For about a month. the U.S. soccer team has played many games in World Cup Canada 2015. They put in so much effort, energy and time into each and every game, and it paid off. They made it to the final game to battle it out against Japan for the World Cup championship title.
On July 5,2014, the women who represent U.S.A. fought for that title and rightfully earned it. They scored early on in the game, giving the team an advantage over Japan. Extraordinarily, the U.S. team scored four goals within the first 16 minutes. For anyone who has never played or watched soccer, it is not as easy as you think (trust me, I played), but these women are just that bad-ass. The last World Cup trophy brought home by the U.S. women's team was in 1999. But now, only one day after Independence Day, the great U.S. team claimed the win and the trophy. This would not have been possible without the effort each player put in all and all the sweat. One particular player may not have played much, but that doesn't mean that she didn't play a big part of the team for this season. Her name is Abby Wambach.
Wambach, a 35 year-old professional soccer player, played for the Florida Gators before she went on to play for many teams, as well as playing for U.S.A. in 2001. She has the most international goals than anyone in history (women and men -- including Landon Donovan, Mia Ham, and Pele). The record is sitting at almost 200 international goals. Not only does she hold this title, but she is also a six-time winner of the U.S. soccer athlete of the year, and stands at the highest all-time goal scorer for the national team.
Needless to say, she has a legendary career playing soccer. What makes her a leader and a role model is that even if she's just being used as a substitute, she does not get angry at her coaches. Instead, she becomes the team's biggest supporter and cheerleader. Around the 80th minute of the World Cup championship, Wambach was put in, and then something awesome happened. The captain, Carli Lloyd (who was called the American star of this tournament) took off the captain's armband and handed it to Wambach to put on. After all these years of putting so much effort, time, sweat, and tears into this team, it finally all paid off and Carli knew that Wambach deserved to wear that band for all the years she has given to the U.S.A. soccer team and all of the effort throughout her professional career.
Wambach is not just a legend, she is someone the team's players look up to. They knew what the trophy and winning the World Cup would mean to her, and they let her lift up the World Cup trophy as this is likely her last World Cup! So here's to the hard work, sweat, and tears Wambach put in; and most of all, here's to U.S.A. for bringing back that World Cup!
As Wambach describes soccer, winning and her career -- it's like love!
Congrats, U.S.A.!