There was a constant refrain all week: The NWSL Championship was poised for a poetic finale between two of the game’s greatest players. Megan Rapinoe and Ali Krieger would play against each other for another trophy in the final game of their respective careers. “You couldn’t write a better ending,” Gotham forward Lynn Williams said Friday, with a smile. It was supposed to be the last chance to give flowers to two players in real time, regardless of who won.
But just two minutes and 25 seconds into Saturday night’s showdown at Snapdragon Stadium in front of a raucous, record-breaking 25,011 fans, Rapinoe’s chance to make her half of the story ended abruptly and without warning . During an offensive rush, Rapinoe slipped and fell to the field with an apparent non-contact injury. He grabbed his lower right leg, first in disbelief and then with a typical ironic smile.
“It sucks,” Rapinoe said after the game, her right foot stuck in a boot. “I don’t think there are any good things to say about it or a silver lining.
“I felt good. I’ve actually felt the best I’ve felt all season the last couple of weeks. I didn’t feel tight in my calf or Achilles or anything. So, in classic form, I was like, ‘Fuck, who just kicked me?’ There’s no one, I’m the one pressing, there’s no one around me. So, I had this immediate thought and then I went to feel down (there), there’s nothing there. “I don’t really think I needed a scan (to know that maybe it was a torn Achilles tendon).”
While receiving boots and crutches at halftime, Rapinoe sent a few messages to her mother and girlfriend Sue Bird, allowing the rest of the team to talk about the plan for the second half. “I wasn’t overly emotional about it,” Rapinoe said. “I mean, I blew my Achilles in the sixth minute of my last game ever in the literal championship game.”
Before Rapinoe walked off the court for the final time, she limped over to Krieger and exchanged a hug, somehow still smiling that familiar smile. For his part, Krieger said he encouraged Rapinoe to wrap her leg to get back out there, that she never expected something like this to happen.
“Football is a risk, right? You never know if it’s going to be your last game, your last moment, and if it’s going to happen to such an incredible player, in that moment, when there was such preparation,” Krieger said.
It was hard, as Rapinoe carefully walked off the court, not to think about anything Krieger had mentioned in a pre-game press conference about why she was still playing despite all the wins and all the hardships she had faced in her career. “I’m giving everything I have and you don’t necessarily get everything back in return. So you have to have the will and the drive to want to do it for yourself because you love it,” he said.
Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe end their careers together. (Photo by Ben Nichols/Getty Images)
Rapinoe hasn’t always gotten much out of the game this year. He missed the penalty during the USWNT’s World Cup loss to Sweden this summer. He had never missed a penalty before that moment. Like Saturday, that night in Melbourne ended with tears and laughter and that note of disbelief that such a trusted part of his game had let her down at such an important moment. But on Saturday, it seemed like nothing more than a fluke, a wrong step, something she could never have predicted or even attempted to avoid.
The moment affected the match for both teams. “When I saw her put her head back,” said Gotham forward and game MVP Midge Purce, “I saw her fall (first), and it was really sad. Then one of the girls on their team started crying, and I turned to (Yazmeen Ryan), and I said let’s go to her because she was clearly upset. It’s hard. I think it definitely affected them a lot.
Purce helped Gotham take the lead later in that half, setting up Lynn Williams’ first goal through three OL Reign defenders. Rose Lavelle equalized, but Purce again set up the go-ahead goal, giving her team the lead before halftime, one they would never relinquish.
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Gotham FC won the NWSL title and Midge Purce dominated the night
After the match, when Lavelle walked through the mixed zone, clearly feeling different emotions about the loss, she had to pause for a moment to collect herself before answering a question about Rapinoe.
“It seems like a sick joke that it has to end that way,” he said. “It was an honor to be able to share the court with her, so I wish we could have done it today. Is fantastic; she doesn’t deserve it. “I think with all of that, she takes it wholeheartedly and is still our biggest fan out there.”
During the post-match press conference, Lavelle sat next to Rapinoe as the former Ballon d’Or winner faced adversity the only way she knows how, through humor.
“I mean, I don’t deserve this,” Rapinoe said with a laugh. “I’m a better person than this, maybe I was fucking in a previous life. …This feels different to missing a (penalty) in New Zealand. I mean, again, it’s like life. “Its part of the game.”
There’s only one Megan Rapinoe 👑
⭐️11 year NWSL career with OL Reign
⭐️ 117 regular season games for the Kingdom
⭐️ 52 NWSL goals
⭐️Presidential Medal of Freedom
⭐️Olympic Champion
⭐️ Ballon d’Or
⭐️ Supporter of gender equality
⭐️ 2x World Cup Winner pic.twitter.com/EqEi9t6gcI— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) November 12, 2023
Just over 24 hours earlier, Rapinoe had burst out laughing when asked why she and her teammates had never managed to win an NWSL championship before, despite two previous appearances in 2014 and 2015 and a string of semifinal losses. “T… it’s difficult,” she had said, a simple enough explanation. A real one.
Saturday night was more of the same.
She also got another question, one she’s heard time and time again in the long stretch of games since announcing her retirement before the World Cup, during her last match with the USWNT and the sending-off ceremony with the Reign. What, exactly, is his legacy?
And as always, he still hesitated to answer in the way any journalist would really want: a tidy summary of his career, his successes off the field, his personality, his refusal to put himself in a box.
“Oh, that’s on you guys,” she replied. «I… I don’t know. I’ve always tried to play the right way. I’ve always tried to enjoy it. Ultimately, I feel like we’re in the world of entertainment, and especially in a growing sport and league, I feel like this is really important. Always try to make things better.
“I walk away so proud and happy not only with my contribution to the game, but also with the era I played in, knowing that the game is in a better place. That’s a testament to all the players that have played in this generation and in this league,” he said, pointing to the league’s new media deal, the quality of the games. “I feel like I can walk away smiling, no matter what, I really do proud of my entire career.”
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So perhaps it was fitting that in one of her last quotes as a gamer, she gave a quintessential Megan Rapinoe response to a question about the game she’s now leaving behind, at least as a gamer.
“This is what we built, the players who played in my generation, this is part of our legacy and what we leave behind. What is now here for kids to take and do what they want with it. But I feel like we’ve left them with a pretty solid blueprint for them to continue to not only grow the game and make it the biggest league in the world, but also influence change off the field and continue to couple that with who they are. doing on the field,” Rapinoe said.
“I’m a proud, gay aunt who looks down on the league and says, ‘Damn, we did good.’ But they will be able to go further.”
And with that, Rapinoe, for the first time in over a decade, fulfilled her responsibilities as a professional soccer player.
“I guess I just turned it until the wheels fell off,” Rapinoe said. “You don’t always get perfect endings, but I’ve had plenty of them.”
(Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)