Alex Morgan was an off-the-bench breakout star during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, where the U.S. Women's National Team lost to Japan in a penalty shootout during the final. Over the past year, the 23-year-old fast-foot forward (and second youngest on the team's Olympic roster) has solidified herself as a scoring threat—and an invaluable secret to Team USA's success.
I wasn't ready before the World Cup…but now having that experience under my belt I'm definitely more ready to take on a greater role. It's been a different role for me, and I've tried to embrace that, but I still look up to players like Heather O'Reilly, Carli Lloyd, Abby Wambach, and Heather Mitts for guidance. I'm still trying to create my own path for this team.
There's a lot of pressure…a lot of expectations. Personally, I hold myself accountable and have high expectations for myself as well as my teammates. We train for that pressure every day. [Head coach Pia Sundhage] puts that in our mind pretty frequently, that there is a lot of pressure on our backs and we need to be able to perform consistently at a high level without having a roller coaster. We do embrace that pressure and those expectations.
We have that USA mentality…[Pia] really likes how physical we are, how fast we are. She thinks that USA mentality will help bring us to the finals. She always tells us we need to be tougher on the field. It's not just during games, it's during practice. Sometimes there are injuries, people taking each other out, but that's just a part of the game and you need to be able to bring that competitiveness every single day. We're all competing for a spot on the field; that pushes us and motivates us. We're going to work hard even if we're bent over on our hands and knees, tired as a dog. We're still going to be working because we're holding each other accountable. If I see Heather [Mitts] doing it, I'm going to keep going.
Fitness is…a huge part of our game. It is difficult to go out there by yourself and do, you know, 45 minutes straight with no one watching, no one holding you accountable; but to get to this level you need to hold yourself accountable and you need to be able to put in this work, especially when no one's watching. When we're outside of National Team training camps, we are kind of on our own. I'm in the gym weight lifting two to three times a week, and then you either need to find a team or a few players.
I really respect the women…who started out, like Billy Jean King, and I think it's great that I have this path, this career, that I'm able to create for myself. I'm able to make a living playing soccer and doing what I love. It definitely wouldn't have been possible without those women in the 60s, 70s, and 80s to help guide us. I'm very happy with where I'm at today and a lot of that is definitely due to Title IX.
I think [athletes today] need to take more responsibility… to grow soccer in the U.S. I think we need to do whatever it takes to keep the league (semi or pro) so there's more of a smooth path for young girls to be successful in women's soccer.
We definitely hope to see Japan again…It's always great to play a team that challenges us in every way and Japan has definitely done that. They definitely have a target on their backs and they're champions from the World Cup, so we're looking for them.
[London update: Team USA's 4-3 victory over Canada in overtime—with a last-minute goal from Morgan—set up the Olympic final (and rematch) against Japan on Thursday. The U.S. team has never failed to reach the gold-medal match in the five women's Olympic soccer tournament, and they won gold in 2004 and 2008. Japan will try to become just the second team to win a World Cup and Olympic final in back-to-back years.]
No comments:
Post a Comment