Becky Sauerbrunn

St. Louis has a super-rich history of soccer, so I was very fortunate growing up to have coaches that played.

We like to be kind of at the forefront for how all football federations should treat their female athletes.

The women's national team is a very successful team, and that success has given us a platform to speak on gender equity issues. Millions of young women play soccer in this country, and it's empowering for them to see that our contribution to the game is valued.

In soccer, female athletes across the world wear shoes that are not meant for us, our feet, or our game.

Soccer, more often than not, helps to unite the world. What this Muslim ban is doing is dividing it: separating 'Us' and 'Them' to another degree, adding more division to a country that already struggles with race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender.

Even when matches don't work out the way you planned, you've always got to stay strong in defence; it's a matter of willpower and intelligence.

The past doesn't matter. Take today.

Winning the World Cup is definitely the highlight of my career. I thought the gold medal at the Olympics would peak it, but winning the World Cup, the reception... it's what we all dreamed of when we were little.

The toughest part of my career was at the 2011 World Cup and 2012 Olympics and wanting so much to play and physically contribute - but having to understand and realize that it's just not my time.

A lot of goals are scored when defenders lose their concentration for a split second and a forward makes a run in behind or gets that one extra step that leads to a shot.

I think everyone, including myself, was pretty surprised the first Freedom goal came from me. So when I think about that goal, all I can really do is laugh at the incredibility of it.

The way I play, it's very much more a mental game than a physical game. I'm looking for space and where are players leaving space. Defensively, where are we at numerical disadvantages? Do I shift more to the left because they have more players on their right side? It's about reading the game before the game happens.