The 25-year-old striker spoke with American Soccer Now in regards to the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew, the rising stars on the squad, and her imminent return to the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League.
BY
John D. Halloran
Posted
January 31, 2014
12:11 PM
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CHRISTEN PRESS SPENT most of 2011 and 2012 standing within the shadows of the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew because the squad went to the World Cup last and gained Olympic gold. However the former NCAA scoring chief and Hermann Trophy winner has made a reputation for herself in Europe and has set her sights on changing into a U.S. common because the 2015 World Cup approaches.
With a pleasant towards Canada scheduled for Friday (9p.m. Jap, Fox Sports activities 1)) American Soccer Now spoke with Press about her nationwide crew ambitions, what it’s been wish to play overseas and within the Champions League, and her choice to return residence to the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League in 2014.
AMERICAN SOCCER NOW: Numerous followers that adopted the crew within the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics may not be that conversant in you. What are you able to inform us about your self?
CHRISTEN PRESS: I’m a ahead. I at the moment am taking part in overseas in Sweden [with Tyreso]. It will likely be my third season there. I play with [fellow U.S. national team players] Whitney Engen and Meghan Klingenberg on a crew primarily based in Stockholm. I graduated from Stanford in 2011 and was born and raised in southern California. I get pleasure from writing and have two sisters that I’m very near.
ASN: You’re in camp proper now with the nationwide crew (getting ready for friendlies towards Canada and Russia). How’s camp going?
PRESS: Camp goes effectively. It’s somewhat colder right here in Texas than it was in sunny, southern California. Apart from that, I can’t complain.
ASN: Clearly there’s a variety of competitors within the U.S. squad proper now. Coach Tom Sermanni has introduced in 45 completely different gamers in his first yr in cost. How do you keep optimistic when there’s a lot competitors for spots on the crew?
PRESS: Actually, that’s the most effective factor about this crew. On any sports activities crew, that’s the way you proceed to push your self and proceed to develop. We at all times have somebody forward of us to run after and somebody behind us to run from, so we’re at all times transferring. It’s an enormous honor to play on your nationwide crew and it actually retains you humble.
ASN: When did you first understand that the nationwide crew is likely to be in your future?
PRESS: I suppose once I began taking part in for [U.S.] Underneath-23 crew in school. That’s once I began to have my eye on the complete nationwide crew and began to consider long-term skilled profession objectives. However, after I graduated from Stanford and performed my first skilled season, I overlooked that. After I went to Sweden…I kind of left my nationwide crew objectives behind me. I believed I wanted to change into the most effective participant I will be and see what occurs after that.
ASN: I wished to ask you about the way you ended up in Sweden. You’re a senior at Stanford, you rating 26 objectives to steer the nation in scoring, you win the Hermann Trophy, you’ve got an important rookie season in WPS after which the league folds. How did you’re feeling whenever you heard the information?
PRESS: It was somewhat scary as a result of I used to be so new within the skilled soccer sport. I didn’t know what to do or what to anticipate. It was scary that I used to be unemployed and didn’t know what to do. As skilled soccer gamers, it’s a small circle and everybody stays linked. The gamers that didn’t have every other accessible place to coach all seemed overseas. I by no means thought—”Oh, I’m not playing soccer again,”—I simply thought—”How am I going to play, where am I going to play?” We discovered in January that the league was not going to exist and by the tip of the month I had already signed my contract to go to Sweden. There was by no means a hesitation from me of whether or not I used to be going to proceed. It was only a query of how and when and the place.
ASN: How did you determine on Sweden particularly?
PRESS: I at all times say that I didn’t determine on Sweden, Sweden selected me. I used to be open to something. I knew little or no in regards to the nation, the individuals, the tradition or the soccer there. I went as a result of I knew any person who knew any person who knew any person who put me in contact with the coach. I spoke to him on the telephone and I spoke to the final supervisor and so they simply appeared like good individuals. They may converse English and there was one other American [Ingrid Wells] on the crew.
ASN: What has it been like taking part in overseas?
PRESS: It’s been improbable, I couldn’t say higher issues about it. The American school soccer surroundings is without doubt one of the {most professional} and greatest environments for a feminine athlete at the moment. Whenever you depart that surroundings, you don’t know what you’re going to get. Transferring overseas was an enormous blessing in my life. It was surprising, nevertheless it taught me tips on how to stay my life and be an grownup and maintain myself. I’m studying a brand new language and navigating streets with indicators in one other language and discovering my very own residence in another country.
ASN: Because you’ve gone to Sweden you’ve taken your sport to a different stage. Is that due to taking part in in Sweden, is it the teaching?
PRESS: It’s exhausting to say. I believe that being uncovered to a unique model of soccer in Europe actually helped my sport. [Europeans] have a unique emphasis on transferring successfully and being extra affected person and ready for performs to develop. After I went to Sweden, it was a refreshing perspective on the sport. It actually helped me discover my pleasure in soccer that I’d misplaced making an attempt to make it to the highest.
ASN: You’re within the Champions League proper now with Tyreso. What has that been like?
PRESS: This might be my third Champions League season. My first two have been with my former crew [Goteborg] and it was actually completely different. The expectations weren’t to win it, they have been simply to see how effectively we may do. And now with [Tyreso], for the reason that second I signed, it’s all I’ve heard about from my teammates, the workers, reporters and the followers. It’s such a transparent ambition for this crew. It’s actually cool to have such a giant event to convey collectively the most effective ladies’s groups in Europe. It’s an unimaginable alternative. The Champions League last is without doubt one of the most watched video games in ladies’s soccer. We’re actually enthusiastic about our prospects. We simply should hold our give attention to [our next game] and see the place it goes from there.
ASN: You beat Paris Saint-Germain—one of many favorites—within the first knockout spherical. How are you feeling about your possibilities for Tyreso to go all the best way?
PRESS: After we drew Paris Saint-Germain, it was a giant shock for all of us. We’d been speaking about making a run at successful the Champions League after which there was this actual, potential loss proper in entrance of us. It humbled us. It made us give attention to simply the subsequent sport as an alternative of the entire event and it ended up being such a blessing. You’ll be able to’t take any spherical without any consideration. On paper, we have now an important alternative to go the entire method.
ASN: You’re coming again to the NWSL this summer time. What was the first motivating consider deciding to return again?
PRESS: After I went overseas I at all times knew I wished to play in the USA. It was at all times one thing that was vital to me. It’s at all times been behind my thoughts. I can go on and on about how a lot I really like taking part in overseas, nevertheless it was at all times a stepping stone. [Coming home] was at all times one thing I used to be going to do. A few components performed into my choice, the primary being the start of the NWSL and its profitable first season. Being a extra common a part of the U.S. nationwide crew was a part of the choice. It’s a bonus for a participant to be taking part in in entrance of teaching workers. Additionally, being an hour flight away from [national team] camp, versus 20-hour flight—that’s a giant benefit. As we get nearer to World Cup qualifying and cuts are going to be made, each little benefit counts.
ASN: You’ve had such an incredible run in Sweden the final two years, even outscoring [Brazilian legend] Marta the final two seasons. However whenever you come into nationwide crew camp, issues don’t get any simpler with Abby Wambach, Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan. What’s that like whenever you come into camp and there’s a lot competitors at your place?
PRESS: It’s a blessing. When there are such gifted gamers, there’s a possibility to develop. All of them have very completely different skills. It permits me to see what my strengths and their strengths are and see how they implement them within the sport. All three of them are extremely efficient at utilizing their strengths to vary video games and it’s one thing I actually admire about all of them. I perceive my place on the crew and I’ve ambitions and objectives. However combating for a place with these three and others who come into camp is a good alternative and I’m very grateful for it.
ASN: With Alex Morgan out of this camp, do you see these subsequent few video games as a possibility to indicate the teaching workers what you are able to do?
PRESS: Tom has carried out an important job within the final yr giving everybody alternative. Each time I come into camp I really feel like I’ve a shot. Each second that you just’re on the sector, I simply attempt to recognize it and luxuriate in it and do the most effective I can.
ASN: There’s new faces each camp with Coach Sermanni. Outdoors of the standard suspects, is there anybody within the camp proper now who has impressed you?
PRESS: Two of our collegiate gamers, Crystal [Dunn] and Morgan [Brian], match proper in each time they arrive to camp. They’re proper right here at this stage and so they by no means miss a beat.
