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world cup 2019
Morgan, left, and her U.S.
teammates celebrate after defeating X
Japan to win the 2015 World Cup
nickname Baby Horse. “She ran so fast The Olympics made Morgan into a women’s team has ever been eliminated
and has a very specific gait,” says former star. She appeared in McDonald’s ads with from a major international tournament.
teammate Shannon Boxx. “Baby horses LeBron James and helped the fledgling Na- It was a low moment. Morgan needed
are little unsteady with her legs, and we tional Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to rekindle her passion for the game. So
kind of saw that.” Morgan disliked the get off the ground by joining the Portland she did what many other Americans in
name but knew better than to complain. Thorns for the inaugural 2013 season. search of inspiration have done: move to
“When you’re young and have no lever- Buoyed by endorsement deals, her annual France. After being courted publicly by
age on the team, you’re like, Sure, I’ll take income grew into the seven figures —far Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of the
Baby Horse,” she says. “But after two or beyond that of any other top U.S. women’s French club team Olympique Lyonnais,
three years, I was like, O.K., it’s funny, but player. She published an autobiography in Morgan agreed to join the squad for its
let’s move on.” 2015 and began writing The Kicks, a best- 2017 season. Lyon has become a power-
Baby Horse became a key cog in the selling kids’ fiction series with a 10th in- house in the women’s game, dominating
team’s gold-medal run at the 2012 Olym- stallment coming in June. the competition by attracting top players
pics. Her winning goal in the semifinal A run of knee and ankle injuries, how- from around the world, paying them more
against Canada—a header seconds before ever, slowed Morgan’s ascent. She was and treating them like a men’s team. This
time expired—has become soccer lore. hobbled by knee problems at the 2015 simple, seemingly intuitive idea is radi-
“What’s unique about Alex is the closer World Cup and isn’t proud of her indi- cal in professional soccer, where the men’s
she gets to the goal, the slower the game vidual showing despite the team’s win. teams of top clubs are routinely afforded
happens for her,” says Wambach, who has “I don’t feel like I met my goals,” Morgan more perks than their women’s sides. “It
written a new book called Wolfpack: How says in late February at a Philadelphia was something I needed at the time,” says WORLD CUP: RICH L AM — GET T Y IMAGES; MAROZSAN: MAT THEW LEWIS — UEFA/GET T Y IMAGES
to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and hotel, where the national team was stay- Morgan. “To focus on soccer solely and
Change the Game. “She can see the rota- ing for a game against Japan. “In the first entirely, without having my family, with-
tion of the ball, and imagine and create half of the final, I was just gasping, dead. out having my friends, not having anyone
a situation where most players would My legs would not go. I wasn’t thinking but the team I went to play for.”
be like, ‘Oh, this is shut down.’ It’s like about how to beat my opponent and be Lyon soared with Morgan, winning the
something else inside of her body just that fearless attacker. I was thinking about league championship, the French Cup and
goes into a natural state of flow that al- how to be pain-free.” A year later at the the Women’s Champions League title —a
lows her to score goals. Her power is un- Rio Olympics, Sweden bounced the U.S. feat known as the treble. More importantly,
like anything I’ve ever seen.” in the quarterfinals, the earliest the U.S. Morgan rediscovered the joy of playing.
68 Time June 3–10, 2019
