A decisive leader on and off the field for U.S. Soccer, Megan Rapinoe will close her international career with a friendly Sunday at Soldier Field.
United States forward Megan Rapinoe celebrates scoring her team's first goal during the 2019 World Cup quarterfinal against France on June 28, 2019, at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris.Over the 17 years of her international career, we’ve run out of platitudes. It makes it difficult to know where to begin.Perhaps lead off with the obvious. There never will be another quite like her. Please forgive the cliché — it’s trite but also true.
Eventually, Rapinoe would become the face of soccer for club and country in the U.S., but she wasn’t set to make that journey in Chicago. The original Red Stars ceased operations in 2010, and the WPS folded a year later, scattering Rapinoe and the bulk of her fellow American stars to teams in Europe.
The game-saving goal of the semifinal against Brazil has since been canonized in the annals of international soccer lore. Seconds left in a hard-fought overtime with a one-goal disadvantage, Rapinoe scrambled along the left flank of the field, jerked her chin up to find Abby Wambach in the box, then launched an improbable, impossible cross from nearly 25 yards away. The crash of the ball rang impossibly loud against the back netting as the goal lifted the Americans to an overtime victory.
This was the version of her that I discovered at 14, wearing the last Rapinoe T-shirt jersey my mother could find at Dick’s Sporting Goods, planted on the carpeted living room floor because I couldn’t get close enough to the TV.At the time, I didn’t know how much I would need this version of Rapinoe — didn’t know yet how hard it would be to grow up as a queer kid, didn’t know how quickly soccer would become a touchpoint and through line for the rest of my life.
But this is a mantle Rapinoe always has shouldered willingly, embracing the divisiveness that powered her impact. It can only be backed up by being good — scratch that, being theSweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic watches as the United States' Megan Rapinoe misses a penalty shot during the World Cup Round of 16 match against Sweden on Aug. 6 in Melbourne, Australia.
In some of her final words to the media during a news conference Saturday, Rapinoe expressed a desire to leave a particular legacy: one of joy.
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