Power and pressure

In the months leading up to the 24-team tournament, the top-ranked Americans were making preparations on the field with a series of tuneups and making waves off it with a gender discrimination lawsuit against their employer, the U.S. Soccer Federation. There were concerns that the legal action — filed March 8, International Women’s Day — would cause distractions in France.

“We just knew that [the lawsuit] had to be done. It was like, ‘Dang, this is really not great timing, but this has to be done.’ We do have a unique group of leaders on the team — Carli [Lloyd], Alex [Morgan], myself, Christen Press, Tobin [Heath], Becky Sauerbrunn — who made it very clear to the rest of the team that, ‘We have it.’

“Internally, we were, at times: ‘Do we have it? Can we do this?’ But externally it was always: ‘We can do this. We have this under control. This is the next, best step.’ We sort of led from that core group and signaled to the rest of team: ‘Yes, this is very important. Yes, this is very meaningful. But we got it. And if you guys are overwhelmed, that’s okay. We aren’t, and we can handle it.’

“We were overwhelmed in our own ways, but we collected the whole group and were like, ‘This is what needs to happen, and we’re able to make this happen.’ ”

As the defending champion, the United States began the competition as the slight favorite, ahead of France, Germany, England and Australia. Despite being the preeminent women’s program in soccer history, the United States had never won consecutive World Cups.

“Our focus and motivation going into the tournament was: ‘This is our tournament.’ This was 2019. This was our team of 23 players and our staff. We have high expectations for ourselves. We go into a tournament, we want to win. We have those expectations for ourselves and as a team. That was our goal from the outset.”

“It’s a good feeling knowing people are expecting you to win the whole thing, but the vibe of the team was very much that we have to work extremely hard to get there. I don’t think anyone in the group felt like it was going to be easy. Even before the first game, people were saying, ‘You are going to have to go through France [in the quarterfinals].’ I was like, ‘Wow, people are already looking so far ahead.’ We were buckled in and living the one-game-at-a-time mentality. Whatever challenges we were going to face, we were going to do it together.”

Midfielder Sam Mewis, in her first World Cup, was on track to start after battling injuries for two years.

“In our preparation and training, I was with the starters a lot, which was a surprise to me, but it was obviously very exciting. As the games started to go on, I started realizing I was going to have a big role and I was one of the starting midfielders. It was crazy and really, really cool. It almost worked out best for me, to not have that pressure for a year in advance, because I just was like: ‘Okay, here we are. I’ve got to do it now. It’s too late to be scared.’ ”

Questions about the Americans centered on the defense, which had conceded seven goals in a four-game span in the spring.

“For us in the back line, we had a pact that we were going to use this tournament to basically shut everybody up. We knew that was the story. We didn’t feel like that was our story, though. So we were really looking forward to rewriting that.”

The Americans had to wait until the last match on the last day of opening games to make their debut.

“The past two years, everything we’ve done, will prepare you for this moment. You are not going to see anything you haven’t already dealt with. We wanted a launchpad moment in that first game, where there is confidence, where there are goals, where there is energy. It’s finally here. Enjoy it. Stay together. You didn’t want them to get too amped up about it, because they are already going to be excited.”

“Our expectation was to win the whole thing, but we also knew we couldn’t look too far ahead. Our mind-set was really just on that first game only. It was a long wait. We had been together for so long. … We were just revving to go and so excited for it to finally start. We did have high expectations for ourselves, but it was like, ‘Don’t look past the first game.’ ”

In their Group F opener, the Americans were heavily favored to defeat Thailand in Reims. Some observers predicted a five- or six-goal margin. It ended up being more than twice that. The 13-0 victory set World Cup records for goals, scoring margin and goals in a half (10 after intermission). Morgan tied the individual scoring mark (five). There was a backlash, though: The team was accused of running up the score and excessive celebrating.

“I was taken a little back by the criticism. In general, you are trying to finish top of your group. I get it: When you win, people have to have some narrative. It kicks up. I was actually proud of the players. I truly believe it would have been disrespectful to hold back. It wasn’t an issue internally. We didn’t really talk about it. This is a job. It’s a business. Mallory Pugh dreamed her whole life about being on the field. You’re going to tell her not to shoot in front of the goal?”

“You just can’t understand what it means to score a goal. I don’t remember what number my goal was [the ninth], but it was pretty high up in the score. I was thrilled! I’m 34! This is my third World Cup. I’ve scored big goals. I’ve been a part of big goals. I was thrilled to score in a World Cup! So to know what [some teammates] had gone through to get to that point, this might be the only goal they score in this World Cup, in their lives. The way we were playing was respecting the game, and we weren’t showboating, but I think it’s appropriate to sort of let that out and not be almost like too cool for the moment or too calculated in the moment. That’s what I loved about it. … It was just a release of joy.”

“I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m proud of the way my teammates behaved and held themselves through the whole tournament. The one thing that stood out to me was how [Rapinoe] took it upon herself to the media to say: ‘Hey, all these young players, this was their first World Cup. Of course they’re excited. They have been waiting for this for years. This was moments of joy. And if you want to blame anybody, blame us.’ She was taking it on herself and the other veterans to take the heat for it, which I thought was so brave and so selfless.”

“It would have been disrespectful having not celebrated the way we did or played the way we did. And also it’s a tournament, and we’re in the group stage and goal differential matters. So you need to score as much as you can as often as you can.”

“People saw the passion, but they thought it was more to taunt the opponent and rub it in everyone’s face. It was really a celebration of the team and each individual that contributed. The first game of the World Cup, there were so many emotions. There were some real terrible comments about our character. Judge us on the events you saw, but to come for our character was pushing it.

“After the game, a lot of their players were tearing up. For a lot of them, it was their first big moment. We did our best in a World Cup to console them and let them know, ‘Hey, keep going.’ But we are competitors.”

“Once we finally started to get on the scoreboard, it was like, ‘Okay, we’re off to a good start.’ I actually thought it was great, the sequence of group games. Each game got harder. It was the perfect lead-in to the knockout stage. Each game built on the other, and we got better and better.”

For the second group match, against Chile in Paris, Ellis changed the entire starting lineup except Naeher, the goalkeeper. The goal was to keep the players fresh and make use of a deep roster. The Americans breezed, 3-0.

“If we could take one game off our starters’ legs, we would do it. Do you do it in the second game or third game? The third game seemed like a natural, but we felt the starters needed a combative game before the knockout round. So we decided to rest them in the second game. We obviously had the talent to do it.”

“A huge strength for us is being able to rest players, but also rest players and not miss a beat. People get agitated when we say we have such a deep bench and so much talent, but it’s the reality of it. What do you want me to say? We have Carli Lloyd coming off the bench in a World Cup, and I’m not supposed to be confident and excited about that?”

In response to criticism about their celebrations against Thailand, the U.S. players used a polite golf clap after each goal.

“That is [the players’] world. That’s locker room stuff. You just know them. You know how they are. You know there’s no way they would want to be disrespectful or rude. Cheeky, for sure, but it was all done in good fun. Just some subtle messaging.”

“All of us have a pretty good sense of humor, so we’re going to lace that in there.”

The Americans entered the group finale in Le Havre against Sweden needing just a draw to finish first. However, there were far-flung suggestions they might prefer to finish second to avoid landing in the same bracket as France in the knockout stage. Ellis, though, went back to her first-choice players, and they produced a 2-0 victory over the team that had eliminated them in the 2016 Olympic quarterfinals.

“Those questions [about taking it easy] were hilarious. A lot of teams probably would have thought, ‘Do we really want to play France in France?’ But for us, it was about finishing strong, and we always want to win. There is no way you can tell any of these ladies, ‘Hey, let’s throw a game.’ Try telling Carli Lloyd, ‘Hey, let’s not win.’ ”

“The Sweden game was a good game; the players were energized by it. It was a different level of opponent than the first two matches. To come out against a team that was always our nemesis, and to get a result, was a massive boost.”

“At the back line — I always include the goalkeepers when I say back line — there is a sense of pride after every game when you have [a shutout]. Having not been scored against those first few games, it was a good start. But for us, that was clearly just the start. The knockout stage is when the tournament truly starts.”

The opponent in the round of 16 was Spain, an emerging team that had lost to the visiting Americans, 1-0, in a winter friendly. In Reims, the United States needed Rapinoe’s 75th-minute penalty kick — her second such conversion — to advance, 2-1.

“That January friendly, they were really good — an incredible passing team. I remember a couple of times, they are pinging it around us and [I’m] feeling like, ‘Where the heck I am supposed to go?’ We knew going into the [round of 16] they were a team we could not take lightly. They were very dangerous and technical. They did present us with a lot of problems. By no means did I think it was an easy game, onto the next round. It was, ‘Shoot, we are playing Spain.’ ”

“They come from a soccer culture, and soccer is embedded in them since they were little girls. Their style of play is quite tricky. We said going into the game: ‘Don’t dive in because they have so much technique; they can make quick passes around you and make you look silly.’ ”

“When we played them in the friendly, they sat high and pressed us. That’s what we were prepared for. They did amp it up in terms of the physical nature. A few months later, I said to their coach: ‘Why didn’t you press us? Because that is what we were expecting.’ He said, ‘You are scoring goals in the first 10 minutes of these matches; we didn’t want to give up an early goal.’ In my mind, it allowed us to settle into the game. We knew when they had the ball, we had to be incredibly disciplined. We knew their ability. As much as they are about moving the ball, they always have so many threats trying to penetrate. It’s a lot to manage.”

Next came France in what was billed as one of the biggest matches in women’s soccer history: the sport’s most decorated program facing a host team long overdue to win a major trophy, clashing in Paris at a famed venue, Parc des Princes, before a sellout crowd. In a friendly five months earlier, Les Bleues had routed the visiting Americans, 3-1, in Le Havre.

“I always say you need the trifecta to win: You need technical proficiency, mentality and athleticism. We always had the market on that. Now suddenly you had a team that was arguably as athletic — and more athletic at times. Very technical and tactical. They are going to go nose to nose with you. We knew from the draw [in December] this was going to be big. It was the game we marked on our calendar.”

“There was a lot of buzz and excitement. … I was nervous. I was like, ‘Wow, this time tomorrow I will either be staying in France or packing my bags and leaving.’ It wasn’t that I wasn’t confident in our team, but this game truly can go any way.”

“That was the most incredible soccer environment I’ve ever played in, by a mile.”

“The atmosphere was electric. It was unlike any place I’ve ever played before. … It was so loud. It was very high pressure. You really felt like the world was watching.”

“My [French-born] husband was there, and all of his family was able to come. I basically had 30 people in France cheering for me, even though it was hard for them. I think they were rooting for France a little.”

“You’re in France on a Friday night, in Paris, prime time, against the home country in this massive tournament. You would think so much pressure would be on my shoulders, so much intimidation at that moment. But really I was just thinking, ‘I have waited my entire life to play a game like this.’ ”

“It was a huge game for us. It was a huge game for the tournament. It was something special to be a part of.”

“All of the ‘Allez, Les Bleues!’ chants, I could barely hear the person next to me. Those are the moments you remember. Sometimes you don’t remember the results or how you played, but you remember the feeling.”

“We’re playing in an iconic stadium, against the team that we felt was probably going to be one of the toughest competitions. And we have the president of the United States trying to come for us, trying to come for one of our players.”

That player was Rapinoe. In an interview taped months earlier and released during the tournament, she used an expletive in saying she would not attend a White House ceremony. President Trump subsequently tweeted that she had disrespected her country, the White House and the U.S. flag, and that “Megan should WIN first before she TALKS! Finish the job!”

“The spotlight doesn’t burn her; it energizes her. I wasn’t concerned about the distractions or pressure.”

“I end up being sort of embarrassed for myself. And I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want that to be what I’m feeling. So I feel like there was a thought on my part to say: ‘You can stand up for what you believe in, and you can very much make it clear who and what you stand for. But you can do it in a way that inspires people. And you can do it in a way that brings people in and allows people to be hopeful and allows people to be inspired and to be motivated and to take some personal responsibility for that.’ ”

“When you have a leader on a team that had so much pressure on her and doesn’t even show it, you can’t help but be confident in yourself and your team. She is just radiating this confidence. It was contagious and was something that helped carry us through the tournament. She couldn’t be shaken, so we couldn’t be shaken. … It’s so funny because I feel like that bothers people even more, so they try to shake her even more and she still is so poised. She’s incredible.”

Rapinoe set the tone in the fifth minute with a free kick that skipped past a tangle of players and provided a 1-0 lead.

“The wall wasn’t quite set up right. At the very least, I think it gave the sort of corridor to just smash it in there. And they’re either going to have to clear it, which would be very difficult from that angle and everyone running at the goal, or we just have to get kind of a slight touch on it. In a position like that, the sort of rule of thumb is: Just put it on frame. If no one touches it, it’ll go in the goal. If someone touches it, it’s likely going to be a goal. So just try to put in an area that was going to be dangerous.”

After scoring, Rapinoe ran to the corner and struck a now-iconic pose: arms outstretched at an angle, head tilted, grin from ear to ear.

“The grin is a s----eating grin, for sure. A lot behind that. It was equal parts, I think, a rebuttal to the president, but not just the president. Sort of the president and what he thinks and people that [support] him, what they think. It definitely was a rebuttal to all. And not just a rebuttal necessarily to the haters. It was more so of: ‘You look down upon us because we’re women. You look down upon us, and you don’t want us to be successful as an American team because we have someone who doesn’t like you saying that publicly.’ So there was sort of all of that. I feel like everything we fight for is everything [Trump] fights against.

“I think, too, it was a little bit of, ‘We’re not’ — we, the collective me, the collective team, the collective little gay kid out there, or woman who is in her workplace, and people who have been discriminated against — it was like: ‘This is for us! We will not back down! You will not steal our joy! And you will not talk down to us!’ ”

Rapinoe scored again midway through the second half.

“I think to, right from the beginning, say: ‘You’re not only going to have to score on us once; you’re going to have to score on us twice to win this game, and you’re going to have to break us down,’ — it just gave us that little extra resolve of, ‘There’s no way you guys are coming back from this.’ ”

France turned up the heat, though, placing the U.S. defense under enormous distress. Wendie Renard halved the deficit in the 81st minute.

“It felt like I was walking on the edge of a cliff. Every move was so vital.”

“It was like, ‘Guys, this is about survival.’ ”

“It was intense. It was frenetic. You bend, but you don’t break.”

“I don’t know if a team has ever wanted to beat us as much as France wanted to beat us. But they don’t know that they can. And I think that’s the thing.”

The stirring victory propelled the United States into the semifinals and a meeting with England in Lyon. Three days before the match, England Coach Phil Neville called out the U.S. operations staff for inspecting the English hotel. (If the Americans advanced to the final, they would move into that hotel.)

“I was so happy I saw this well after we won the game. Oh my gosh, we are spying on them? The team did a good job creating a bubble, because there are so many external issues. People have no idea. Any little bit of information that leaks in could really disrupt the culture of the team.”

“Before the FIFA awards in Milan [in September], I text Phil — I know him — and say: ‘Hey, [U.S. team administrator] Molly [Downtain] is going to be there. Would you like her to check out your hotel room for you?’ It was kind of a joke.”

Ellis had bigger concerns: Rapinoe was battling a hamstring injury and, unbeknown to the public, was doubtful to play.

“You are just busting it to try to get it better but at the same time not blowing it up and losing [Rapinoe] for the rest of the tournament. Those decisions, you have to trust your medical team. You have to trust the player. Every few hours, I would ask her, ‘How you doing, how you feeling?’ In training, she would get in a jog and, when the media cleared out, we would shut her down and try to keep it all in house. … We almost knew the next day [after beating France] it would be doubtful and it would be just hoping, hoping, hoping. The day before the game [against England], we knew she was not playing.”

“There’s not enough anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication in the world to touch me in that moment. … You don’t get to expend your energy; you just have to be there for your team.”

Rapinoe was not the only hobbled starter. Lavelle and Kelley O’Hara, the starting right back, were game-time decisions.

“I remember the doctor coming over to me [during warmups], and he said, ‘Rose’s hamstring and Kelley’s quad are both grabbing.’ I remember doing a beeline over to [Ali] Krieger and I think [Lindsey] Horan and saying, ‘Be ready.’ The problem is, once you are already in the lineup, if you scratch them, they aren’t available, so it was one of the massive decisions. If we had to sub either one of them in the first half, we probably would’ve been screwed in terms of our sub pattern. It was back and forth, back and forth. I went into the coaches’ locker room and met with the medical team and called Rose and Kelley in and said, ‘What do you think?' Both said they wanted to play but they didn’t know how long. I said, ‘All right, we will go as long as we can with you both, and we’ll ride it out.’ It was a hectic day. We just prayed it would work out.”

“I don’t want to make the selfish decision and say, ‘Yeah, I am fine,' and then something happens 15 minutes into the game and we have to use a sub. I had said something to our trainer. I was talking with Jill, and she was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ I was like, ‘I am fine going, but it’s whether you are okay taking this risk.’ It didn’t feel that bad, but I truly just didn’t know. It was the hamstring I’ve torn three times. It was this moment right before the game of being like, ‘Okay, what should we do?’ Jill was like, ‘I say we go for it.’ ”

Lavelle ended up playing 65 minutes, O’Hara 87. Rapinoe’s replacement, Press, scored in the 10th minute and, after Ellen White equalized in the 19th, Morgan restored the lead in the 31st. The drama was only beginning. With about 10 minutes left, Sauerbrunn upended White from behind. Players waited anxiously as video review was used to check whether a penalty kick was warranted.

“I remember Jill and [assistant Tony Gustavsson] brought us all over to the sideline as they were reviewing. I told Jill, ‘I think they’re going to call this a PK.’ She’s like: ‘Okay, we’ll deal with it, and we’ll start talking about tactics if they make the goal or if they don’t. It’s fixable.’ Obviously I’m upset that I potentially put my team in a tough spot. But my team had my back. I can’t tell you the kind of comfort that gives somebody.”

“I just now watched [the game] for the first time recently. I did not realize how long the [video review] was. And I was watching the game with my sister, and she was obviously in the stands for it. I remember saying, ‘I don’t remember this being this long.’ She was like, ‘Oh, it was brutal for the fans to be waiting!’ ”

The penalty kick was ultimately awarded.

“I just remember taking a few deep breaths and going back, and trying to keep my mind and body calm and free. And go back to: This is all part of the game. This is all part of things that always were on the table as possibilities. I just remember it being really quiet. I don’t know if it was or not. I don’t even think I looked at any other players. I think I kept looking at the ground, to be honest. Just trying to stay focused and in the moment, so I was ready if that’s what the call was.

“My eyes stayed on the ball the whole time. I just tried to keep that — again took a couple deep breaths. Tried to keep my focus. And just kept staring at the ball.”

“In my heart, I’m like, ‘She’s going to score this,’ because I’m just a pessimist that way. So the elation that I felt when Alyssa saved it, I continued running. And I’m not the first person to get to her; people were running faster than I was and celebrating with Alyssa. It really was such a relief that she saved it. I’m so proud of Alyssa for just taking that moment and making it her own. Because that was the moment maybe all of the critics were like, ‘Okay, she’s legit.’ So, Alyssa, you’re welcome for [that penalty].”

“We obviously want Alyssa to stop it, but we also knew if we go to 2-2, we now have to find a way to get another goal. We looked each other in the eyes and told each other, ‘We are going to be fine regardless.’ It was an incredible moment for her, and the world saw she is an incredible keeper.”

“I’ve seen the video a million times. I’m not surprised she saved it. I mean, Alyssa is my least favorite goalkeeper to play against [in the NWSL] — she’s so, so good. To come up big in a moment like that sets in stone how good she is.”

The Americans were headed to the final for the fifth time in eight World Cups. Their opponent in Lyon, the Netherlands, had advanced for the first time.

“We had put them on the back burner in terms of potential to reach the final. But when we started to watch the film, I was like, ‘Holy s---, they are really good.’ … Generally, we wanted to take the upper hand and press them and be the aggressor. We had one extra day of rest. We knew we had to be mindful when they had the ball, but we felt we could generate pressure and disrupt them getting into a rhythm.”

“We had gone through Spain. We had gone through France. We had gone through England. And then the final came. We felt like we had played three finals and we made it. It was a relief. Not that the Netherlands were an easier team, but we had overcome so much leading to that moment. We knew [because] we had gone through that, we could go through anything.”

The Dutch proved difficult to break down. At halftime, the match was scoreless.

“I remember going into halftime and thinking: ‘Okay, we didn’t do our best. We can definitely create more chances.’ Feeling like it was within our control. Feeling like, if we just go out there and score a goal, we’re going to win. This is what we do.”

Early in the second half, Sauerbrunn suffered a head wound in a collision and was bleeding above her right eye.

“Immediately the staff is worried about a concussion, but I knew instantly I was fine. I didn’t black out, didn’t have any trouble recalling any information. I knew exactly where I was. So I was fortunate that it wasn’t a concussion.”

The breakthrough came in the 61st minute after Stefanie van der Gragt kicked Morgan in the upper arm. After a video review confirmed the foul, Rapinoe converted the penalty kick for her sixth goal of the tournament — tying her atop the scoring chart with Morgan and White — and the 50th of her international career. Eight minutes later, Lavelle all but secured a victory with a sensational goal from distance.

“The whole game, they really hadn’t given us much space. I don’t feel like I had many opportunities to take space and dribble, but obviously in that moment I did, so I took it. I was just waiting for one of the center backs to step to me so that I could slip it to Alex, but they didn’t. I was just kind of waiting, and then they never stepped, so I was like, ‘I guess I’ll take the shot myself.’ ”

“You could just see the defenders start to feel like: ‘Oh, God! Oh, God!’ And not really know what to do. She is so quick and so technical. And as soon as she did her roll, I was like, ‘She’s going to score this.’ I saw it happening. I literally feel like I had a premonition. I was like, ‘She’s going to score — we’re going to win!’

“I didn’t even celebrate. I was like in such awe of her, of the whole situation. And Julie [Ertz] had to come up next to me and go like: ‘Sam, it’s okay, it’s okay! We’re going to win! Rose scored! We’re good!’ ”

“We had been controlling the game, and I knew once we got that insurance goal that we just had to hunker down for 20 minutes. After that goal, it was like, ‘This game’s ours.’ ”

“The last five minutes felt like the longest five minutes. I’m just kind of waiting for that final whistle to blow. … My twin sister, Amanda, had said to me, the day they officially announced the roster: ‘Hey, I just want you to know, I just bought an American flag. Somehow, some way, when you win, I’m going to get it down to you. You better be ready, because I’m going to throw it, and you can run around the field with it.’ Sure enough, the whistle blew. Obviously after celebrating and hugging … I made my way over to the sideline, and there she was: She had the American flag that she had bought. And she threw it down. And that’s the flag I have with me standing on the podium.”

“I remember Megan coming over. And we were just next to each other, forehead to forehead, saying, ‘I can’t believe we did it again!’ Actually, the camera caught that moment. And it’s a really lovely moment. I’m glad they captured it. We did a little bit of a victory lap. My boyfriend was there, Zola Short — we’ve been together 14 years, so I’m not sure ‘boyfriend’ covers it. So I found him. And gave him a big old smooch.”

“What was different was 2015 was a relief and 2019 was satisfying and gratifying. It was a hard path and it was a grind, but I felt like all the things we had implemented and worked on, I was incredibly proud. It’s hard to put into words because it is just the culmination of everything. This time, I allowed that feeling to last longer.”

“When the whistle blew, it was finally like, ‘Whew, wow, we did it.’ ”

“It was one of those moments where it was like a collective, ‘We’re done with this! This is what we want.’ To have the leaders of soccer in the stadium at the time — [FIFA President] Gianni Infantino was in there. And even I think the French president was there. I’m not sure what our delegation was; I doubt anyone would recognize anyone that was in the U.S. delegation, if there was one.

“The fans weren’t [just] cheering for us; they were cheering for the Dutch team and for every other team. It was such a rebuke to: ‘Uh, the women’s game is not that popular. It’s not that exciting.’ We just went through the most incredible World Cup that was underfunded and under-thought-about and underestimated in sort of every way. And it was like the fans — and the people — really saying: ‘We want this! We love it! And we’re with all of these women!’ ”

The lawsuit filed in the months before the team left for France stayed in the background throughout the tournament, but in the moments after the final whistle, the crowd broke into chants of “Equal pay! Equal pay!” as leaders from FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation looked on.

“It’s rare that the fans get to speak directly to the head of FIFA or directly to the sort of leaders that be in soccer, and that was their moment to say whatever they wanted to say. It’s pretty amazing and pretty special that that’s what they chose to say.”

Three days after winning the championship, the U.S. women were back in New York for another ticker-tape parade. What was the difference between the 2015 and 2019 parties?

“Oh, they were way more drunk this time.”