by Alex Morgan
I am a firm believer in giving back, and the needs of the Haitians were so great. So we’d all decided that when the game was over, we were going to give the Haitian team cleats, clothes, gear, and other game-related items we’d brought along with us. We had too much, and they had next to nothing—it was the least we could do. As I’ve said before, you always have to think about others, especially in times of need.
Our hearts were with them as we played—and they played so well. But we were just too powerful for them, and we won 5–0. Abby scored a hat trick—the fifth of her senior national career—and Rachel Buehler netted her first international goal. Even though they’d lost, this was the best Haiti had ever played against us, and we were aware of how hard they’d fought. After the game, we told them.
“Please accept these gifts from us; I hope they help out your team and families,” Abby said as we met them in their locker room after the game. “We’ve been thinking of you, and we wish you all the best in the rest of the tournament. We loved playing with you today.”
We posed for photos and hugged, and I felt a real kinship with them. Soccer has an amazing way of bringing people together, even if you’re opponents.
• • •
Two days later, we beat Guatemala 9–0. Amy Rodriguez scored a hat trick, Megan Rapinoe and Abby each made two goals, and I scored at the beginning of the second half. My second international goal! We were starting to feel very confident—fourteen goals in two days of play? Not bad at all.
Our third and final game in the group stage was just as decisive. We were playing Costa Rica, and we beat them 4–0. I netted the final goal of the game eighty-one minutes in. Hooray! We had shut out every team we played in the group stage, sending us into the semifinals full of confidence. We were going to the World Cup—we were sure of it. Only Mexico stood in our way.
Make Charity Personal
I talked earlier about giving back to the community and how the positive energy you get from it will help you in all areas of your life, specifically as you try to reach your goals. But let me be a little more specific. Making a personal connection to someone you help is even more important. It’s one thing to give money to a charity—and believe me, I’m not downplaying that at all. Charities need your money and your donations. But it’s another to give your time, so do that too! Speaking with the Haitian team showed us firsthand what they were going through, and it motivated us more to be there for them and others in need. So I encourage you to tutor, volunteer in a soup kitchen, or even just speak to someone you’re helping. Make charity personal.
CHAPTER 25
* * *
We had four days of rest; then we were set to play Mexico in the semifinals. Mexico was a good team, but we’d beaten them every single time we’d played them. All twenty-six appearances. Not a single loss. On the other hand, they were the home team, so the fans would be cheering against us (except for my parents, who were up there rooting for me, as always!). But skill, history, and our dominant record in the tournament were on our side, and we felt fairly confident we’d move on to the finals. After all, we were one of the best teams in the world.
There was a capacity crowd of 8,500 people that night in Cancún, and the weather was remarkably cool at sixty degrees. But we’d be running so much we’d warm up fast. It wasn’t like we were playing in snow, like we had in our last match with Mexico!
I wasn’t slated to start, which didn’t come as a surprise. This was a big game for us, and we needed veterans on the field, especially at the start of the game. As you know, my special skill had been coming into the second half as a substitute, changing the energy of the team when our opponents were getting a little tired.
Even though we’d shut out other qualifying opponents handily, we’d struggled a little during the first halves of those games. There had been something missing—we just weren’t playing as well as we should have been. And Pia wanted us to work on that during that day’s game against Mexico.
The energy in the stands was noticeable when we entered the stadium—the fans were rowdy, loud, and were definitely not rooting for us. We were playing in a baseball stadium, so fans were a lot closer to us than they usually are. They even threw beer cans and trash on the field! Sometimes crowds are referred to as “the twelfth player” because they play such a big role in the dynamics of the game, and I knew right away this would put us at a disadvantage.
The whistle blew, and things were off to a bad start almost immediately. Two minutes in, one of Mexico’s best players, Maribel Domínguez, ran under a pass from one of her teammates and sprinted toward our goal with her eyes on the ball, which landed just ahead of her. She was so fast we couldn’t even defend her, and when she made it to the ball, she tapped it right past our goalkeeper. There was no way to save it. We’d been caught off guard, and only three minutes in, we were down 1–0.
I can’t begin to describe to you how stunned we were. It felt like we’d been kicked in the gut—three minutes of play, and we were already losing? We hadn’t even had a chance to warm up, and already we were down.
We had to start fighting. From the sidelines I could tell our play looked lackluster, and the energy of the crowd was hurting us. But slowly . . . slowly . . . our momentum began to build. We were going to come back.
And sure enough, in the twenty-fifth minute of play, we got our chance. Megan Rapinoe took the corner kick. She is so strong and so precise on long kicks, and she’s become our go-to person for corners and penalty kicks—so we knew at that moment she could be a threat. The ball flew long and landed right in the middle of the penalty area into a mass of players. The Mexican goalkeeper attempted to clear it, but she didn’t get it far. The ball landed right in front of Carli Lloyd, and she slid to the ground with her legs extended out in front of her. Just as she landed, she kicked the ball into the right side of the goal.
We had tied! There was a palpable sense of relief on the field, but we knew our job wasn’t done. Games don’t end in a tie during the semifinal stage of a tournament like this. Instead, you play through overtime and penalty kicks till someone wins.
I could sense us getting our confidence back. But just two minutes after Carli’s goal, our hopes were dashed again. A Mexican player named Verónica Pérez caught a cross from the right side and headed the ball beautifully into the left side of the goal. It was the kind of shot Abby always got—fast and hard and diving into the goal. The Mexican fans went wild.
A little more than twenty minutes later we went into the locker room for halftime with our hearts in our stomachs. How could we be down 2–1 to a team we’d always beaten? The United States had never—not once—failed to make it to the finals of the World Cup qualifying tournament, and now here we were, losing. There was still the second half ahead of us—a half I’d get to play in—but it was going to be an uphill battle we hadn’t expected.
In the end, we didn’t win the game against Mexico. They beat us 2–1. We took some shots on goal that could have gone in, but the Mexican defense was too strong, and our finishing just wasn’t good. Everyone has theories of why we didn’t win—the backfield was weak; Abby had to leave the game for a few minutes because she had a collision with another player and was bleeding from her head; our shots just weren’t precise. All of those things are correct, but the lesson we all learned was that “the greatest upset in women’s soccer history” (as the press called it) happened because the Mexican team played better than they’ve ever played. And that’s what you always have to do, on the field and off. Play hard and fight like crazy till a job is done.
I’d thought we were invincible, but we weren’t.
Don’t Make Excuses
When we lost to Mexico, we could have blamed it on the crowd or Abby’s unexpected injury. Taking too much time to find blame and make excuses for why you didn’t win takes you away from focusing on the future. The thousand reasons why things didn’t go right are in the past,
and saying “it’s not my fault” is just a waste of time. Take stock, learn something from the mistakes you made, and move ahead.
CHAPTER 26
* * *
Abby said something so true in an interview at the end of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament. She commented that any team—even the #1 team in the world (which was us)—will lose. Soccer’s just one of those games where everyone loses at one point or another. But she added, “It’s a wake-up call for everyone, and we’re going to work our tails off to make sure it never happens again.”
When you’re going after your goals, you have to accept that you’re going to lose sometimes. It’s part of life. But you can learn from it and work harder because of it. And that was our plan for the next three games.
Yes, we had to play three games to get into the World Cup. One game would be against Costa Rica, who had lost to Canada in the semifinal. If we won that, we’d have two games against Italy, who had placed #5 in the European Cup. We’d play one game in Italy and one game at home, and whoever had the most goals at the end would go to the World Cup.
You’ll remember that we’d played Costa Rica earlier in the group stage of the tournament and had beaten them 4–0. So we were feeling confident going into this game. Then again, we’d been confident going into the game against Mexico, so we made sure to be ready for anything this time.
We played our hearts out and beat Costa Rica 3–0. Whew. It was such a relief. But we knew our work wasn’t over—two more games still stood between us and the World Cup. We were ready to take on Italy.
• • •
The weekend before the national team left for Italy for the first of our two games against them, I reunited with my Cal teammates for the first game in the NCAA tournament. We had finished up our season 15-2-0 and 7-2-0 in the Pac-10, and we were set to play Duke. Initially, Pia had forbidden me from going—she didn’t want me to risk injury before a big game. But I begged her, and finally she and I agreed that I could attend the tournament as long as I didn’t play. I just wanted one more chance to be with the Cal team—they were so important to me, and even if I couldn’t play, I needed to feel emotionally connected to them one last time.
Once again, though, Pia relented. She called me just a few days before the game and said I could play as long as it was only for forty-five to sixty minutes. I was grateful she’d allowed me something I wanted so badly, so I honored her wishes.
While Cal played hard, we unfortunately lost, but I cherish that last game with them. It was important for me to say good-bye and move on. Leaving college behind was hard, but it was going to be okay. I was ready to transition from college to a professional career. Playing with the national team was the next chapter of my life.
• • •
We had six days in Italy before we were due to play in Padua, just west of Venice. Italy is so beautiful, and being there brought back the wonderful memories I had of traveling there with my Cal teammates just over a year before.
Our first game against Italy started on a damp and rainy day. There were only five thousand people in the thirty-thousand-person stadium, so it wasn’t exactly crowded. But a group of them were Americans from a nearby military base, and they were cheering their heads off! They were waving flags and yelling, “USA! USA!” I smiled every time I heard them.
In retaliation, the Italian fans would shoot off fireworks every now and then. It was a little jarring, but still pretty funny. Can you imagine trying to focus on something while fireworks are exploding all around you? But as the Mexican game had shown us, excited fans can make a big difference. We had to be ready for anything.
I wasn’t slated to start, but I hoped and expected Pia would put me in at some point to shake things up—she had told me to be ready.
So I sat on the sidelines and watched the first half. Things were back and forth, with us dominating. We had a great shot early on from Megan Rapinoe, but the Italian goalie knocked it away. Then we almost got one in late in the first half, but again, no luck.
As we headed into the second half, Dawn Scott, our fitness coach, had told me to warm up on the sidelines.
“Alex, I think Pia’s going to put you in soon,” she said.
Excellent, I thought. I’m ready.
We were on the attack as the minutes ticked by. A few more of our shots were saved by the Italian goalie, and our goalkeeper knocked away a few herself. But still, no score.
Around the seventy-fifth minute, I could tell something was wrong with our defender Heather Mitts. I wondered, Is she cramping up? And sure enough, she was. Pia called her over to the sidelines and put in a sub, which left only one additional substitution for us. Will that be me? When will I go in? I was trying not to be anxious, but it was hard. I was dying to play.
“Alex, keep warming up,” said Dawn. “Just be patient.” So I was.
I held tight till the eighty-fifth minute, which felt like forever, and then Pia walked up to me and looked me straight in the eye.
“You’re going in now. Just go to the goal. You don’t have to be tricky. You don’t have to be smart. Just go to goal, because you’re faster than everybody else.”
If there was anything I could do, it was run fast. Remember what my club coach said? No skill, but all speed. Well, I’d learned technique since then, and I’d gotten even faster.
Just go to the goal.
For nine minutes—into stoppage time—I tried as hard as I could to do what Pia said. And then I finally got my chance. We were pushing hard toward the goal when I saw Abby, running as fast as she could, catch a long pass that she nudged off her head. It landed right in front of me, and as instructed, I ran as fast as possible. Just go to the goal.
I shot. And I scored.
We’d done it! We were up 1–0!
I’d had some big goals before, but this was probably the biggest of my life so far.
When the final seconds ticked away and the whistle blew, I knew we were almost there.
Just one more game, and then World Cup, here we come. . . .
Be Patient
Sometimes you just have to be patient when you’re going after something. Standing on the sidelines that day in Italy, I was itching to get into the game. Eighty-five minutes felt like a lifetime! But being impatient wasn’t going to help, and I knew I’d have my chance. When you’re trying to achieve something, try your hardest, but be patient when things are out of your control. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to speed things along, so it’s best to just accept them for what they are.
CHAPTER 27
* * *
We flew home after the game with a mix of emotions—joy, relief, a little bit of nervousness, and belief in ourselves for what lay ahead. The next game against Italy was going to be held outside of Chicago, so we anticipated a friendly American crowd (with no fireworks, hopefully!). As we suited up, Pia gathered us together to give us a little pep talk.
“I know no one wanted to have to play these two games. But right now we have to look at this as though the glass is half-full. It’s been a bumpy road, but we’ve won one game already. We need to play our hearts out and enjoy this, and it will take us all the way to Germany.”
She was so right. This was not what we’d expected. We’d made it to the World Cup so easily in years past, and this time had been different for a million reasons. But you have to make the best of a situation when you’re thrown a curveball on your path to making your dreams come true. Just look on the bright side and see the joy in the work that lies ahead of you. If you are passionate about your goals, trust me, there will be many moments of happiness, even if they come with lots of ups and downs along the way.
It had been bitter cold during our practices leading up to this second game, and it was thirty-one degrees on game day! This was typical for Chicago in late November, but brrr, it was cold. We went onto the field determined to win this game, an
d we hit the ground running right away. But to be honest, it wasn’t our best first half. I was on the sidelines as a sub, and I watched several times as the ball slipped past the midfield, putting our defenders in a dangerous position. But as they had in the last game, they held strong, and nothing got through.
Things picked up after twenty minutes, and we started to get really aggressive, keeping the ball away from our defenders. In the fortieth minute, Megan Rapinoe dribbled the ball down the field beautifully, faked a shot, then cut back. Of course, this threw everyone off, and Megan shot. The ball hit the Italian goalkeeper, and she couldn’t hold on to it. It rolled forward, and Amy Rodriguez slid right into it. The ball sailed hard into the back of the net.
We were up 1–0! At this point, the Italians would have to score two goals to even tie us in the series—three to win. This was because whoever scored the most goals between the two games was declared the winner. The way they’d been playing, things weren’t looking good for them. We’d been outshooting them and keeping the ball on their side of the field much of the game. They’d have to be super aggressive to overtake us.
After the half, we headed back onto the field starting to taste victory. We weren’t going to let ourselves get too comfortable, but we were definitely feeling optimistic. Amy Rodriguez had played so well that I knew chances were getting slimmer that I’d be subbed in for her, and I was going to have to be okay with that. One thing about teamwork is that you have to care for others as much as you care for yourself, so while I was eager to get on the field, standing on the sidelines and watching her dominate the game was actually kind of thrilling.