The women of the U.S. national soccer team are Women of the Year because... "These amazing, strong, confident women inspired thousands of girls to dream big. And they helped bring all of us together—one nation, one team."
—Mia Hamm, former pro soccer player, World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and 1999 and 2010 Woman of the Year
World, Hear Us Roar: (clockwise from top left) #18 Ashlyn Harris; #4 Becky Sauerbrunn; #16 Lori Chalupny; #12 Lauren Holiday; #8 Amy Rodriguez; #19 Julie Johnston; #5 Kelley O'Hara; #6 Whitney Engen; #23 Christen Press; #9 Heather O'Reilly; #21 Alyssa Naeher; #2 Sydney Leroux; #10 Carli Lloyd; #17 Tobin Heath; #3 Christie Rampone; #20 Abby Wambach; #11 Ali Krieger; #22 Meghan Klingenberg; #14 Morgan Brian; #15 Megan Rapinoe; #1 Hope Solo; #7 Shannon Boxx; #13 Alex Morgan
Every summer has an anthem, a song that captures the cultural mood of that moment in time. This year that anthem didn't come from Taylor Swift or Katy Perry. It was the galvanizing chant—"I believe that we will win!"—of the U.S. national team at the FIFA Women's World Cup. The 23 players on the team chanted it before games during the grueling month-long tournament. Fans screamed it in the stands. And girls and boys cheered it in living rooms around the globe: "I believe that we will win!"
Well, the team didn't just win; they dominated, toppling Australia, Nigeria, Colombia, China, and Germany before heading into the championship match against Japan—at which point things got epic. Three minutes in, midfielder Carli Lloyd, 33, executed a precision-perfect goal off a corner kick. Two minutes later she scored again. Midfielder Lauren Holiday, 28, scored at minute 14. And just 85 seconds later, in a stunning shot, Lloyd rifled the ball into Japan's net from halfway across the field. The Telemundo sportscaster yelled "Goal!" for 38 seconds.
But soccer is a sport in which outcomes can turn on a dime. "We had to make sure we were focused for 75 more minutes," says forward Alex Morgan, 26. It wasn't until the clock read 89 minutes and 59 seconds, with a score of 5 to 2, that the women started to celebrate. "When the final whistle blew, something I'd dreamed of and been working for tirelessly my whole life came true," says forward Abby Wambach, who at age 35 has scored more international goals (183 and counting) than any soccer player in history, male or female. "I felt every emotion you can imagine: joy, love, excitement, relief."
Ironically, the team had been widely written off early on. (One biting headline: "The U.S. Team Has No Shot of Winning the World Cup...") Star striker Alex Morgan was battling a knee injury; the team was the oldest in the Cup, with an average age of 30; coach Jill Ellis had been in the job for only a year. But the team believed. "We thrive off the pressure," says forward Christen Press, 26. By the quarterfinals, says Lloyd, "there was a feeling in the air, a confidence."
That unrelenting confidence is, says Ellis, part of what makes her team extraordinary: "We have the trifecta. We have the technique, we have the athleticism, and we have the mentality. There are very few teams in the world that have all three of those. That's what tips the scales for us to win."
And the fight they're fighting isn't just about soccer—it's about equality. Many of the players are outspoken about their sport's historical tendency to shortchange women. Backed by dozens of players, Wambach filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit against FIFA protesting the organizing body's decision to make women, unlike men, play World Cup games on artificial turf, a brutal surface that increases the risk of injuries. (FIFA later pledged that all future World Cups would be played on grass.) The U.S. players spoke out about the pay gap too, when FIFA paid out $35 million in prize money to the men's winners last year but just $2 million to the 2015 women's champions, even though the women's game was the most-watched final in American soccer history, with ratings higher than last year's World Series. "This team leads by example," says Billie Jean King, founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and the Women's Sports Foundation. "They have shown what hard work, commitment, and dedication can do."
Even their victory lap was record-setting: The ticker tape parade in New York City held in their honor was the first ever for a female sports team, and they played to record crowds during their 10-city post–World Cup victory tour. "What we did not only helped the popularity of women's soccer and women's sports in our country, but women, period. To be a part of a generation that is pushing the needle forward," says Wambach, "is something I am very proud of."
THEIR WORDS TO LIVE BY: "No matter what road or path you choose, you have to make some part of it your own. You have to know who you are, and own your choices and actions." —Abby Wambach
Shaun Dreisbach is a contributing editor for Glamour.
See All of the 2015 Glamour Women of the Year Honorees »
