GOAL spoke to five American champions about what it takes to win the tournament and what they learned along the way
Winning the World Cup is anything but easy, despite how the United States women's national team has made it seem at times. No team has been more successful at this level, and no team has dominated this tournament quite like the USWNT. The U.S. has won four of the eight World Cups, including each of the last two as they head into this summer's tournament searching for a threepeat.
A total of 68 American players have lifted that trophy at the end of four different tournaments, and each of them has their own story. Some have gone down as legends, some as unheralded contributors to teams that went down in history. Many of the USWNT's biggest stars saw their careers defined by those World Cup moments, from the famous 1999 team all the way to the 2019 champions that outdueled several of the world's best teams on their way to victory.
Each of those 68 players, though, has made her mark on the game while living through an experience that few on the outside can even imagine. This summer's USWNT group has 14 players going to their first World Cup, and each of those players will learn that these tournaments are rollercoasters as they look to turn 68 into 82.
"These tournaments, they are insane," USWNT captain Lindsey Horan told GOAL ahead of the upcoming tournament. "It's the most wild ride that you can possibly be on. It's so stressful, so chaotic, and there's so much that goes into it."
With the 2023 World Cup looming, GOAL caught up with USWNT stars past and present to ask them one big question: how do you win the Women's World Cup?
GettyKristine Lilly (1991 and 1999): Enjoy the process
There is no player in USWNT history with more experience than Kristine Lilly, and it isn't particularly close. With 354 caps over a 23-year career, Lilly has 38 more appearances than Carli Lloyd, who sits second on that list. And, with her 130 career goals, Lilly is behind only Lloyd, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach on the USWNT's all-time goalscoring charts.
Lilly participated in five World Cups, winning two of them. Her most memorable moments, though, came during the famous 1999 tournament, as she and the USWNT changed women's sports forever with their triumph on the biggest stage. In the final against China, Lilly's goalline clearance saved the USWNT, paving the way for the legendary penalty shootout that followed.
Eight years later, she became the first woman to play in five different World Cups and, with her goal against England, she became the oldest woman to ever score in the tournament.
Because of all of that, there may not be a player out there more qualified to discuss what it takes than Lilly, who tasted plenty of success, but also her share of failure, with the USWNT.
"I think one thing is to stay healthy," she told GOAL, "so be smart in training leading up to it and be smart in taking care of your body. Another is just coming together as a team. It's all about you guys as a team, so make sure that you guys are all tied in together and feeling good.
"The last thing is to enjoy it. It's a process. It's amazing that you get to compete in a World Cup. Whether it's your first, second, third, they're always amazing, so enjoy the process."
Having been retired for over a decade now, Lilly says she can now fully grasp the impact that her teams had on the game. It's something that many may not have understood at the time but, even now, the USWNT still finds itself under the microscope as a flagbearer of the women's game and women's sports in general.
"In 1999 when we did win, for us, we won the World Cup but after, it was about what we did to change minds on the women's game and women's sports," she said. "After that World Cup, I was like 'Wow, we won the thing, but we also did something bigger' and that was really cool."
AdvertisementGettyMichelle Akers (1991 and 1999): Just freakin' win!
If you came up before the social media age, you'll know just how good Michelle Akers was. To this day, the longtime USWNT star is considered among the best players to ever play. That's how dominant Akers was.
She was named FIFA's Female Player of the Century in 2002, was the first woman to receive the FIFA Order of Merit and was only one of two women, alongside Mia Hamm, named to Pele's FIFA 100 list. Akers was a member of the USWNT for the program's first-ever game in 1985, and scored the first goal in the team's history in a 2-2 draw with Denmark.
Much has changed since that goal, of course, but Akers says the mindset sure hasn't. "My first tip for the USA to win the World Cup is to just freakin' win," she told GOAL. "That's No.1."
Simple, right? Well, not really. Winning was never quite that simple, especially for Akers, who, due to her status, was frequently challenged in ways other players couldn't imagine.
In 1991, she was moved from striker to central midfielder, at least partly to avoid the beatings that frequently left her injured up top. She suffered a concussion and a knee injury for the 1995 World Cup, tore her MCL in the 1996 Olympics and dislocated her shoulder in 1999 en route to that title.
It takes a certain mindset to survive all of that, and it takes an even wilder mindset to not just survive, but win. Akers surely did a lot of winning, and she says the key to all of it is determination, pure determination.
"In my opinion, it's preparation, preparation, preparation, but also the team dynamic and the cohesive team unit," she said. "There also needs to be the ever-present hunger to kick ass every single day, every single minute, every single game.
"Our team has that, but the rest of the world is inching up, so how do you keep that going and be relentless in pursuit of that? That's the key to everything."
Getty ImagesHeather O'Reilly (2015): Stay off GOAL!
A 2015 World Cup winner, Heather O'Reilly has some advice that could be good for the USWNT, but maybe not so great for GOAL!
"What I would tell the girls is to build an insular environment: get off social, get off articles, get off rankings," O'Reilly told GOAL. "There are websites, like this one, that will do rankings of players after games and that just can distract players. What they really need to do is just take it one game at a time and continue to grow into the tournament."
During her career, O'Reilly went to three World Cups and got her hands on every color medal. She started with the 2007 tournament, where the U.S. won bronze. In 2011, she went all 120 minutes in the final as the U.S. fell to Japan. Finally, in 2015, she got her hands on that elusive trophy, serving as a vital veteran leader as the U.S. began its current run of dominance.
"In 2011, we made it to the final and wound up losing to Japan on penalty kicks, which was heartbreaking for us. Just being in the starting line up for the final, feeling the buzz in the stadium, it's something I won't forget," O'Reilly said. "Unfortunately, we didn't get it done at the end of the day, but it was an incredible game to be part of.
"Rushing the field after 2015 was amazing. My team-mate, Carli Lloyd, scored a hat-trick in the final, which was unbelievable. Carli and I grew up together in New Jersey and I've known her since she was a kid. It was a special moment and an accumulation of all of these things that go on behind the scenes and, in this one moment, it came together. That's pretty awesome."
Over the years, O'Reilly says she's seen the game evolve, bringing new levels of attention and pressure that, as a team, the USWNT must always learn to cope with.
"To win the World Cup is obviously a tremendous challenge," she said. "Obviously, a lot of people are coming for the U.S. team…It's about sticking together as a unit. Obviously, in this world where people have individual deals now and attention, which is great for women's soccer, what has carried the U.S. team for a long time is fighting as a group, and that brings the best out of all of the individuals.
"If this young team can focus on doing that and sticking through the tough times, there are like 45 days together, right? Some players are playing, some aren't, some are having trouble scoring, everyone has their own individual situation, but if they can stick together as a team, I think that unit is really strong."
GettyAlex Morgan (2015 and 2019): Give yourself grace
Looking back at it, Alex Morgan wishes she wasn't quite so hard on herself. Back in 2011, Morgan was a 22-year-old rising star, the youngest player in that summer's World Cup squad. Just one year prior, she'd earned her first cap and, heading into that summer, she was a key player for the USWNT. Obviously, it didn't pan out, with Morgan and the U.S. falling to Japan in that famous final.
Looking back, with the benefit of 2015 and 2019 titles on her resume, Morgan has since realized that she put herself under a bit too much pressure to succeed.
"Going into my first major tournament, I was very wide-eyed and super anxious and so overly critical of myself in moments that I needed to be more forgiving of myself and give myself more grace," Morgan told GOAL earlier this summer. "It goes from playing and missing a shot to feeling like you said something wrong to the media.
"When you get into a major tournament, you're going to already have so much criticism from the outside, you don't need it from inside. The last thing you need is to be self-critical. You need to have almost like a full thinking-forward mindset and like a forgetfulness. The last shot, the last game, it's behind you. You have an opportunity coming up."
She added: "If you are going through group stages or knockout stages and you're still there, you're doing something right, and so you don't need to be critical of yourself in that moment. You've prepared all before and done all the 99 percent to show that one percent to the rest of the world. You could be critical of yourself during that 99%, but once you get to the top, this is your time to enjoy and to shine."
Morgan will, of course, be heading into her fourth World Cup this summer. She heads into it with 18 career World Cup appearances to her name, making her one of four USWNT players in the squad with double-digit games at the tournament. With 206, she also is one of six players with more than 100 caps.
The striker also has nine career World Cup goals, six of which came at the 2019 tournament. Set to start at striker this time around, the USWNT will need her to add to that tally if they are to make a deep run.
Looking back at her first three World Cups, Morgan feels more than prepared. Still, she feels the same level of excitement she felt as that 22-year-old newcomer: "I think that, going into this World Cup, the level of excitement is there, just as much as my first one, but definitely the outlook and the anxiousness and the feeling of kind of being overwhelmed is a little bit at bay."