Abby Wambach is a soccer legend—but at the 2011 World Cup, she had a lot to prove. She shares a play-by-play of her iconic goal against Brazil, and how it rallied a new fandom around women's soccer.
Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. She was the United States’ leading scorer in the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup tournaments and the 2004 and 2012 Olympics.
She is a founder and part owner of Angel City FC, the first majority-female-owned soccer team in history, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Together Rising.
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHourand email us atTEDRadioHour@npr.org.
Audio transcript
MANOUSH ZOMORODI, HOST:
It's the TED Radio Hour from NPR. I'm Manoush Zomorodi. On the show today, The Psychology of Winning. Have you ever wondered what is going on in the mind of a professional athlete?
ABBY WAMBACH: Part of my personality from the time that I can remember is that when the lights were shining, when the moment of the game came down to the last second to the last play. When the attention and the focus turned toward me, there was something greater in my spirit that came alive.
ZOMORODI: This is Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion Abby Wambach. She played for the U.S. Women's National Soccer team 2001 to 2015 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time.
WAMBACH: And now, in my retirement, I am an author, a podcaster and an avid U.S. Women's National Team fan.
ZOMORODI: But on July 11, 2011, she had a lot to prove. It was the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup in Dresden, Germany. Team USA versus Brazil and Brazil's legendary striker, Marta Vieira da Silva.
WAMBACH: There was a healthy rivalry between USA and Brazil in 2011. Marta is at the top of her game. I am at the top of my game. And if Marta just had the game of her life, which was always possible when Marta stepped on the field, then you just had to figure out how to deal with that as best as you can. We scored an early goal. And what people don't know about what was going on inside the stadium is, when we scored that early goal, we were like, listen, let's keep possession. 'Cause it was early. I mean, we still had a lot of soccer left. So we were keeping possession, and I remember the crowd - they want to see excitement. They want to see soccer and football really happening.
ZOMORODI: Team USA was sitting on the ball, taking their time, trying to keep the score at 1-0, which really annoyed the fans.
WAMBACH: So, the crowd kind of started to turn against us in a way and start to back the Brazilian side. They wanted a game - a game they ended up getting.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WAMBACH: I think about the 60th minute, one of our defenders, Rachel Buehler, ends up getting into a collision with Marta.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
WAMBACH: Ends up drawing a red - a straight red card inside the penalty box. So not only is Brazil awarded a penalty, but we now lose a player. We are now playing with 10 women. And oh, God, that was such - I'm experiencing, like, stress, as if I'm right back there. So we get ready for the penalty shot.
ZOMORODI: Brazil takes the shot against USA's goalie, Hope Solo.
WAMBACH: Hope saves it. And we're freaking out. We're all like, oh, my gosh, this is great, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
WAMBACH: Well, the referee says, no, no, no. Hope moved early. And so they got to retake the penalty, and then Brazil scores the penalty. 1-1, 60th minute. Team USA is down a player. And I'm just thinking, oh, this is not good. This is not good. We play for the next 30 minutes. And it's an intense game, you know, there's not many chances from either team, really. Regulation ends, and it goes into extra time. And Marta - God, I'll never forget it where I was standing. They get a corner kick, and somehow she scores this goal. And I - God, I just remember screaming from that point on. We just need one good chance.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WAMBACH: We just need one good chance. We are fighting for our lives. We are fighting to stay in this tournament. This would be, I think, at the time, the earliest exit the U.S. would ever exit a world championship, being the quarter-finals.
ZOMORODI: What is going through your mind at this point? Are you, like, angry? Is there a point where you - like, I just have to stay in the zone or, otherwise, this is all going to fall apart? What is happening?
WAMBACH: I am everything all at once.
ZOMORODI: (Laughter) OK.
WAMBACH: I am angry. I am terrified. I am excited. I am at the edge of myself. I am praying. I am talking to myself. I am pleading. I am willing. I am all things. I'm everything all at once.
ZOMORODI: 'Cause the clock is ticking at this point, right?
WAMBACH: Yeah. The clock is ticking. The ball is basically, I think, on our own goal line where Hope Solo is standing, the end of the field. And I'm screaming like, just kick it north. Like, direct. We need to get to the goal. We've got - I felt like we only had a few seconds, which we did. We only had a few seconds left until the referee was going to call the game.
ZOMORODI: Teammate Megan Rapinoe gets the ball.
WAMBACH: Megan takes a couple of touches, and you have to understand the relationships that we all have. Like, these are plays that we have done a thousand times with each other. But the problem is is Megan is now basically on the half mark. So she's probably, like, 40 yards away from the end line. And I'm at the top of the box. And so this delivery and this angle and the trajectory has probably never been attempted.
But because it was such late-game heroics, Pinoe was like, I know Abby's in there. I'm just going to take a couple of touches. I'm going to look up, and then I'm going to look down. And as soon as Megan looked up, and as soon as she put her head down, I knew the ball was coming toward me. And as soon as the ball came off of her foot, for whatever reason, I knew that that ball was coming to my head. I knew it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WAMBACH: The only thing in my mind was, don't screw this up. I knew I was going to head the ball. Would the keeper save it or not? Well, as the ball is approaching my head, I see a pair of gloves come into my vision and come out of my vision. As the ball is striking my head, I realize the goalkeeper has come out and missed the ball. Nobody is in the goal. I have a wide-open net. Now I'm thinking, if I miss this, this would be the biggest embarrassment in the whole wide world.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WAMBACH: My head connects with the ball. You know, your eyes have to shut when the ball hits your head. And then, when the ball comes off your head, your eyes open back up. But I heard the roar of the crowd before I could see the ball. And the roar of the crowd was so loud that I black out. Like, I don't have a recollection of the ball hitting the back of the net.
(CHEERING)
ZOMORODI: Moments like this are what athletes and their fans live for. And whether it's on the field, during a crucial exam or while giving the biggest presentation of your life, going for the win can be exhilarating and terrifying. So what are the best ways to set ourselves up for success? On the show today, The Psychology of Winning - why we love watching people compete at the top of their game and how we can manage our own anxieties in high-pressure situations - which brings us back to Abby Wambach. Her header in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals is legendary. And over the years, Abby has replayed that moment over and over again in her mind.
WAMBACH: Because I've wondered how the heck did that happen. What about me? What about my brain, my body, my spirit is different than somebody else to be able to do that? Is it just, like, right place, right time, or is it, like, the sincere openness to utter annihilation, had that gone the opposite way, right? Like, I try to tell my kid the more open you can be to be completely devastated by something, the more possibility opens up to you. And I think that that's true in life. I think that's true in love. I know that that's true in sport. The more you open yourself up to devastation, the more possibility will be open to you.
And that's what this moment was. And I believe deeply in all of my being that some of the best athletes we watch and some of the biggest moments we've been able to watch, we gather the energy of everybody watching, and we are somehow able to tap into that will, to tap into that desperation and to give it what it wants. And so I think that that's what happened. And P.S., folks, this only tied the game (laughter). We go into the penalty kick shootout. Ali Krieger finishes it off for us for us to win. Hope Solo also saved one. That was the reason why we were able to win in five. Yeah. My God. Like, I feel exhausted just explaining all of it...
ZOMORODI: Yeah.
WAMBACH: ...Because it was...
ZOMORODI: I can feel you're reliving it. I mean, does this...
WAMBACH: Yeah.
ZOMORODI: It must be addictive, this feeling.
WAMBACH: Yep. You know, there's really not much that you can compare that kind of thing with. Winning the game in that fashion, in that way. It was just so unbelievable. It made me famous. It brought the popularity and fandom back to women's soccer, the way that it kind of was when Mia Hamm was present and starting the women's soccer sports revolution in this country. That moment was everything.
ZOMORODI: When you have a moment like that, is there a sense that you can, like, (vocalizing), take a deep breath, maybe rest on your laurels a little bit?
WAMBACH: I remember the next day, Pia, our coach - she sat us in a circle. She wanted everybody to go one by one and tell their story, how they experienced it. She knew that this was - this moment was bigger than this one specific team. What she was trying to give us was the space to be able to be like, that just happened. Be proud and be amazed and be awed. And at the end of that meeting, she said, OK, we have to move on to France. We still haven't won anything here. That we will be able to celebrate for the rest of our lives. But today is a new day, and we need to move forward.
ZOMORODI: That's Abby Wambach. Her podcast is called "We Can Do Hard Things." And by the way, the U.S. team ended up losing in the final of that World Cup, but came back four years later in 2015 and, with Abby, won the championship. On the show today, The Psychology of Winning. I'm Manoush Zomorodi, and you're listening to the TED Radio Hour from NPR. Stay with us.
