‘Becoming Alex Morgan’ is on Disney and ESPN

A half-hour documentary on the meteoric rise of Alex Morgan is being shown on Disney X D and ESPN2. The next showing I can find is at 8:30 p.m. CT Wednesday (Sept. 16)  on ESPN2.

Here’s a promo from Disney X D, a cable station aimed primarily at young viewers:

And here’s a more grown-up video preview, from ESPNW.

Becoming Alex Morgan is one in a series of “Becoming…” shows about world-class athletes. Upcoming episodes will feature  Chris Paul, CC Sabathia, Henrik Lundqvist and Tim Howard.

The “Becoming” pilot, which aired last October,  was about LeBron James. James is now an executive producer of the series.

Becoming Alex Morgan includes never-before-seen footage of Morgan as a child soccer star, as well as interviews with former coaches and her family..

Young Alex Morgan: Baby Baby Horse.

The show examines the journey of a supremely gifted young athlete from obscurity to the loftiest international heights of her sport.

The trajectory was breathtaking.

Morgan’s first appearance with the U.S. team was against Mexico on March 31, 2010, on a snow-covered field outside Salt Lake City. She came on to start the second half. She was 20 years old.

The next year, in the World Cup, she performed well, scoring twice. But under Pia Sundhage, Morgan remained a second-half sub.

Everything changed in 2012.

On Jan. 29 of that year, she got her first start, in a 4-0 rout of Canada. Morgan scored twice and assisted Abby Wambach on the other two U.S. goals.

After that, there was no stopping her.

She scored 14 goals in a 12-game stretch from January to late May. That remarkable run included three straight two-goal games , and, on March 7, her first hat trick.

In the Americans’ opening game at the 2012 London Olympics, Morgan scored twice, leading her team to a 4-2 win over France. In each of the next three Olympic matches, Morgan assisted on the game-winning goal.

Her most spectacular Olympic moment, of course, came in the 123rd minute of a semifinal against Canada:

For the year, she led the U.S. team in goals (28), multi-goal games (nine), assists (21) and points (77). She was the second American woman — the first was Mia Hamm — to have at least 20 goals and 20 assists in the same calendar year.

She and Wambach combined for 55 goals, matching a record set in 1991 by Michelle Akers (39 goals) and Carin Jennings (16).

Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medal match, Aug. 9, 2012. (Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire)

To grasp what a force she was in the game that year, consider these two facts:

Alex Morgan either scored or assisted on 41 percent of the United States’ 120 goals in 2012.

By herself, she had more goals and more assists than all of the players, combined, on all of Team USA’s opponents in 32 games.

And she was still just 23.

In the years since that remarkable one, Morgan has been slowed by a series of unfortunate injuries.  When healthy, she is unquestionably among the game’s greats. We just haven’t seen her healthy often enough.

Still, as she and her teammates continue to bask in the glow of their World Cup  triumph this summer, Morgan’s stock may be higher than ever.

As ESPNW none too subtly put it, “Alex Morgan is seriously everywhere right now.”

She was just on CBS This Morning discussing her new memoir written primarily for young readers, Breakaway: Beyond The Goal.

This followed earlier post-World Cup appearances on Good Morning America, Fox Sports, Jimmy Kimmell Live, and SportsCenter, among many others. She picked up awards at The Espys and Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Sports.

Alex Morgan and Victoria’s Secret model Martha Hunt, U.S. Tennis Open. (Instagram)

She’s hung out with Taylor Swift onstgage and with Ed Sheeran offstage. She watched Serena Williams play in the U.S. Tennis Open.

The Kicks Collection, her three youth novels about a girls’ soccer team, has been made into a TV show.

She’s in commercials for Nike, Coca-Cola, Chapstick, and Nationwide Insurance, among others.

And she’s on the cover of the EA Sports’ immensely popular soccer video game, FIFA 16 — the first edition of the game to include female players.

Alex Morgan and some guy on the Fifa 16 case.

 

 

5 more things you might not know about the World Cup final

USA Today

On Sunday, the United States defeated Japan 5-2 to reclaim the World Cup championship, after 16 years.

Here are five oddities, curiosities or (possibly) interesting facts about the game and its participants:

 

1.

Japan gave up more goals in the first 16 minutes (four) than it had in its previous six games in the World Cup (three).

Japanese goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori. (USA Today)

 

2.

Carli Lloyd is the second American woman to win the Golden Ball as the best player in a World Cup. The other? Carin Jennings (later Carin Jennings-Gabarra) in 1991.

Jennings is not as well-known as she should be, largely because her contributions as a pioneering member of the U.S. women’s team became overshadowed by the larger-than-life heroics of Michelle Akers and Mia Hamm.

She joined the U.S. team in July 1987, playing in the Americans’ 12th international match, “and she was a fixture in the lineup for nearly a decade,” according to this 2013 profile published by U.S. Soccer.

“Nobody was better on the ball or on the dribble than the blonde Southern Californian they called ‘crazy legs,'” according to the profile. “History confirms that her masterful showing in the first Women’s World Cup was a key factor in the Americans’ quick vault to the top of their sport.”

In that ’91 World Cup, she finished second in scoring (six goals) to Michelle Akers (10). She dominated in the Americans’ opener against Sweden, scoring twice in a 3-2 victory. Against Germany, she had a hat trick in the first 33 minutes of a 5-2 victory. (Sound familiar?)

Since 1993, she has been the women’s soccer coach at the U.S. Naval Academy.

 

Carin Gabarra

 

3.

The goals by Tobin Heath and Lauren Holiday were their first of the tournament.

4.

Among the 53,341 people in attendance at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver were ’99ers Briana Scurry, Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, and Michelle Akers.

 

5.

Japan possessed the ball more than United States, 52 percent to 48 percent.

Quote of the day: Julie Foudy

“Here is the difference between the U.S. women’s national team and the rest of the world: The United States heads into every Women’s World Cup expecting to win it.”

– Julie Foudy, writing in ESPNW

 

U.S. women, 2004 Olympics. From left: Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly. (Luca Bruna/AP)

‘Ending the drought’ — Part 1 of 3 by Julie Foudy

Kerstin Garefrekes, left unmarked by Abby Wambach, scored with a header in the 15th minute of a semifinal match against the United States in the 2003 World Cup. Germany won 3-0. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

The great Julie Foudy has a three-part series on ESPNW examining the three World Cups since the U.S. team’s last victory, in 1999, and what the team learned from each that can help end the drought.

Foudy drew on her own experiences as a player (she retired in 2004), as well as her work since as an ESPN commentator and one of the most astute observers of the women’s game.

She also interviewed three of the current team’s most experienced veterans, Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and Shannon Boxx, as well as former stars Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and Kate Markgraf.

In Part 1, she looks at the 2003 World Cup, in which, as Margraf bluntly put it, “we got manhandled” by Germany.

 

Photo of the day: 2004 Olympic champions

Gold medalists, 2004 Olympics, Athens. From left: Kristine Lilly, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett. (SIKids. com)

7 things you might not know about Team USA vs. South Korea

The U.S. women play South Korea today (May 30) at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. It’s the Americans’ final game before they head to Canada for the World Cup, which starts June 6.

Today’s game is on ESPN.

Here are seven oddities, curiosities or (possibly) interesting facts about the game and its participants:

 

1.

South Korea will probably lose. In eight previous meetings, dating back to 1997, the Americans have won seven times. (The other match ended in a 0-0 draw.) Collectively, the United States has outscored the Koreans 31-3.

 

2.

The United States is ranked No. 2 in the world. South Korea is No. 18.

3.

The last time the teams met was on June 20, 2013, also at Red Bull Arena. That was the night Abby Wambach broke Mia Hamm’s career scoring record.

Wambach had four goals in what turned out to be a 5-0 victory by the United States. Her third goal of the night — the 159th of her career — set the new scoring record. She now has 182.

 

4.

Abby Wambach is the team’s leading scorer for 2015, with five goals. She’s had two in each of her last two games.

5.

Team USA is 7-1-1 in 2015.

6.

Becky Sauerbrunn is the only U.S. player who has started every game this year. Her 789 minutes lead the team.

Becky Sauerbrunn. (Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)

 

7.

Hope Solo has 169 caps, four shy of Brianna Scurry’s record for a U.S. goalkeeper. Solo has 130 wins, three shy of another Scurry record.

Hope Solo vs. New Zealand. (Jeff Curry/USA Today Sports).

‘Abby Wambach has always been fearless,’ Mia Hamm writes

Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm, 2004. (CNN)

In a short essay for Time magazine, Mia Hamm, the brightest star in the history of women’s soccer, pays tribute to Abby Wambach, the greatest scorer in the history of women’s soccer.

The occasion was Wambach’s being named to Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2015.

“Whether inspiring her team on the field or taking on important issues off it, Abby uses her passion and fearlessness to lead by example,” Hamm writes.

“Team USA is poised to do amazing things at the World Cup. While I can’t predict what will happen, I know that under Abby, they will never quit.”

Accompanying Hamm’s words of praise is this inspiring video interview with Wambach:

 

 

Quote of the day: Abby Wambach on Mia Hamm

“She wasn’t always the nicest person in the world. … She knew that I had thick skin, so she could yell at me, and I could take it…. And then off the field, she would always circle back around, make sure I was doing alright, ’cause I was still 22, 23 years old when we played together.”

– Abby Wambach on playing alongside Mia Hamm. She was interviewed by Bill Simmons of ESPN.

Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach, 2003. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated)

 

Quote of the day: Mia Hamm

“I’m just a former player that every day has to wake up, get her kids to school and figure out what I’m making them for lunch and dinner.”

– Mia Hamm, interviewed by CNN

Getty Images

 

Quote of the day: On the pioneers of the U.S. women’s team

“Everything in women’s soccer that is available right now is because of these women. We are accepted as athletes as much as men are now. And it’s because of these women.”

– Cat Reddick Whitehill, on the pioneers of the U.S. women’s team. She was quoted in Dare To Dream, the 2005 HBO documentary.