Team's Soul Soars Despite a Lesser Role

During this women's World Cup, Abby Wambach, the soul of the U.S. women's team, called herself clairvoyant. A seer. A fortune teller.

But did she foresee the U.S. team beating Japan, 5-2, to win its first World Cup since 1999, in a match that was 4-0 even before the first half was half over? No way. (Match report | Obama leads praise)

And did she know she would spend most of this World Cup on the bench, called upon as a substitute only in the late stages of some games? Definitely not. (In pics: Meet the men behind success of US women's team)

We will give her a break for not envisioning everything. And Wambach probably doesn't care, either. At 35, after so many years of working and waiting, all she wanted to do was win this World Cup.

And now, after 14 years on the national team, she finally has - but not because of her soccer savvy or her brilliant headers that made the United States team so dangerous in years past. This time, the victory came on the backs of her teammates.

Like Carli Lloyd, the U.S. star of this tournament who, wearing the captain's armband, scored three times on Sunday. Or Hope Solo, who, despite her off-the-field problems, did her job between the posts. Or Julie Johnston, the plucky young defender who made a name for herself within the past month.

But you know what makes Wambach such a great athlete, and what has lifted her above the sport and made her an icon? It's the fact that she has scored more international goals than anyone in history but was fine with her teammates stealing her spotlight this time around. Other stars might have acted awkwardly in their lesser role, but Wambach showed great character in coming to grips with being a substitute.

She did score the United States' only goal in its final group game against Nigeria. But for most of this tournament, Wambach has been at the edges of the matches, and most likely on the edge of her seat on the bench, those blue eyes peeking in.

"Now I understand what my parents have been going through all these years," she said of her new spot on the team on the bench. "But I appreciate it. I'm taking it in. I'm not upset. I accept my role."

Sunday's game was most likely Wambach's final World Cup game ever. She's 35 and admits that her "days are ticking" when it comes to her job as a professional soccer player. So when she was benched for the first time - against Sweden during the group round at this World Cup - she probably wasn't thrilled.

No one of her stature would be.

When she took the field for warm-ups for that game, she walked a bit behind the substitutes, who ran out ahead of her. Was it a sign of her reluctance to sit on the bench in a World Cup match for the first time since 2003? Maybe yes, maybe no, but a superstar like her must have felt strange to go out there with the second-stringers, all wearing that hideous FIFA bib.

But to her credit, Wambach, a vocal leader, hardly missed a step as the tournament proceeded and the games grew more important. She wasn't sour, didn't mope.

Instead, her voice as the team's biggest cheerleader only grew stronger, with more conviction. She remained fiery, just  as she was when she led the losing battle to persuade FIFA to hold this World Cup on real grass, not turf, because the women deserved the best playing surface.

In the team's quarterfinal against China, the score was tied at halftime when she told her teammates - using R-rated language - that they needed to score within the first 10 minutes of the second half if they wanted to win. Six minutes later, Lloyd obliged.

Then, the day of the semifinal against Germany, she randomly told Johnston, "We're all going to make mistakes. Don't worry about it. We have each other's backs."

That was not long before Johnston fouled a German player, which led to a penalty kick that Germany's Celia Sasic missed. Later, Wambach said that the American team had indeed been there for Johnston, that Solo had taken so much time to prepare for the penalty kick that it psyched out Sasic.

After that game, a 2-0 victory for the Americans, Wambach seemed to stand a little taller than her 5-foot-11 frame. She had become the team's resident prophet.

It would have been nice, though, if Wambach could have seen this World Cup victory coming. That way, she wouldn't have carried around so much angst for so many years about what she has described as a giant hole in her resume: no World Cup titles.

Her mother, Judy Wambach, has said her daughter felt that a world championship needed to be on her resume to "validate her" and for her career to be complete. Understandable, yes. Realistic, no.

Abby Wambach did not need this victory to make her career.

Even before Sunday's victory, she was one of the top soccer players in history, with more goals than legends like Mia Hamm or Pele, or anyone else you can think of. So many more than the top scoring American man, Landon Donovan, who, with 57 international goals, would need 126 more to match Wambach's feat.

Her storybook moments have been many, including what could be argued as the toughest and most breathtaking goal in U.S. soccer history. That came in the World Cup quarterfinal in 2011, against Brazil.

In the 122nd minute of the game, in the final seconds of overtime, the Americans were a goal, and a player, down, when midfielder Megan Rapinoe shot a long crossing from about 45 yards away, toward the far side of the goal. Brazil's goalkeeper lunged for the ball, but there was Wambach, already midair.

She had calculated the arc of that ball perfectly, so much so that she headed it directly into the goal, past the helpless goalkeeper. The United States went on to win the game on penalty kicks, and made it to the finals, only to lose to Japan on penalty kicks.

Again and again, Wambach has said that to finish her career without a World Cup victory would be devastating. To keep that from happening, she has been all in, all the time, unafraid of how her effort might crush her, if the United States were to lose.

"It's like love," she said.

And this time, unlike the past, her heart was not broken.

Instead, as she had long hoped and maybe even dreamed, she ended her World Cup with her and her teammates cheering and her heart bursting.

© 2015 New York Times News Service