The average person can’t say that they have an imprint of their hair on a Nike t-shirt. The average person also can’t say that they have helped make soccer history. Megan Rapinoe can truthfully say both of those statements. Megan “Dennis the menace” Rapinoe also known as Pinoe is a midfielder for the USA’s women’s national team, famous for everything from her hair to crafty playing style.
Megan’s real name is neither Megan “Dennis the menace” Rapinoe nor Pinoe, but really Megan Anna Rapinoe. This earth was blessed with this unique individual and crazy soccer player on July 5, 1985.She was born just 11 minutes after her twin sister, Rachael Rapinoe and being born second makes her the youngest of 6 kids. You can really tell from Megan’s carefree and eccentric attitude that she is the youngest child. Growing up, Megan competed in basketball and track as well as in soccer. Before going to play soccer in college, Megan played with the Elk Grove United. With that team Megan played great, wining State and Regional championships and later on being part of the National runner-up team.
After high school, Megan and sister Rachael decided to go to the University of Portland over Santa Clara. In her freshman year, Megan chose to play with the U-19 national team in the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Cup instead of playing with the Pilots and her sister. I believe that was definitely the right decision considering she helped bring the team to 3 place in the tournament. Megan scored a total of 3 goals, including one against Brazil, a tough team to play. Megan ended her career on the U-19 team with 21 caps, or appearances and 19 goals for the team.
Going back to the Pilots, Megan played only 3 full seasons due to injuries to her ACL that she suffered in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 Megan had only played 2 games when she hurt her ACL. The irony of her injury was that her sister Rachael had suffered an identical injury just 1 week before. Since the Rapinoe twins have a competitive nature they worked hard to make sure they were the best in surgery and rehab.
So, Megan finished her Pilots career with 88 career points, 30 goals and 28 assists. The reason that this stands out is because Megan is 10th best in Portland’s soccer history despite only playing 3 full seasons or 60 games. During just her senior year Megan was named a Soccer America First-Team All –American and a NCSAA Second Team All-American. I would name more awards that she’s won but I don’t want to bore you or make Megan sound too pompous.
Because Megan missed an entire season with the Pilots, she received a medical hardship waiver by the NCAA.Megan never used her medical hardship waiver she because chose to be part of the 2009 WPS draft instead. In case you don’t know what the WPS is, I’ll tell you. WPS stands for Women’s Professional Soccer. Even though the WPS is based in the USA, female soccer players come from everywhere to play on its teams. With players coming from great soccer countries its quite hard to be first or second pick overall. So, going into her first draft I doubt Megan was excepting to be picked 2 overall in the first round. After competing her first season with the Chicago Red Stars, Megan was named a WPS First-Team All-Star.
Her last couple of seasons she performed exceptionally, scoring some crucial goals for her team. During those 2 WPS seasons Megan played for the Chicago Red Stars, the Philadelphia Independence and later on, MagicJack. Her trade to MagicJack was one of the most expensive in the history of the WPS.
While Megan played with the WPS she was also busy playing and practicing with USA’s Women’s National team. Megan played four matches in 2006 but she suffered an injury to her anterior crucial ligament so she couldn’t play with the national team for another 2 years. Megan returned to the national team with a bang, scoring 2 goals, including a winning goal against Norway. In 2010 and 2011 Megan really started to become an impact player for the team. In 2010 Pinoe made a very important assist during CONCACAF World Cup qualifying assuring the USA a spot in the World Cup. During the WWC or Women’s World Cup, Megan scored a great goal against Colombia. Her most famous and celebrated moment in the entire tournament was her game tying assist to Abby Wambach. The assist was so important because if the USA hadn’t tied that game they would have been out of the competition completely. The other reason I and the rest of the world find that assist so awful is because if was in the 122 minute, extremely late in the game.
The other thing that Megan was famous for during the WWC was her goal celebrations. After Megan scored against Colombia, she did something I would never dare to do. She sang in front of the world. Megan grabbed a field mike and after testing it she sang “Born in the USA!!” But Megan didn’t stop at singing; she kicked corner flags, slid around the field and did all sorts of crazy things to help celebrate her team’s goals.
?Megan has helped the team qualify for the London Olympics in 2012 by scoring 1 goal in the CONCACAF women’s Olympic qualifying. In between now and the Olympics the USA will compete in the Algarve cup. I’m really hoping to see some great soccer and competition because the USA will be playing Japan. Japan beat the USA in the WWC finals and Megan and the others on her team are looking for redemption. I would definitely recommend watching the Megan Rapinoe play soccer if you are looking for some amazing soccer, eccentric personality and some stunning goal celebrations. Of course, now that you know more about Megan you can truly appreciate her performance of the field!