Olympic soccer: 5 issues it’s best to find out about American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher

She’s the final cease between elation and potential distress.

Whereas each member of the U.S. Olympic girls’s soccer workforce is below some extent of stress, it may be mentioned that nobody is below larger stress than goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

The excellent news for the Individuals is that this isn’t the primary go-around on the Olympic Video games for the 36-year-old who was described by teammate Mallory Swanson as an “extraordinarily detailed-oriented particular person.”

However who’s she? And why is she the only option for the U.S. girls in purpose? Earlier than the workforce kicks off Thursday towards Zambia (3 p.m. ET, Peacock) listed below are 5 issues it’s best to find out about Naeher, the ultimate line of protection in a quest for U.S. Olympic gold.

Her nickname on the U.S. workforce is “Uncle”

You’d suspect it’s as a result of she’s one of many oldest gamers on the workforce, however in response to her teammates its as a result of she was all the time prepared to return over and assist whomever, kinda like your favourite uncle. Why her nickname isn’t “Auntie” is a thriller, however Uncle caught and Naeher mentioned she grew to “embrace it,” so right here we’re.

She has an similar twin sister

Naeher is one among three ladies born to folks, John and Donna Lynn. Her twin sister named Amanda additionally performed soccer in school at Division III Messiah College in Central Pennsylvania, not removed from the place Naeher performed Large Ten soccer as a goalkeeper for Penn State. She additionally has a teenager sister named Abigail, finishing the triple-A Naeher trio.

She’s already an Olympic medalist

It was Naeher, who led the U.S. in 2021 to a bronze medal end on the 2020 Olympics in Toyko. Technically, it was a gaggle effort as Naeher led the Individuals to the semifinals after three ridiculous saves in a quarterfinal shootout towards the Netherlands however suffered an damage within the semifinal recreation towards Canada, the eventual Gold Medal winners.

She’s a shutout queen

Practically two-thirds of her 106 appearances for the senior girls’s nationwide workforce have led to clear sheets when Naeher is in purpose (64). This stems virtually a decade as she acquired her first shutout in her very first look for the U.S., in a win towards Argentina in Brazil on Dec. 18, 2014.

Photograph by Karen Hickey/ISI Photographs/Getty Photos

She’s performed for 2 U.S. girls’s skilled leagues

Naeher acquired her begin within the skilled ranks with the Boston Breakers of the now-defunct Ladies’s Skilled Soccer in 2010. She was despatched to play within the girls’s league in Germany and stayed there after the WPSL folded in 2012. She returned to the States to play for the Breakers once more — however as a part of the brand new Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League forward of the 2014 season. She’s performed the final 9 years of her profession because the goalkeeper for the NWSL’s Chicago Crimson Stars.