With the soccer world’s intense focus on Friday’s start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the U.S. national team has a little stress relief.
It comes in the form of toddlers Charlie, Marcel and Madden.
They’re the children of Alex Morgan and fellow national team members Crystal Dunn and Julie Ert, Morgan says.
At a recent press conference before heading to Australia, San Diego Wave superstar Morgan explained the juxtaposition between intensity and levity at training camp.
“We’re so focused on our training in the upcoming games and meetings and everything and then to see children … coming into this environment and just laugh and giggle, and throw food and just hug each other. It’s the sweetest thing,” Morgan said.
“It kind of just makes it a little more light and like fun, and it kind of makes everyone feel a little more human when there’s this real pressure-filled environment, where you’re feel like you’re always being watched (for) everything you do, everything you say.”
Just having kids puts a smile on everyone’s face, she said.
This is Morgan’s fourth World Cup, but first as a mother. And like other working professionals, she is often asked how motherhood fits into a career.
Morgan’s answer: She’s welcomed her 3-year-old daughter into a world of successful women.
“I get to show her what Mom does and surround her by just so many strong and confident women,” said the 34-year-old forward married since 2014 to Servando Carrasco. “My teammates have been so gracious with their time and with Charlie, and it’s just great to see her just have so many role models to look up to in person like day after day and that’s really special.”
Morgan told ESPN that Charlie likes to play with Emily Fox and Megan Rapinoe and many other girls on the team.
Like all working moms, Morgan’s life is compartmentalized.
“When I get on the field, I really do enjoy it,” she told ESPN. “I enjoy that time, knowing that if I’m away from my daughter, I want to make sure it’s worth it.”
Charlie is cared for off the pitch.
And after regular season games, Morgan and Charlie hold hands and wave to fans. Charlie waves, too.
“When I’m home, I’m not Alex, a soccer player. I’m Mom,” she said. “My daughter doesn’t care if I scored a goal or if I missed a goal or if I got injured, or if I’m playing at the top of my game. I’m just Mom.”
At a press conference after a recent match against Seattle’s OL Reign, Charlie sat on her mom’s lap under bright lights.
It was a place where Morgan’s professional life merged with her personal one, a patient balancing act of responding to her daughter’s remarks and a complaint of a tummy ache while answering questions about the World Cup.
Morgan said she wants to represent athletes who are mothers and the strides the National Women’s Soccer League has made.
She credits support from the federation, club teams, coaches and sponsors — aid that hasn’t always been there.
“So I think that all allows us to be able to compete at the highest level,” Morgan said in response to a question from Times of San Diego.
But she said there’s room for improvement.
Wave Coach Casey Stoney said of Morgan: “So as a player, as a leader, she’s been huge. As an ambassador in the community and what she gives back is even bigger.”
“You know, people come to most games to see her, to watch her, to meet her, and she’s an incredible role (model),” Stoney said. “We’re very lucky as a club that we have her.”
On Tuesday, Morgan announced a partnership with her Alex Morgan Foundation and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego to “support mothers and help raise the next generation of healthy and inspired kids.” The foundation is centered on equity in sports, opportunities for girls and support for mothers in sports and life.
World Cup advertisements demonstrate how much Morgan is the face of women’s soccer in the U.S.
Fox Sports even created a towering statue at Fox Square in New York City of Morgan draped in the American flag and holding a World Cup trophy, a la the Statue of Liberty, called Liberty Alex.
But off that pedestal, she enjoys the mom-daughter activities of romping on the playground, collecting shells at the beach and blowing bubbles, she shared in U.S. Soccer’s “Meet the 23” video.
“(Charlie) thinks it’s like the best, the most fun thing to do in the world and her laugh is so genuine when she like pops the bubble. So that’s really fun,” Morgan said in the soccer video. “It’s just fun to see life through her eyes.”
Turning her eyes to the World Cup, the soccer star said: “It will be not only the most competitive World Cup — it’s going to be the most watched World Cup, and most attended World Cup. It will be the best World Cup that there has ever been.”
The U.S. women’s national team has won the last two World Cup tournaments and is ranked No. 1 in the FIFA standings.
