You can imagine how many people tell me how great I am every day. The conversation has circled back to the World Cup, the thing she covets most. ""You don't understand," someone responds. The fire has to be turned down most of the time, and then, little by little, you increase the gas you put on the fire so that the flame can burn bright as you get closer to the pinnacle. Foudy, herself known to teammates as Loudy Foudy, remembers sitting there thinking, That passion, when applied to soccer, runs on a specific route, like an electric current along a wire, feeding the source with little energy wasted. '"Some players are like pseudo-therapists on the field, talking certain teammates through the rough patches. I want to be my best for my country, but I also made a really big promise and choice to be the best in my marriage. Laura, who is 10 years older but came back to live at home after college, spent a semester at sea and lived in Japan for a few years before becoming a teacher. One time, while visiting Wambach in Buffalo, Huffman noticed a remote-controlled helicopter on the coffee table and asked, "What the heck is this thing?" Usually it's the things that hurt, when I think I've failed -- those are the moments in life that have pushed me toward being successful. "Abby wanted that there," Huffman says. "The coffee is almost gone, but Wambach isn't out of words just yet. And often, the most difficult equation for an athlete is figuring out what parts of who they are on the field, and how they operate, will translate to success after the final whistle -- and which parts will not.This is precisely where Wambach finds herself right now.On this late May morning in Portland, the weather is bright and clear, as summers here usually are -- just one of the many reasons Wambach and her wife, Sarah Huffman, decided to buy a house in the hills a few miles outside the city.
"I've never actually said that out loud. But she was a young upstart when she landed Wambach, one of the nation's top recruits, despite heavy competition from more successful programs such as UCLA and North Carolina. What about life -- a much more delicate playing field -- where crashing forward can only occasionally be the right play call?Life doesn't work like soccer does. "Apparently the kitchen was just too far to walk for a drink. "And for the young fans who passionately follow the women's national team, it isn't a big deal. Then I got married, and I had to transfer some of my energy. Or, as former U.S. women's coach April Heinrichs says, "You don't score a goal like that just once in your lifetime. "Two young girls, the daughters of national team defender Christie Rampone, flanked Wambach, who held their small hands as if walking out for the national anthem before a match. It had a lot to do with her addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
"She had heard that I was really unfit, which I was," Wambach recalls.
They were cool with it; they had all played with gay athletes before. The bear isn't in hibernation anymore; she is peeking her head outside, getting a good look at the changing landscape. Over here! It's a simple pleasure, but a good coffee and the crossword puzzle sounds like the perfect morning to her. She isn't sure how many more years she will play, although the 2016 Olympics in Brazil are probably a safe bet. "While I understand her feelings, we still need public LGBT role models. Sitting at their industrial kitchen table, Huffman tries to explain her partner's temperament. "She would just tell me, straight up, to get it together.
"To make a party for something that I think of as normal, for me, that just didn't seem authentic. What is my point in life? Wambach does the cooking, Huffman the cleaning, a division of labor that makes sense on many levels, given Wambach's big personality. She plays best when allowed to focus inward, on her own game, without worrying about the mental and emotional well-being of everyone else. She lists this fact -- Terrible Drinker of Water -- as one of her flaws. "But as her fourth World Cup nears, Wambach said, "I'm finally feeling like I'm having fun again. "She gets really, really serious a couple of months before the big event, and she goes with it.
That was more than a decade ago, when Wambach was the youngster on the national team. When Wambach is on the road with the national team, a daily itinerary is slipped under the players' hotel room doors each morning. "As you get older, I wouldn't say the passion leaves you, but it changes," Wambach said. Says Foudy, now an ESPN analyst: "Abby lives this great, passionate life, and sometimes she is going to fall. One of the most respected and highest-scoring players in the game, Abby Wambach will retire from international soccer in December. She had just started thinking about the possibility of playing soccer professionally, and her introduction was seeing 90,000 people inside the Rose Bowl going crazy as the U.S. defeated China on penalty kicks.Two years later, in 2001, Wambach was called up to the U.S. national team, playing with a kind of fevered passion that caught the attention of the team's veterans. We look back at her storied career. And with that, they ran back onto the field, hooting and hollering, and eventually winning the national title, the program's only one to date.Wambach comes by this bold, outsized personality naturally.She grew up the youngest of seven kids. If you score a goal, that is clear, concise, measurable validation. Julie Foudy once gave Wambach a shirt that said, "Help! All that matters to them is that Wambach is really good at soccer.
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