She bagged 27 in her first three games in youth soccer. Her acumen for scoring goals was obvious, and ominous, from the start. And it wasn’t just that young Abby was fearless (she was, and remained so throughout a near two-decade career in college, pro and the National Team). “That’s really how the game came into our family.” When Abby’s oldest sister Beth wanted to play the game, mom and dad went to the public library and checked out, “’How to Play Soccer’, I think the book was called,” laughed Wambach, once a Women’s World Cup winner and twice an Olympic gold medalist. The Wambachs weren’t stepped in soccer culture or know-how. It helped me get noticed and give me a sense of worthiness.” ‘How to Play Soccer’ – by the Book “But when you’re a kid in a big family, it’s part of your job to figure out how the whole system runs and your part in it,” said Wambach, who found an identity early in the game. On the surface, her slide into the game was in no way noteworthy – the usual route through local rec leagues. Her earliest memories are of being carted from one sporting event to another on mom or dad’s hip, watching her siblings perform on basketball and volleyball courts.
“They all played in fast forward, and I was like a turtle trying to catch up and always falling behind and not knowing what was going on.”īorn in a Pittsford, a small town in upstate New York near Rochester, Wambach was the youngest of seven children in a sports-crazy family. “I was terrified because I was the by far the worst player there,” said Wambach, ever humble and searching for answers, about her first call-up to the U.S.
It’s curious then, that on the eve of her inevitable induction in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, she chose first to consider the doubts that plagued her early in her career.
No one, man or woman, has scored more international goals than Abby Wambach.
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