Diligent | alessia russo

World cup

June 2019, France.

A month I would surely remember. A month of pure thrill. Everyone knows how the group stage went for the us.

A beautiful group stage with a 13-0 win against Thailand, A 3-0 against Chile and 2-0 against Sweden.

3 clean sheets in a group stage was bewildering to me.

2-1 round of 16 against Spain where both teams showed great determination.

The quarter finals against France was a 2-1 win.

I was in France at 18- almost 19- playing the hardest, most determined tournament in the world.

Despite not having scored any goals, only 2 assists against Thailand and 1 against Spain, I've made a huge contribution to the team.

Or so that's what I've been told. By Tobin. I don't feel like I've made a contribution, though.

It feels like I'm just a filler player running around for the ball for 15 to 30 minutes.

July 7th, lyon, France.

It was the day I've always dreamed of. The dream I've fantasized about since before becoming a professional soccer player.

We were through to the World Cup final after a tough match against England in the semi-finals.

We were currently in the stade de lyon stadium a few hours before our kick off against the Netherlands.

We were currently doing a mini scrimmage with a few of the girls, the Dutch on the other half of the pitch doing their own pre-match training.

"One. Two. Two. One. Two. One. One." I muttered to myself everytime the ball was passed to me as I worked on my touch.

"Make a run!"

As I was running a swung my foot over the ball, Kelley sliding to try to intercept the ball but I pulled my foot back against the ball.

I let out a laugh when she groaned and popped the ball to the side of me a little and shot. The ball went perfectly into the small net.

"Okay, ladies. We have an hour til kick off. I want everyone in that locker room. ASAP!" Jill yelled out.

The girls scrambled to get the balls and ran into the locker room. We were sat in our respective cubby's, each having their own name and number.

I was given the number 3 when I first joined the squad. It's my lucky number. And I luckily got given it.

Everywhere I went, I would see the number 3. If I were deciding something, I'd do a spin the wheel 3 times. Usually on the third it would give me the answer I wanted.

"I've got a few tactics I wanna go over. But first; starting line up. Naeher, sauerbrunn, dahlkemper, O'Hara, Dunn, Mewis, Ryder, lavelle, rapinoe, Morgan, and heath. Okay, tactics."

"Wait, wait. I'm sorry. You want me to start against the Netherlands. I haven't started a single match this tournament, why against one of the most solid teams."

Jill smiled as she moved the small metal circles on the makeshift field board.

"Exactly. One of the most solid teams. They're aggressive and big players. We need people who can match that. You and Sam are both big women. You have good physicality, speed, agility and skill. That's why you two are starting with rose."

I nodded at the women's words yet a confused expression was still on my face.

"You two can play holding mid's. Either or left and right mid whilst Lavelle is center. You do what you usually do, whilst covering rose."