North Carolina Courage v San Diego Wave FC

you know I'm seeing more moms um coming back playing soccer and um elongating their career while starting a family and it's just incredible but it starts with the support it starts with the support of your employer of um you know your coaches teammates um everyone around you cuz you honestly can't do it alone you you can't like when people say it takes a village um to raise a child it literally takes everyone because there are times you feel alone as a mom and that's one of the reasons that I started the Alex Morgan foundation and one of my pillars that I focus on is support for new moms um because I have been through it and I understand just how incredibly difficult it was and I had the support of family and I was able to have the support of my employer and my sponsors and um and everyone around me but not everyone is fortunate enough um not only in the US but in other countries um in Latin America everywhere so I just want to try to continue to advocate for that I understand that I I've seen it um in some teams I've played for you see it around the world sometimes when someone is so beloved and all of a sudden uh few days before the game you find out that this is all happening it's a lot and it's hard as a human being it's hard to compartment mentalize so I I saw that a bit in the performance I feel like I did everything that I could have I left everything on the field um I did everything I ever wanted to do and more and with this decision I feel so at peace because I am ready to start a family I'm ready to hang up the boots and like allow the Next Generation to flourish and just Relish in the spotlight yeah I'm just I'm ready and it's it's a good feeling when you finally come to that I think just showing up every day and getting 1% better is something I will greatly Miss um I think you you have a you have a schedule you have a routine and you stick to that athletes are very habitual and superstitious and um and we you know try to look forward and not look back and um and so I'm you know I'm going to miss the little moments where I put in the work and you know it showed and sometimes sometimes you put in the work and it doesn't show you miss a penalty or you miss a shot or um you feel like you let your team down um but as long as you put in the work um I think that you can be proud of that and I feel like that's all I triy to do and that's I feel like what I'm really going to miss is like showing up every day and being like I'm going to learn something new today like I'm going to get better so there are there are measurable ways to ident identify what she's done for the sport um when I look at the crowd tonight you know there are measur ways what the league looks looks like how stable it is the um franchise value is increasing Etc but there's immeasurable ways that you can't really quantify so when you looked at the stadium tonight and you saw what she's meant to people um it's hard to quantify what that means I think it's just so incredible to be able to see you know the 26,000 out here tonight and we can and week out just so many little girls little boys showing up and wanting to be the next Alex Morgan Naomi GMA Melanie barcenas um you know they're creating a dream and a passion out of and inspiration out of watching you know this team the national team um the nwsl in general um so I'm really proud of the part I played and how it got to where it is today and how women's soccer is so so accessible um nowadays and but she gave everything in the last 3 to four weeks and to think that she did that while pregnant has just blown my mind I'm I'm just so impressed by her I think you know top of mind um is probably when I took off my boots and shinguards and I just actually took a moment to let everything soak in I saw my teammates I saw North Carolina I saw the fans and I think just understanding the gravity of the situation and the end of of very very long chapter or book um it was a special moment um and I tried to do that all day to today um I don't take in every moment um I haven't in the past so today it was important for me to be able to you know see people see everyone um understand um where we are and uh just realize all of the love and support that I've received since announcing my retirement um what she's done I told her for sport of soccer in this country for women's sports and for women I think is unmatched so my message to those young girls or boys um waiting for their turn is just to work hard and believe in yourself um you know I I look just to this game alone and in the 13 minutes I played there was a lot that happened um and stepping up to take the penalty um you know I came off the field and I thought to myself that's the best example I could give of betting on yourself because if I step up and take it yeah there's a chance I can miss that but if I don't step up and take that and beted on myself there's no chance I'll make it um so I think that's just how I've tried to live my life and my career as a soccer player and I mean you know it's it's poetic ending and the way that it happened it's just having the confidence and courage to um believe in yourself and show everyone that my uh my daughter today walked in I was in the office finishing up some final stuff for tonight and she said Daddy we have to make a way a sign tonight for Alex Morgan's last game and so she sat with me and she said how do you spell lets how do you spell go how do you spell wave and so that stuff is immeasurable because she's now made my daughter who didn't previously watch sports in general now fall in love with a sport and women's sports and so that's what Alex has meant to the game and the sport and it's sad to see her go honestly um I don't think there ever be another one like her I think I yeah just want fans to show up and um and know that you know the next Alex Morgan is not not only out there in the you know fan in the stands because I'm sure that there are a few of those but they're there on that field like every single weekend and um it's it's just incredible uh what we've been able to do um here in the US to really give um just soccer the best uh the best chance for people to buy in as much as as we've all bought in um in the Roso world you know even though the wasn't the way that I planned to announce my retirement and finish my career within 72 hours or so um you know I'm I I didn't you know need to drag this out I I'm so happy with what I see um on the field every day with where I see the trajectory of women's soccer um just opportunity um for for girls and women to play um at any age you know if you're good enough to play like doesn't matter the age you're good enough and I see that and I'm really happy with what I see so females who are moms and still want to pursue playing professional sports um is something that even growing up I didn't see and even as a professional soccer player was very um was very few um examples but I knew in my heart that I wanted to start my family grow my family while still being a professional athlete I wanted to be able to do both um and I put I helped advocate for moms to get more support from um you know from their employer from NW s from US soccer um from their sponsors uh from um you know everyone around us because not only do we need as much support as we needed before we were a mom we need more we need more support um and more belief in us that we can um not only get back to where we were before but achieve even more