For USWNT stars in Manchester, it’s all red and blue



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However, the similarities between them are much more pronounced than their new differences. It is revealing, for example, that as long as the four players have adhered to the Mancunian rivalry, when one of them refers to “our team”, the others know that they are talking, above all, of the States- United.

Although the national team have not played a game since March, the four players remain connected not only through frequent Zoom meetings with the coaching staff, but through a shared and deeply rooted culture. “The identity of the team is something you take with you,” Press said. “Every time you play, you have it there. It cannot be lost. We all wear it a little differently.

The reasons that brought them all to Manchester are also common. They are here, on the whole, just to play: to “feel like a normal football player again”, as Heath said, to enjoy what Mewis considers the absolute pleasure “of having games. games and training ”.

No one could have found that by staying in the United States. The National Women’s Soccer League season fell victim to the coronavirus pandemic in March. Although it was eventually replaced with a summer cup competition in Utah and an abbreviated fall series, Heath and Press chose not to participate. That being over, it is not clear at this point when the league will return to the pitch.

As the European leagues began to return, the appeal was obvious. “It has been such a blessing,” Press said. “Tobin and I have been out since March: no team environment, no games. What a joy to run every day on a magnificent grass field, to find a team.

Initially, after months of isolation, Press feared she might find it odd to be in such close contact with her teammates. “It had been so long since I had social contact, I was worried about how I would be that first week just hanging out with people,” she says. But he came back, she said, “quickly, easily and happily.”

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