Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
SAN DIEGO – Near the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season, as her retirement neared and her teams desperately fought for a playoff spot, Megan Rapinoe asked Ali Krieger when and where her final game for NJ/NY Gotham FC would be .
Krieger knew Rapinoe, who plays for Seattle’s OL Reign, was referring to the regular-season finale in mid-October, but decided to have fun with her answer.
“What do you mean?” “November 11,” the date of the championship game, Krieger said. “No doubt in my mind.”
They laughed about it, then thought: Maybe they could see their final season through to the end to clinch a title Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium that both organizations have missed since the league’s inception in 2013.
“Now we’re here and we’re like, ‘Wow, we really did it,'” Krieger said with a smile.
“Only one of us will be able to win, and that will be sad for whoever doesn’t win,” Rapinoe said, “but it’s really special.”
Krieger, a 39-year-old defenseman from Dumfries, Virginia, announced earlier this year that this would be her 17th and final professional season. Rapinoe, a 38-year-old winger from Redding, California, said before this summer’s World Cup that she would end her 15-year career in the fall.
Until the final moments of the final day of the regular season, it wasn’t even certain whether their teams would qualify for the playoffs. Retirement was knocking. However, both clubs got the results they needed, with OL Reign securing fourth place and Gotham sixth – and final – place.
From the World Cup: Megan Rapinoe’s torrid career has changed more than just the women’s game
First-round victories were followed by upsets in the semifinals, as OL Reign defeated the top-seeded San Diego Wave and Gotham edged the No. 2 Portland Thorns, the reigning champions.
OL Reign forward Jordyn Huitema said that after every late-season win, players would say to Rapinoe, “Hey Pinoe! Guess what? You’re still going!'”
Huitema added: “We made sure that it wasn’t her last game until it had to be. We want to give her what she deserves.”
And so Rapinoe and Krieger – longtime US teammates who won World Cup titles together in 2015 and 2019 but were never NWSL colleagues or champions – take the stage together for the final act of their successful soccer careers.
“It’s really poetic,” Krieger said.
Rapinoe had the more spectacular tenure as a goalscorer, provider and outspoken advocate in sports and human rights forums. She received a toast from the national team during her farewell U.S. game in Chicago in September. In the event that OL Reign missed the playoffs, the club used the final home game of the regular season at Lumen Field for another emotional farewell. CBS broadcast it live.
“Everyone says, ‘Enough!’ said Rapinoe, laughing at the numerous celebrations.
Krieger, whose national team career ended nearly three years ago, received a home honors from Gotham FC last month at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey
Emma Hayes, expected USWNT coach, is preparing a Chelsea transfer
Saturday’s game will primarily be a celebration of the teams.
“I realize, of course, that it’s my last game ever, but it’s also the last game for everyone this year,” Rapinoe said. “So it takes a little bit of focus away from me, which is welcome.”
Rapinoe has spent her entire NWSL career with OL Reign, which is making its third appearance in the championship. Krieger, a graduate of Forest Park High School and Penn State, started with the Washington Spirit and played five years in Orlando before moving to Gotham last season.
Although they were never teammates at a club, they forged a bond with the national team over 13 years and remained close friends.
At their first US training camp together 15 years ago, Rapinoe met Krieger and thought: “Who is this German girl?”
Krieger started her professional career in Germany, where she got to know the culture. In German, her last name means “warrior”. Tattooed on her inner left arm is “liebe,” which translates to “love.”
Krieger’s first impression of Rapinoe?
“Who is this skinny little girl?” She had legs like tampon strings out there,” she said.
They soon realized that, among other things, they had a wicked sense of humor.
“We hit it off immediately,” Rapinoe said. “We take what we do on the field seriously but we also want to have fun and realize that this is a truly unique journey we are on and we want to celebrate and maximize everything together we can.”
Rapinoe added: “She’s also just a really good person. You’re playing with a million people… but she is and will continue to be one of my best friends in life. It is a very special moment for both of us to be able to celebrate. I know if I win [Saturday]She’ll be happy for me and if she wins, I’ll be happy for her.”
Krieger turned to Rapinoe for emotional support this summer when Krieger’s marriage to her former teammate Ashlyn Harris fell apart. The couple filed for divorce in September.
“She was a rock-solid best friend to me,” Krieger said. “We will always be there for each other, and that goes far beyond the field, and that is something I truly value and cherish forever.”
With Rapinoe’s help, Krieger said, she was able to focus on soccer — and one of the best seasons of her career. She was selected to the All-League Best XI and was named a finalist for the Defender of the Year category.
“We’re trying to get another year out of her,” Gotham teammate Delanie Sheehan said. “She looks like she could do at least a few more.”
However, Krieger is ready to go.
“I knew it might not be time to hang up my boots until the 20-year-olds were running past me,” she said. “And then I started having kids and I think my perspective changed a little bit.”
Krieger and Harris have an almost three-year-old daughter and a 15-month-old son.
Win or lose on Saturday, Krieger said she might sit on the field for a while and “take it all in one last time.”
“Before I go home,” she said, “I want to take time to relax because I’ll be in mom mode as soon as I land.”
Rapinoe will return to her fiancée, retired basketball star Sue Bird.
“I look at my entire career and just think, ‘This is fucking crazy,'” she said. “I can’t believe that I’m here and at 38 years old I can still play the game I love and that I can be as successful as I am not only with my teammates but also with the national team. I’d like to get one last little thing.”