As told to Nancy Armour
My first memory of the World Cup is going in 1999. I was 11, and my sister and my parents and our club teammates went to the opening game in the Meadowlands.
We’re kicking the ball around the parking lot. We’re buying T-shirts off the vendors. And it was just really fun. I was still a little bit young, but I definitely thought, “I would love this. This would be really cool to get to do.” It was the first time that it was a bigger thought than just doing it as a kid — that you could participate and do something like that when you grew up.
I was obviously very excited to make the World Cup roster in 2015. It was the first time I’d made a major tournament of any kind.
I was reading an article before the World Cup that was giving the breakdowns of all the players. Next to my name, all it said was ICE. I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. I’ve got a cool nickname. I’ve got ice in my veins.” And then I read it and it was, “In case of emergency.” And I was like, ooh. That’s rough. But my mentality then is my same mentality now: How can I help this team win a World Cup? What does that look like day to day?
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I had gone to the qualifying tournament in 2014 as the unrostered, third goalkeeper and I learned a lot through that experience. My approach each day was: How can I make myself indispensable, even as a third goalkeeper? Do you need me to serve balls today? Do you need me to shag balls today? Do you need me to let people take 500 shots today so they can get their work in?
I was trying to find a way to make myself as useful as possible. What did Hope (Solo) need at that time to prepare, to get ready? What did Ashlyn (Harris) need? How can I continue to push them? And push myself.
I studied the same way. I went to all the same meetings. I did all the same things. Because you never know when your opportunity is going to come, and you better make damn sure you’re ready for that opportunity. There’s a lot of things that you can regret, and that’s not one you want to have.
Looking back on it now, the experience I had in 2015 really helped me in 2019.
I was able to learn how to manage friends and family being around. How to manage a seven-week tournament, when to take time off. I was able to watch a lot of the veteran players, players who had done it before. I was able to essentially have a dry run before having the opportunity to play in 2019. And that ended up being very valuable.
Being the starter in 2019, at the very core, it didn’t change my approach. I wanted to win and I wanted to do my part to help this new group of players win and add another star to the crest. It wasn’t so much the mindset that changed, it was the responsibilities.
There obviously is that different thought of having now to be locked in and focused in a different way. But for me, it was trying to stay true to who I was the whole time and trying not to let the huge moment be too big, respecting it for what it was – it is a World Cup – but trying to keep the same mindset: It’s just a game. You’ve done this a million times. You’re prepared.
I’ve always fallen back on my preparation. Every detail matters. If I can prepare the way that I want to prepare, then I can feel good and comfortable going into a game, and confident.
And I think having the support and the confidence of my teammates was huge because I always felt their belief. I knew that I had their back, but I always felt like they felt confident with me behind them. And that went a long way for me.
The biggest thing is just enjoy the journey. Every little piece of it. Enjoy every failure, every success, every hard thing that you’ve done.
Alyssa Naeher, USWNT goalkeeper
The expectations, they are what they are. It means we’ve done things right in the past and it means we’ve earned those expectations. But I don’t think it’s a burden. I don’t think it puts added pressure because we have those expectations for ourselves. We want to win the World Cup. We want to put ourselves in the best position possible to go and win seven games and be standing on the podium at the end of the tournament.
To win a World Cup, so many different things have to fall into the right place. And it’s not that they fall into the right place. You create those different opportunities. Just having a good team isn’t enough to win the World Cup. Just having a few bounces go your way isn’t enough. You have to have so many different things. You have to have players that step up. You have to have defenses that clear balls off lines or goalkeepers that make saves.
There’s all these different moments along the way that, if one thing goes a different way, then it’s like the butterfly effect. It changes the course of what the tournament is. So you get to the end and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, we actually did it.’
It’s kind of like an out-of-body experience. You’re happy. You’re relieved. You’re excited. You’re everything. Confetti starts falling.
You look around at what you were able to accomplish as a unit. And that unit is not just the 23 players. It’s your massage therapists, your athletic trainers, your coaches, your fitness coaches, your chef, all these different people are on the field with you. We could not accomplish what we accomplished without the entire support staff that was with us from day one.
To be able just to enjoy those moments as an entire group of 40-50 people, however many, that’s the really special part of it. The bonds that we make, the relationships that you make, the memories that you make – and they’re not even always on the field. It’s the dinners that you go to. The pool recovery sessions that you have with somebody bringing a boombox. It’s the little things along the way that make these journeys so special.
So that feeling when it’s done is pure celebration.
The biggest thing is just enjoy the journey. Every little piece of it. Enjoy every failure, every success, every hard thing that you’ve done. Every disappointment I’ve had throughout my career, it’s made the successes that much more sweet because you know how hard it is to get to the success.
As athletes, we’re so focused on what’s next? I had that goal, I accomplished it, what’s next?
But then I’ll put on the jersey and I’ll look down and I’ll see four stars. I remember saying to Kelley (O’Hara) at one point, “How cool is it that you can just look at this jersey and you know that we’re two of those?” You can’t ever take that away.
Alyssa Naeher is the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. women and the Chicago Red Stars. She is a two-time World Cup champion and Olympic bronze medalist, and holds the NWSL record for career saves.
