Can USA's Wambach go out with Women's World Cup trophy in hand?
VANCOUVER, British Columbia --
Abby Wambach sat at a table with three different drinks in front of her; tea, water and a yellow sports drink loaded with electrolytes. Along with the rest of the U.S. women's national team, Wambach had been ordered into the sauna by the training staff after practice on Friday. Now the lineup of hydrating fluids was another sign of extensive regimen the U.S. has been put through en route to this 2015 Women's World Cup final.
"We were in the sauna today after practice so we can get acclimatized to the 75-degree heat we're going to be seeing," Wambach said, adding: "All these scientific approaches you have to take. Who knows if I'm going to start, but I have to prepare as if I am starting. I have to prepare as if I'm going to go on the field at any moment and make that difference. Big players show up at the big moments."
About 50 hours separated Wambach from the most fateful moments of her storied and stellar career. On Sunday, the U.S. women's national team plays Japan in a rematch of the 2011 World Cup final (LIVE on FOX, coverage starts at 5 p.m. ET). That Japan team, Wambach said, won in a very "American" way by never giving up, coming back twice before winning on penalty kicks, emblazing the July 17, 2011 date in Wambach's mind. It's the only exact date of a game that Wambach can instantly recall.
Now there was only one question for Wambach -- and it wasn't whether Wambach would start Sunday against Japan as she did four years ago: Will the U.S. win their first World Cup since 1999 and allow Wambach to leave the game with the sense of completion and reward she deserves?
As the all-time leading goal-scorer in international soccer with 183 goals in 247 career caps, and as the driving force behind the U.S. women's national team over four World Cup cycles, it was strange that the answer to that question was finally so close. The U.S. performance over Germany suggests momentum and a peaking U.S. team, but Wambach is older, and wiser.
"Like I said in 2011, it felt like the stars were aligning. But guess what? The stars can blow up at any moment for us no matter what," Wambach said.
At 35, Wambach came into this World Cup accepting that she might become the U.S. team's super sub. Then, with star striker Alex Morgan nursing a bone bruise and U.S. coach Jill Ellis unable to find the right chemistry among the team's other strikers, Wambach was again used as a central focus of the U.S. attack -- until things didn't go so well.
Wambach's World Cup started off shakily. In the opener against Australia, she missed a pair of headers she normally finishes. In the first knockout round match, she uncharacteristically missed a penalty kick. Then came some rationalizations. Wambach said the turf made her wary of laying out, earning scorn for excuse-making. She was reprimanded for calling out the referees after the Colombia match. By the time the U.S. played their best match in the semifinal against Germany, Wambach had been relegated to the bench as the new-look offense was all about midfielders and Carli Lloyd.
"It's brutal to sit on the bench because it's taking years off my life. I now understand what my family has been going through. I get what our friends and family talk about how stressful it is because you don't have control of the outcome unless you're on the pitch," Wambach said.
But none of it was a complaint. Nothing Wambach has done during this World Cup run has diminished her role as team leader. The super sub leads super-hyper huddles, rallying the troops. She has called herself a seer, a "prophet" this World Cup, sensing that Julie Johnston needed a pep talk about never letting doubt creep in. She is singing everybody's praises and she's interpreting, as no one else can, exactly what the team is doing to try and win.
"Our coaching staff focused on very minor details against the German side that really made it hard for the German side to get any attack going," Wambach said, adding: "It might be something small, like the way we defended the German goal kicks. That changed the way Germans were able to play out of their back. They weren't as comfortable playing out of the back line."
But the "seer" and the self-proclaimed "prophet" has also been able to process and accept everything happening around her, with clarity and exuberance. She calls it humbling and also amazing to be going through this final World Cup as it plays out, regardless of what her role becomes.
"As a competitor, as somebody who has an ego, of course I want to play, I want to start, I want to help my team . . . (But) you have to able to look at yourself and be really critical. I'm my biggest critic. You know what? If I score those two goals against Australia that I normally put away, excuses aside, maybe I am playing more minutes. It is about performance, it is about finishing your chances. If I score that penalty kick against Colombia, maybe I am playing more minutes. At the end of the day, the coaches have to trust the players they put on the field," she said.
Maybe Ellis will call Wambach's number against Japan. It seems unlikely, given the way the team performed against Germany, but maybe the all-time leading goalscorer will get her final World Cup start. But Wambach said it doesn't matter.
"I just have this belief system and I've talked about it my whole career. I know it takes a whole team. It's not about one person. It will never be about one person in a team sport. And if you truly honor and believe that, it shouldn't matter. I want this team to win," she said.
