Alyssa Thompson was 10 years old when she and her younger sister, Gisele, stuck photos of themselves onto a poster of the U.S. women’s national team for the 2015 World Cup, imagining themselves on the squad. By the time they huddled at their aunt’s house to watch the ’19 final, Alyssa was old enough to know she was too young to be there. Forward Megan Rapinoe and midfielder Rose Lavelle, two of her heroes, scored second-half goals against the Dutch to seal the Americans’ second straight and fourth overall World Cup title. Alyssa, 14 and just past her eighth-grade graduation, cheered for the team like a fan.
It did not occur to her that the next time the U.S. played the Netherlands at the World Cup, she would be on the roster.
“I felt so young and it felt, like, so far away,” she told reporters in New Zealand this week.
