The FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off on July 20. Here, meet four of the most exciting new players to watch:
It’s an atypically sunny spring day in Beaverton, Oregon, and four of US Women’s Soccer’s brightest stars are wondering what it will look like when they win. This is not an unusual train of thought for Sophia Smith, Alyssa Thompson, Naomi Girma, and Taylor Kornieck, who between them represent a new generation of standout scorers, defenders, and in this World Cup year, possible household names.
Until recent years, fame, fortune, and fashion portraits have not typically been the realm of US women’s soccer. The National Women’s Soccer League, or NWSL, is this country’s third attempt at a women’s professional league, after the Women’s United Soccer Association and Women’s Professional Soccer . Players once had to go overseas to more-established clubs and footie-friendly cultures to make their careers.
Soccer is about speed, agility, strength, and strategic thinking. It requires thousands of near-instantaneous decisions, as well as the ability to run for over 90 minutes straight, at hamstring-wrenching speeds. At a packed Portland Thorns home game against Angel City in late April, Thompson, who’s been alternating pro training with shopping for her prom dress, tears circles around the pitch.
As last year’s league MVP and Portland’s star scorer, the 22-year-old Smith—whose bright smile and game-time bubble braid make her an easy poster girl for the sport—takes a relatively sanguine view of greatness. “I want to be the best in the world,” she tells me. “I feel like Ibe the best in the world. That’s what motivates me. There’s no end point. There is no ‘satisfied.’ There’s always: I want more.”Players who love soccer and are exceptionally good at it typically find that out young.
So what makes a player into a star? How can you tell who will be the next Mia Hamm or Abby Wambach or Megan Rapinoe? “The difference between good and great is something I talk about a lot,” Foudy tells me. “There’s a lot of reallyones, I think, have a mentality that’s just different. They’re fighters, they’re competitive, they’re curious, they’re hungry. You can have tons of talent and tons of raw athletic ability.
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