids are playing on contain harmful chemicals.
The pressure to perform is actually a privilege. Being left out of the starting rotation is a sign you must work harder.
The ebb and flow of daily life can lead to wonderful highs, crushing lows, and everything in between.
Imagine the day when girls everywhere won't have to fight for the right to be recognized for their great work or their contributions to society.
I remember the day I met Cammi Granato, a former star on the U.S. women's hockey team. We were at a Women's Sports Foundation dinner in 1996, and she came over to introduce herself. She had watched the U.S. women's soccer team win gold at the Atlanta Olympics and was hopeful the U.S. women's hockey team could do the same.
Once I was walking with teammate Joy Fawcett in a hotel in Haiti. We were barefoot, and the lights went out to save electricity. Joy felt something crunch beneath her feet, and she felt the need to shine her flashlight on the floor. It was, I swear, a five-foot cockroach.
Penalty kicks are so much about confidence and your mentality going into them. If you go walk up to a kick and you're not sure where you're gonna place it, or you're feeling a little uneasy, that's when you often miss it.
I believe it's our responsibility to show our communities the value of all people, to celebrate different, and to take a stand for acceptance and inclusion.
As female athletes all over the world have discovered the hard way, changing cultures and mindsets takes action.
We women are great at underselling ourselves and not so great at owning our awesome.
Leadership is loud. It is quiet. It is thoughtful and emotional and cerebral and nerdy and goofy and joyful and motivating.
I always thought it would be so much fun to write a book.
When they asked me what charity I wanted to play for on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' the first thing that came to my mind was that this would be a great opportunity to let people know about TOPSoccer.
It is so easy to be pleasant and charming and positive when life is going swimmingly well. You are winning. You are healthy. You are happy. But what happens when life throws darts at you?
The Women's World Cup gives FIFA a chance, once every four years, to showcase the growth of women's soccer. It gives FIFA a highly visible opportunity to encourage countries around the globe to also support their women's programs. It gives FIFA the forum to show countries the potential of women's soccer if only you support it.
Yes, Clay Matthews has a long, golden, Fabio-esque flowing mane that most women would chick-slap someone for. And yes, the shiny, beautiful, dark locks that cascade out of Troy Polamalu's helmet are the envy of volume-challenged women and bald men everywhere. But do we need to talk about it incessantly?
If you don't think a small act can make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room.
I understand every parent has a different risk threshold. And I realize life is full of risks, even including harmful chemicals that we interact with on a daily basis.
Stressing out over how you look, what you're wearing, or when you're getting home is not worth it.
Ask any coach in any sport, and they'll tell you that cutting players is their least favorite thing to do. No coach enjoys having to tell players who have worked so hard and for so long on a dream that they are no longer on the team.
In the end, we all seek one thing in life, regardless of gender: to be recognized for the hard work we have done and to leave our sport or business or entity in a better place than when we came in.
I once thought about being a doctor, but then I'd have to work for a living.
I don't know if there's any sport that's stupid, but I really don't understand curling. I guess I'm just not into brooms on ice.
I have these vivid - some fabulous, some not so fabulous - childhood memories of driving to Lake Tahoe.
In so many ways, my soccer career taught me about seeing the value of all people, whether or not society sees it first. Relationships with people who are perceived to be 'different' have taught me the same lesson.
Most sports federations, corporations, and governments don't change voluntarily. Change is brought by the disenfranchised demanding better.
We love to make sure all the boxes are checked - that we aren't just prepared but over-prepared before we raise our hand. It's that discipline that I love most about women, but it's also what holds us women back the most because by the time we raise our hand, that opportunity is often gone.
For too long, I equated leadership with a position. I thought leaders were presidents or politicians or celebrities or four-star generals with a horse and sword.
I think that was one of my biggest worries. I didn't want to be so focused on soccer that it became my whole life.
For the average person walking down the street, they don't even know a women's soccer league exists in this country.
I will forever be fascinated by how people deal with adversity, how people react in moments of crisis, or how people behave when life gets uncomfortable.
In countries or places where an appropriate grass surface is not an option, then turf is indeed a great alternative. But that is only when grass does not or cannot grow.
You don't need a title. You don't need a degree in business organization or be trained in the finer arts of persuasion. You just need to believe you can lead. So start there. Start believing.
I want to go back to college for sure! Who doesn't, right? All your bills are paid for. You're there with all of your friends.
I remember the first time I played on a synthetic turf field. I thought, 'Wow, this is amazing. What is this stuff?' It seemed so much better than that concrete-like Astro Turf that was essentially just a green, thin carpet over hard ground.
It all comes down to perspective. When I get crabby about something, like the delay that was driving me crazy because I told my kids I'd be home for dinner, I have to remind myself where it fits in the scheme of things. We have to say, 'That's life,' which can sometimes be comforting.
When I think about Abby Wambach's last days with the U.S. team, I am reminded of her first days with the U.S. team. The 21-year-old came bouncing in, laughing, joking and, of course, talking. An enormous personality matched only by her thirst for purpose. Because Abby didn't subscribe to external boundaries or predetermined molds.
Inequality brings a visceral reaction. We fought many years to bring others to believe in what was possible with women's soccer, in this country and globally. Now that the possible is being realized in this country, the American women should be compensated accordingly.
I would be doing anything to avoid a 9-5 job and high heels. Lifeguard, beach volleyball player, whatever.
People will say, 'Who are your role models, and who are your pioneers?' And the first person that comes to my mind is Billie Jean King because we didn't have women that we could watch when I was growing up.
Having a love-hate relationship with road trips is inevitable.
My teammates and I are best known for our penalty kick victory against China to win the 1999 Women's World Cup. But a lot of people don't realize that when we were first playing soccer on the Women's National Team, the Women's World Cup didn't exist. In fact, Women's Soccer wasn't even in the Olympics.
Whether you empower one person or the free world, that is leadership.
I'd always thought leadership was a CEO or president or person in a position of power. And honestly, to me, that meant a man - because that's what I was reading about in history books growing up.
Life doesn't just happen. You happen to life. You decide how you want to write your story.
We should teach kids, whether you're on the varsity team or not, that movement is a great thing in your life.
