SheBelievesCup US Kickoff: Sibling Achievements on and Off the Field
To the annoyance of some and the pride of others, women’s soccer has always been about more than just the sport. Nowhere in the country does this seem to be truer than in Southern California where, not for the first time, two sisters have risen to the United States Women’s National Team. Kickoff begins today at 5:00 PM in a Japan v Australia match, with the US team playing their first SheBelievesCup game at 8:00 PM tonight against Columbia. The tournament is not only a chance for four internationally acclaimed teams to continue to unending competition, but also an illustration of sibling achievement on and off the field.
The Thompson siblings, twenty-year-old Alyssa and nineteen-year-old Gisele are this year’s dynamic duo of the season. Already remarkable as the first high schoolers to receive an NIL—name, image, and likeness—deal with Nike, they are also the youngest players on this year’s USWNT for the SheBelievesCup. The biggest difference between the two seems only to be their positions, with the eldest taking up the forward mast and the younger covering the back. Alyssa’s game debut was at the 80,000-seat Wembley Stadium subbing in for Megan Rapinoe, an achievement in and of itself. Since then, it’s clear the new player has talent, but this tournament should be a moment to better understand what exactly it is this rookie brings to the team. Head coach Emma Hayes stated in an interview that she was still figuring out where Alyssa is going to shine and working on “understanding the way we want to play”.
Believe it or not, Alyssa and Gisele are not the first siblings to play on the USWNT together. That title belongs to Lorrie and Ronnie Fair, also from Southern California, back in 1997. Lorri Fair would go on to win the 1999 Women’s FIFA World Cup — a watershed achievement in US sports history. Yet Lorrie Fair’s athletic prowess was only the beginning of her career. She would later go on to earn a MA in public administration from UNC and become the sports envoy for the US Department of State. Now a San Jose Sports Hall of Famer, Lorrie Fair Allen has turned her personal success into something bigger, focusing on social justice, and equality, and promoting the women’s game globally.
If the Thompson siblings are not following the model set by Fair Allen, then they are making a pretty good impression of one. The rising star sisters have openly discussed their intentions to go beyond the world of soccer. “We’re so young in our careers and it’s hard to think about what we want to do after. We want to be financially stable. With everything that has come our way, we just want us in the future to be OK with the decisions we made before”. It’s telling that, even while being at the start of their careers, such ambitions are not reserved for seasoned athletes anymore. Still, before any dreams of off-field achievement can be realized, we need to wait and see how the players perform on the field this evening. The ball drops at 8:00 PM EST against Columbia.
