Becky Sauerbrunn playing for the US in 2014.
Neil W. Blackmon
“I don’t take any day I get to play soccer for granted.” — Becky Sauerbrunn
When the United States take the field tonight against Australia to open World Cup group play (7:30 PM ET, FOX Sports 1), they’ll face an Australian side capable of scoring in a hurry behind pacy and technical forwards Lisa De Vanna, Michelle Heyman and Samantha Kerr. Fortunately for the Yanks, in CB Becky Sauerbrunn, they’ll have a cerebral, technical center back fully capable of keeping her backline mates cohesive and together, ready for the challenge. What’s surprising is how long it took US Soccer to cut her talent loose.
Like many of her US teammates, Sauerbrunn featured for US youth teams, earning 25 caps with the U-19 side while playing for her college coach at the University of Virginia, Steve Swanson. She also captained the U-23’s in 2008, winning a Nordic Cup.
Unlike many of her teammates, Sauerbrunn, a three time All-American at UVA, wasn’t able to immediately parlay youth national team success and collegiate accomplishment into senior national team playing time. Initially, it appeared her career would follow the progression of a Morgan Brian, Alex Morgan or Julie Johnston, where youth national team caps and collegiate All-American selections led to national team inclusion and largely immediate integration with the senior side. She was called in to the US team by Pia Sundhage in 2008, earning her first cap, and a Brian McBride via Daniele De Rossi bloody face and a broken nose, against Canada at the Four Nations Tournament in China. But Sauerbrunn wasn’t called into a US senior team after the Four Nations Tournament for two years, reappearing only in 2010 after a monstrous rookie season as a professional with the Washington Freedom of the WPS and three strong months professionally in Norway, where she earned Champions League experience.
When Pia Sundhage did finally call Sauerbrunn back into the fold, playing time was sparse. “Pia made it real clear to me that she liked the combination of Christie and Rachel Buehler (now Van Hollebeke) together,” Sauerbrunn said at USWNT media day in New York City. “She thought they complimented each other very well and obviously they had a very good tournament (at World Cup 2011) together. So Pia was about me pushing them to get better but understanding I probably wasn’t going to play a whole lot.”
It wouldn’t be long until Sauerbrunn would have to play for Pia out of necessity. In the quarterfinal victory over Brazil at the 2011 World Cup, famed of course for the Rapinoe to Wambach pass and goal that kept the Americans from being eliminated from the tournament, Rachel Buehler was sent off. That left the slightest of openings for Sauerbrunn.
“I honestly didn’t think I was going to play,” Sauerbrunn told TYAC. “I figured they would move an outside back over or something, but Pia came in and told me ‘Hey, you’re starting in the semifinals of the World Cup.'”
Despite a strong World Cup semifinal, Sauerbrunn’s playing time under Pia was limited.
That match, which the United States won over France, did wonders for Sauerbrunn’s confidence that she could play the international game. “Going into 2011, I hadn’t played a whole lot.” Sauerbrunn said. “And obviously in the tournament I hadn’t played leading up to the tournament either. And then to be thrown into a semifinal, and play, and not absolutely do terrible—I held my own- that was a huge confidence builder, knowing that I’ve played a lot more, I’ve gone through the professional league, I know I’m good. I don’t have to question myself.”
Following her World Cup performance, Sauerbrunn became a constant fixture on the roster, even if playing time under Pia remained sparse. Sauerbrunn kept pushing, of course. “It was frustrating and tough but you balance it and be a good teammate. In the end, those two together were great and I was happy for them.”
After Pia departed, the window opened completely, and Sauerbrunn’s playing time increased greatly.
Sauerbrunn is effusive in her praise of the now defunct WPS and the current women’s professional league in the United States, NWSL, for how they contributed to her development and her ability to step into such a critical moment and perform at a high level. For this, Sauerbrunn thanks her continued good form professionally.
“My journey has been so different from a lot of national team players in that I was discovered and reintegrated with the national team through my professional league, so I owe so much to the WPS and NWSL and I have a lot of respect for what they do,” Sauerbrunn said. “I think the WPS and NWSL helped a ton (with playing time). I think they (new coach Tom Sermanni and then Jill Ellis) saw what I could do with my pro team and it carried over to the national team.”
Sauerbrunn’s playing time was consistent at a time when the US defense was seeking out new combinations and dealing with a variety of injuries. Indeed, before he was fired, I asked Sermanni about if finding continuity and reliability in defense was the number one priority heading towards World Cup qualifying. He was quick to answer it was, singling out Sauerbrunn’s consistency and suggesting, in what is now ironic, that the US wouldn’t know many things until after the 2014 Algarve Cup.
“Absolutely defense,” Sermanni told me. “The thing is we had a situation last year that made it difficult, with injuries and because we have players playing overseas, so we had availability issues on non-FIFA dates. So, we won’t know until after the Algarve Cup. We still have injuries- Ali Krieger came back, but Crystal Dunn is injured; Stephanie Cox returned, but Kelly O’Hara is still dealing with an ankle injury. At the end of the day, until we’re healthy, we have a vast amount of experience, but we have one consistent player right now: Becky Sauerbrunn. Otherwise,we have players that have played in major tournaments figuring it out. But regardless of combination, they’re going to have to do a better job.”
What makes Sauerbrunn so consistent? “She’s such a cerebral player,” Sermanni said. “She’s rarely out of position, and when she is, she’s close enough to recover. She’s technical both on the ball and in the air, and she sees the game sequences ahead. It’s a privilege to coach her.”
Sauerbrunn’s national team consistency is directly correlated to club consistency, where she has twice in a row been named the league’s defender of the year, a distinction that has led some publications to declare her the best defender in the world. It’s a consistency she takes great pride in,and one she attributes to her professional league. ““I became more complete in the NWSL, consistently training with and playing against elite attacking talent, and learning under (coach Vlatko Andonovski). Having someone like him coaching me and believing in me has been huge,” Sauerbrunn said.
Sauerbrunn with the media in New York City two weeks ago.
But is it difficult to match the intensity and competitiveness of a US camp and international play with club play? After all, the national team gets so much attention compared to the women’s professional game in the States. “You have to be ready to compete no matter where you are,” Sauerbrunn told TYAC. “I don’t take any day I get to play soccer for granted.”
The unfairness of the disparity isn’t lost on her either. “It is funny how different it is (playing for the national team and playing for club). The NWSL deserves to be just as popular as the MLS,” Sauerbrunn said. “Everyone is so interested in the national team and rightfully so, they have great personalities and great stories, but I’d love to see that with the NWSL.”
Sauerbrunn doesn’t know if that day is coming, though perhaps she is the best advertisement for it. She’s gone from the fringe of the CB pool to the anchor of the American defense in seven years, and thanks women’s professional soccer in the United States for it. Still, the jam packed schedule, which includes the Olympics and Women’s World Cups a year apart, makes it harder for women’s players to parlay club success into national team playing time. And that’s a logistical obstacle to the path Sauerbrunn has taken that is tough to solve.
“I think it’s tough (for more players to take her path) because we have the World Cup and the Olympics so close to each other so it is tougher to bring new players into the fold,” Sauerbrunn told TYAC. “Now I’ve played with players like Leigh Ann Robinson and Erika Tymrak who got calls up and first caps with the national team because of how they played in the NWSL, and I think that’s great. I think that’s what the league is for,” she said. “I hope more of that happens.”
For now, Sauerbrunn is adjusting to her new role as the team’s defensive leader as legendary CB Christie Rampone’s time in the starting lineup, and career, wind down. Despite her experiences as a captain on youth, collegiate and club teams, adopting a national team leadership role has been a unique challenge. “That’s something that Jill has wanted me to do is become a leader, especially if Christine isn’t in,” Sauerbrunn said. “That’s something I’m learning my way into. It’s tough for me,” she said. “It’s not my temperament to scream and yell and make sure things are happening, so it’s different for me. Putting myself out there and letting people know what’s not good enough, or ‘I need you there and not there,’ that’s something I’m trying to teach myself. But it is getting better. Every day you get better.”
Against Australia tonight, Sauerbrunn plays her first World Cup match as the backbone of the US defense. Again, she’ll lean on club experiences to guide her through.
“We’ve had a lot of time to think about that first game and who we are playing against,” Sauerbrunn told TYAC. “We know how fast (Australia) are and we’ll try to keep them in front of us and protect the space behind,” she said. “I’ve played with (Australian star) Lisa Da Vanna, so I’m familiar with how fast she is, how she has quick feet and likes to drift and move, how spontaneous she can play,” she said. “I think we’ll be ready.”
If Sauerbrunn’s club career is any indication, she certainly will.
Neil W. Blackmon is Co-Founder of The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at nwblackmon@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.