Page 18 - Aruba Today

A18
SPORTSThursday 29 October 2015
Wambach
Continued from Page 17
The 2012 FIFA Player of the
Year has 184 goals in 252
international matches.
Now 35, Wambach had
often said she wanted to
cap her career with soc-
cer’s premier champi-
onship, the one title she
didn’t have. She reached
the goal when the United
States delivered a 5-2 vic-
tory over Japan in the
World Cup final.
She will play the final four
matches of the nation-
al team’s 10-game vic-
tory tour before stepping
down. Her final match will
be Dec. 16 against China
in New Orleans.
“I’ve been hesitant to re-
lease this because I don’t
want the victory tour to
turn into a farewell tour for
Abby,” she said.
The U.S. team crisscrossed
Canada during the month-
long World Cup tourna-
ment before dominating
Japan in the title game
gold medals from the 2004 ity to grow the women’s
Games in Athens and the
2012 Games in London.
She was not on the U.S.
team that won gold at the
Beijing Games because of
a broken leg.
Perhaps one of her most
In this July 13, 2011, file photo, United States’ Abby Wambach famous goals came in the
celebrates scoring her side’s second goal during a semifinal quarterfinals of the 2011
match against France at the Women’s Soccer World Cup in World Cup in Germany,
Moenchengladbach, Germany. when she scored the
equalizer against Brazil in
Associated Press the 122nd minute.
She finishes as the all-time parts have never played a
at Vancouver’s BC Place. “We’re all competitors and leading U.S. scorer in both
Carli Lloyd was named the we all want to play,” she Olympic and World Cup
MVP after scoring three said. “As my career has games. She played 25 total
goals in the span of 16 min- evolved and gone on, I World Cup matches with
utes in the final match. have seen people come 14 goals, and 10 Olympic
Wambach saw her role on the team that are fan- matches with nine goals.
with the team change dur- tastic players. And it wasn’t She joins Mia Hamm (2001,
ing the tournament. She just about me anymore.” 2002) as the only Ameri-
came in off the bench in Wambach appeared in cans to win FIFA’s player of ing from international and
several matches, sacrific- four World Cups with the the year honors.
ing a starting role for the national team. She also At 5-foot-11 (1.8-meters),
good of the team. has a pair of Olympic the Rochester, New York,
native also brought her
own imposing athleticism
to the women’s game.
Of her goals, 77 were off
headers.
But more than her num-
bers, Wambach was seri-
ous about her responsibil-
game and fight for equal
rights.
Last year, she led a group
of the world’s top women
players in protesting FIFA’s
decision to play the 2015
Women’s World Cup on
artificial turf, which is con-
sidered by many players
to be inferior to grass. The
players claimed that it was
gender discrimination be-
cause their male counter-
World Cup on an artificial
surface.
In the end, the tournament
went on as planned, but
Wambach had made her
point.
Wambach made it clear
Wednesday that she is retir-
club play. The NWSL’s Se-
attle Reign held her rights
this past season, but she
did not play a match while
she prepared for the World
Cup.
As for the future, Wam-
bach is going to take some
time after the victory to just
relax. She has no concrete
plan yet for what’s next.q