There aren’t many firsts anymore for Abby Wambach.
She’s the second all-time leading international goal-scorer in women’s soccer, three tallies away from tying U.S. legend and former club and country teammate Mia Hamm. Three goals from ending all the hype and getting back to the bigger picture: the team.
”I’m sure I’m going to be glad to be done with it,” the current FIFA World Player of the Year told media after Friday’s training session. ”You know, I’m excited for people to not talk about it as much.”
Always speaking about the team before her individual goals, Wambach will have to do something she has never done before in order to quickly end the #ChasingMia campaign: score against South Korea, an opponent she’s never faced.
[MORE: Big week for Wambach proves she’s ready for stretch run to 2015]
The two teams last played three matches over eight days in November of 2008 as part of the United States’ Olympic gold medal celebration tour, an Olympics Wambach missed after breaking her leg on the eve of the team’s flight to Beijing.
Wambach currently has 155 goals. Tying Hamm at 158 conceivably could be done over a two-game span against a good-not-great Korea Republic team, ranked No. 16 in the world.
If she wants to end the chase and the hype (the media will continue talking about this even when the mark is reached), she’ll need to do it in this mini-series on Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. (7 p.m. ET) and Thursday at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN and Live Extra). These are the last two games for the United States until after the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season; the championship game is August 31.
A familiar bunch for the United States
U.S. coach Tom Sermanni called in a predictable bunch of players for the pair of friendlies, but the roster includes a pair of exciting returnees.
Hope Solo is back on the official training camp roster after undergoing left wrist surgery in early March. Solo already made her return in NWSL, playing in the last two losses for a winless Seattle Reign FC team on an eight-game skid. She also trained with the United States before the team’s 3-0 win over Canada, but was not on the roster for the game, making this training camp Solo’s formal return.
[MORE: Sermanni names 23-player roster for South Korea matches]
Also back (more notably on U.S. soil than anything else) is midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who missed the Canada game to stay in France as Lyon wrapped up its season. Lyon won the French Cup last weekend, though it failed to claim the bigger prize of the Champions League after being upset by Wolfsburg. Rapinoe will play with the U.S. before continuing west to Seattle, where she could make her debut by month’s end.
The main new face is that of University of Virginia midfielder Morgan Brian getting some time in camp with the senior team. Brian was part of the U.S. U-20 team that won the 2012 World Cup, upsetting Germany 1-0 in the final. Brian, a crafty, technical sort of midfielder that would catch the eye of Sermanni, enters her junior year at Virginia this fall.
Getting to know the visitors
With the 2015 World Cup expanded to 24 teams, five will qualify from Asia, giving Korea Republic a very likely chance of making their first appearance since 2003 (especially with their northern neighbors ineligible for the tournament due to a doping scandal).
The visitors have never beaten the United States (0-5-1 all-time).
Keep an eye on forward Ji So-Yun. The 22-year-old was the star of the 2010 U-20 World Cup and currently plays for INAC Kobe Leonessa, the two-time defending champion of Japan. She has a Marta-esk dribbling ability in which the ball sticks to her foot.
Maybe you remember her from that 2010 tournament (you should), when she scored eight goals in six games. Check out the highlights of those goals below, along with a goal she scored for INAC Kobe in 2011 which displays just how good of a dribbler she is: