Every game, you could hear the same sideline rumblings, the same surprised observation: There’s a girl on the other team.
A girl was playing for Total Futbol Academy in MLS Next, the top level of U.S. boys’ talent. Academy programs like this one produced men’s national team stars Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams. Every guy on the field wanted to make it to the pros. And the girl? She’d already made it.
Earlier this year, NWSL’s Angel City FC used the draft’s No. 1 pick on 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, making her the first player taken straight out of high school. Immediately, GM Angela Hucles described Thompson as “a generational talent”—but even that description fails to capture all that she represents. For many, it’s hard to believe that a girl can compete with the physicality and speed of a top 18-year-old boys’ team. But Thompson doesn’t just keep pace with the boys, she stands out among them. A senior at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, she is petite (5'3"), strong and track-star fast. When she won the Mission Classic meet last March, she ran the 100m in 11.74 seconds, which clocked out as the second-fastest girls time in California.
