The final whistle blew in Lyon, the players rushed the field and the U.S. women’s national team were World Cup champions yet again.
At the heart of the USWNT celebrations was Rose Lavelle, who sealed her team’s 2-0 victory over the Netherlands with a superb individual run and fine finish into the bottom corner.
The World Cup final was the big payoff at the end of a frustrating two-year spell for the midfielder, who battled hamstring injuries for much of that span.
After such a long road to recovery, Lavelle thought the perfect denouement might leave her feeling overwhelmed when the final whistle blew. Instead, she just sort of brushed the whole World Cup champion thing off.
“I expected when it was all over to be so emotional and crying from happiness and all that,” Lavelle told Goal, “and I was just kind of like, ‘We did it. Cool.’”
That Lavelle kept such an even keel after an achievement that few will ever accomplish shouldn’t come as a surprise.
She has an easygoing nature about her on the field and off. But that disposition belies a struggle that played out through months of agonizing rehab and mental fragility.
Lavelle finally returned to the USWNT picture in the summer of 2018 – a year after suffering a hamstring injury that was followed by a series of frustrating setbacks.
However, the Lavelle that returned was not the freewheeling player that burst onto the scene in early 2017. She had quickly become a fan favorite with her array of feigns, stepovers, and shoulder drops that could embarrass an opponent like few of her peers.
But that version of Lavelle was replaced with a timid, fragile player who was afraid to make mistakes – a death knell for any creative player.
“I came back and I was just awful,” Lavelle confesses. “I wasn’t having fun and I wasn’t enjoying it. My whole life playing soccer I’ve never felt so uncomfortable on the ball.”
“Before [the injury], it was just like everything was innate,” Lavelle continued. “It was natural and I just did what I saw and played what I felt like was on.
"Then, I came back from my injury and I felt like I was overthinking everything. For how physically hard it was to come back, it was 10 times harder mentally.”
With her confidence sapped, Lavelle began to see a sports psychologist.
The goal was to be recentered. To not get too high on the highs and too low on the lows. To realize that there would be setbacks; that growth wouldn’t be linear. And to be okay with all of that.
Mallory Pugh, Lavelle’s teammate with the USWNT and the Washington Spirit, as well as her roommate at home in suburban D.C., saw her close friend’s experience firsthand.
“I know that Rose has had a tough path to get to where she is now,” Pugh said this summer. “I live with her at home, so just seeing all the work and just the way she has truly grown into the player she is, it's inspiring for me and it makes me want to be better.”
Pugh said she cried when she saw Lavelle score in her World Cup debut against Thailand.
“There were a lot of ups and downs,” Lavelle admits. “But then, I think those ups and downs prepared me more for adversity and made me better.”
More adversity would arrive on the biggest stage imaginable. Lavelle was back to her best by the World Cup semifinal, having rediscovered the form that made her an automatic starter in the USWNT’s highly competitive midfield.
Midway through the second half against England – a game in which she was at her free-flowing peak – Lavelle went down with an injury.
“I remember looking at [head coach] Jill [Ellis] and being like, ‘I need a sub now,’” Lavelle recalls.
It was her hamstring.
“After that game, like two days before the World Cup final, I didn't think I was going to be able to play at all,” Lavelle reveals. “Especially with the history of my hamstring, it’s so unpredictable.
“I remember the practice two days before. I was just like, ‘I don't think I’m going to be able to [play] because I’m scared to sprint right now.’”
Getty/Goal
But then something inexplicable happened. With time quickly running out, Lavelle’s hamstring problem evaporated.
“I honestly have no idea what happened because my hamstring felt great,” Lavelle says. “I have no clue. I have no explanation for it.”
Lavelle went the full 90 against the Netherlands, scored a signature goal and suddenly, she was a star.
Having gone into the tournament as a relative unknown, she became one of the faces of the USWNT. On this particular team, that has a resonance that goes far beyond the sporting world.
In the United States and across the globe, the USWNT transcends sports. A relatively small percentage of the American populace could tell you what position Alex Morgan plays, but a significantly larger number knows about the team’s fight for pay equity, their stance on LGBT rights and Megan Rapinoe’s feud with Donald Trump over the summer.
The team’s veterans take the brunt of the questions when it comes to societal issues – a fact that Lavelle was especially thankful for during the media cauldron that is a World Cup.
“You just have to constantly be on your A-game because you don’t want to say something that’s going to be misconstrued,” Lavelle explains. “[The team’s veterans] did that so well during the World Cup and made it so that everyone else didn’t have to worry about it.
“I remember going into press conferences and media stuff, I'd always be so scared of getting asked those questions but I don't think I ever ended up getting asked a lot of those questions, because those got directed more towards the older players.”
Getty/Goal
But the USWNT is quickly entering a phase of transition.
Several of the team’s key players and most vocal spokeswomen are in their 30s, including Morgan, Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press and Becky Sauerbrunn. A new generation of leaders will eventually have to fill the void.
Though she was reluctant to play that role in France, Lavelle knows she could be called upon to be a more prominent voice in the coming years.
“I always think when I hear [the team’s veterans] speaking just how smart they are and how much they know,” Lavelle enthuses. “It makes me realize how much I still need to learn.
“Being in that position has made me realize that I need to hold myself accountable and make myself learn and know as much as possible, so that if I ever am in that same situation I can hold myself the same way that they do.”
It is exceedingly likely that Lavelle will, in fact, find herself in the same situation in the future. She’s still just 24 and has established herself as one of the world’s best, all while coming through her injury spell with a stronger mentality.
It hasn’t come naturally but Lavelle’s calm demeanor allowed her to come back stronger from a devastating injury, get through a major scare before a World Cup final and even take a world title in a comfortable stride.
“During the World Cup, it was so stressful, so when the whistle blew we could finally just take a breath and enjoy the moment,” Lavelle says.
“In that moment, it was just our time to celebrate and be with each other. That was probably why I was just more like, ‘I can breathe again.’”