When people say ‘American soccer,’ they think of the U.S. national team. But American soccer also includes Major League Soccer, and until we have a league that produces players at the rate other leagues around the world do, I don’t believe we’ll ever get to where we want to be.
The thing that’s really kept me on my toes is how my mom would always tell me – it’s not the best thing for a mother to tell you – but she’d never tell me after I’d lose a soccer game, ‘You’ll do better next time.’ She’d always say, ‘There’s always somebody better.’
Soccer is the international language. If you bring a soccer ball with you to any other country, you can make friends instantly.
What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.
There was this old soccer game called ‘Goal’ for the old Nintendo, and ever since then, I’ve played everything from the old school games to the 360.
All kids have the dream of becoming a professional soccer player, but to become that you need so many things. You have to have talent, be hard working, have support, have discipline. You also have to have ability, physical and technical, and understand the game.
My father always told me I like the ball more than I like playing soccer: since I was a young kid, I was always skilled with it, dribbling furniture around the house. That’s how I see football – fun and dynamic – and this goes beyond me; it’s a characteristic of Brazilian football.
Women’s tennis has been around for a very long time – we’re talking about the 1800s. But women’s soccer hasn’t had such a long history, so now they’re right at the beginning of really trying to make things equal. We need to continue not only to advocate for women but to have men advocating for women.
I don’t like the soccer industry and yes, I do like to play.
People just assume, over the years, that soccer players are not too intelligent. As with most assumptions, they’re wrong.
If I couldn’t get to the national team, I wanted to get as much as I could out of soccer, and I think moving abroad was my opportunity to do that. I think that, in turn, playing with that freedom and that spirit allowed me to play a lot better. I escalated my game quickly just by being happy.
I think soccer kept me off the street.
Number one, it was a chance to thank my parents, because they passed away a couple of years ago. They gave me so much by giving me the opportunity to play soccer, and I wanted to share the story we had together.
I would love to inspire our nation and continue the success of U.S. women’s soccer.
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.
But for me as a player, I pride myself on understanding the game and having a really good soccer IQ.
At home, I’m lucky if I can write three or four hours before the phone starts ringing and the kids want to go to soccer.
I’m not a huge soccer fan, but I follow the sport. I played in high school, a little bit in college, played on various club teams most of my life, and all three of my sons are competitive soccer players and far better than I ever was.
I’m not sure if I’m going to get into coaching. I’m sure I’ll stay in soccer somehow.
To combat the monotony of gym workouts, I started playing soccer. I looked at workouts as training sessions. My soccer training includes squats, pushups, resistance-band work, and sprints. Ninety minutes of running became part of my love of the game rather than a chore.
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.
I’ve always thought it would be interesting to give insight on soccer because I have a lot of experience in my career.
You always have to prove yourself. I always thought I had to go beyond things to get great grades. When I was applying for college, even though I knew I was going to play soccer, I always knew I had to do something above and beyond and not give anyone a reason not to overlook me.
Soccer riots kill at most tens. Intellectuals’ ideological riots sometimes kill millions.
We won the European Championship last September and now the world title. That is some year for French beach soccer! Now comes the hard part. We have to keep improving and that’s difficult because it’s tough to do better than winning a world title.
In my school, people liked the gym teachers because they were the football or soccer coaches. But look, if they’re cool, they get respect.
Michael Sanchez and I grew up in New Jersey, not far from here, playing soccer together. When I was in high school, I worked to start an organization to help senior citizens, which I learned a great deal from.
I went to a soccer high school, and it was really different to being on ‘Idol.’ So I decided to quit school, and I put all my energy into music, and things started to happen.
When I was ten, I wrote an essay on what I would be when I grew up and said I would be a professional soccer player and a comedian in off season.
I want soccer to be a stable profession that attracts young female athletes when they graduate from college.
I can’t play soccer, and I’m not a great swimmer. I won’t drown, but you won’t see me doing laps in a pool.
I don’t run on the treadmill, because there’s no treadmill moving for you on the soccer field.
I never thought I’d play soccer past high school, so to go from that team to actually being most-capped and three World Cups is pretty special.
Soccer may not explain the world or even contain the world. But it makes the world a slightly happier place.
Growing up, my friends played soccer or did gymnastics after school; I went on auditions with my mom.
I can’t divorce myself from my childhood. I try to write as much fiction as I possibly can, but there are so many things that are touchstones of my childhood like being on the swim team and playing soccer and the particularities of sports season and environments that make their way into my books.
My dad has always played and coached, so that’s what I knew. I played other sports but always turned toward soccer and had the same love for it as my father. They never forced me to play; I always wanted to. I was always around it.
This is America, man. To not have football would be un-American. It’s part of our society, like soccer in Brazil.
Coaching in Major League Soccer and living in Atlanta has been a wonderful experience and a welcome new challenge.
Television is making sports universal; for the same reason, big-time soccer is growing more popular in the United States.
I’ve never had a problem finding a team, a league, or a pickup game. Actually, I’m not sure I want soccer to get bigger. We have so many teams in San Francisco that there aren’t enough fields.
I liked soccer. I played it for two years.
Obviously, football and soccer seem to clash a lot, but soccer was great for me. It’s a game that you play with triangles. You make a pass thinking that the person you pass the ball to is going to make the next pass.
I started playing soccer first and then basketball. I had a leg injury when I was young and my mom said, ‘come on, try to choose a different sport.’
I never even think of playing soccer.
I didn’t make any money in soccer, only spent money. I had offers to play in Sao Paulo, but my mother didn’t let me go.
Fortunately for me, it’s my most favorite drill, and that is finishing. However, from a young age, soccer players in this country are not taught how to properly finish, and I think you see that through the professional ranks, that we don’t have that killer instinct of the forwards from other countries.
I grew up in a town with a great wrestling tradition. Then I was a team sport queen in high school; I played softball, volleyball, and soccer. Oh, and I also did ski racing.
If I’d grown up in Sao Paulo, I’m sure I would’ve been a great soccer fan.
Like many a Yank before me, I have tried to explain to European friends that Americans actually know soccer quite well, that many of us played it in school and college, but that, well, we just don’t find it quite as exciting as, say, what we call football.
I think because of our society, and the way that I grew up in soccer, I had to become well-rounded, but I also cherished the parts of me that made me special. I’m thankful for that because it’s made me a better player.
I want my legacy to be about the soccer, and if I can help people be happier in life in any capacity, awesome.
The one thing that I always encourage women who want to be WWE Divas to do is have something you are passionate about. For me it was Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts. For some people it’s soccer. Whatever it is, it gives you confidence and that will translate.
I think that during college, I would say I did not enjoy playing soccer.
The women’s national team is a very successful team, and that success has given us a platform to speak on gender equity issues. Millions of young women play soccer in this country, and it’s empowering for them to see that our contribution to the game is valued.
Basketball is such a global sport, being second to soccer.
