“After the game is going to be an unbelievable party, and no better city in the world probably to do that than New Orleans”. She credited coach Jill Ellis and the coaching staff for letting her finish her career on her teams.
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“I know everybody wanted to get me a goal”, she said.
“We won the 2015 World Cup but now we have the 2016 Olympics and we still have to be better and that’s the only way you grow as a group of people and grow the game – and be the trendsetting team of the game”.
“She’s one of the special players I’ve met in my career”.
Abby Wambach, however, wants the opposite to happen. It is time to go.’ These younger players have so much to look forward to. While Wambach’s character, confidence and determination has helped shape her into a dominant player, the soccer star says that she owes a lot of her storied success to family and friends, both soccer and non-soccer alike, who’ve helped her along the way.
“The way that he has changed and brought in these foreign guys, it’s just not something that I believe in”, Wambach said. Wambah was playing in her final global match. The U.S. women had gone 91-0-13 since. Wambach said she’s been invited to Switzerland by Federation Internationale de Football Association to take part in the world soccer body’s ongoing reforms and said she is eager to do so.
So for her to cap off her journey with this team with a World Cup win – I don’t think there’s more of a high she could come off of.
Yet, fellow US players also respect her decision to retire.
In total, Wambach has scored a record 184 goals in 255 games with the national team.
Wednesday’s defeat was the Americans’ first at home since 2004, ending a 104-match unbeaten streak in the U.S.
Gulati would not be baited by Wambach’s comments when contacted by ESPN’s Julie Foudy. On the Mount Everest of greatness, her face sits alongside Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Mia Hamm. Wambach’s family had flown in on a private plane to be at the match.
In Wednesday night’s game, Wambach figured into several scoring opportunities but couldn’t put the ball in the net.
“This team is going to be just fine, because it always has been”, Wambach said. The Americans are three-time defending Olympic champions and have had a strong showing at the Games since women’s soccer was introduced into the program in 1996.
However, Wambach has made a very final cut to her career, deleting her social media accounts after tweeting “Make them forget me“. “Although he says he has, I don’t think that he has”.
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“I’m not bashing U.S. Soccer here”. She also blasted all the “egos” in “our men’s program”.
