Reduced role doesn't stop Wambach from being USA's inspirational leader

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Kelley O'Hara has gone through what could be called The Abby Wambach Bench Experience.

The two sit at the end of the bench together during matches – the joke is they are cordoned off down there because they're both so vociferous – and it got so tense during the United States' semifinal victory over Germany that Wambach grabbed O'Hara's arm. Very tightly.

"Abby," O'Hara said, "do not injure me."

It hasn't been the easiest of Women's World Cups for Wambach, who arrived as the biggest name on the team (save perhaps Alex Morgan) and was relegated to the bench as the offense found its rhythm. She doesn't mind the lack of playing time so much as having to watch the fate of her biggest soccer dream playing out right in front of her. On Friday, she called her spectator role "nerve-wracking" and "brutal."

"It has taken years off my life," Wambach said to chuckles from the press.

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But there's something quite powerful in how Wambach has handled this transition. She will ultimately be judged on the outcome of Sunday's World Cup final against Japan. The game is, to be blunt, the epitaph on her soccer journey. When asked before the tournament if she needed a World Cup title to cement her legacy, Wambach flatly replied, "Damn right I need it." And yet she may have a downsized on-field role in the biggest game of her career.

It has been a lesson to her – to her teammates and to young soccer players – on how to step back with grace and leadership.

"It's pretty amazing to me," Morgan said, "because to me, growing up, I didn't handle it so well."

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There are plenty of aging stars who steer their reputations into a ditch because they don't want to let go. How many of the greatest competitors want to be told to compete less? For Wambach, the difficulty is greater because the one stinging moment in an otherwise sterling career was the fall-from-ahead loss to Japan in the 2011 World Cup final. It was Wambach who put the U.S. ahead 2-1 in extra time, only to see the lead vanish in the final minutes of regulation and the ensuing deadlock segue to a devastating loss on penalties.

Four years later, she mentioned the day of that match – July 17, 2011 – and said it's the only game she's ever played where she recalls the date it took place.

"It's always there," Wambach said. "That's what happens with heartbreak."

It would be easy to say Sunday's game is one important moment in a career full of them, but Wambach has gone all-in. She has said this is the game she wants more than anything. And it's a match she may not be able to impact nearly as much as she'd like.

"Who knows if I'm going to be on the field or not," Wambach said. "But I have to prepare as if I'm starting. I have to prepare that if I'm not starting that I'm going to go on the field and make the difference. Big players show up for the big moments."

In a way, she has responded to those moments more off the field than on it.

Morgan, during a trying rehab before the tournament, turned to Wambach for support when it didn't look like her injured knee was progressing as fast as everyone wanted. After a scoreless first half in the quarterfinal against China, Wambach emphatically told the team to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Carli Lloyd did just that in what proved to be a transformational goal for a side that was searching for an identity with the soccer icon on the bench.

Even on the way here to the destination the U.S. always anticipated, Wambach reminded her teammates that "we haven't won anything yet." Surely, there are countless other little moments the public will never know about.

Wambach met with head coach Jill Ellis before the World Cup and said, "Whatever you need, I'll deliver." That need has shifted dramatically. As the Americans slogged through an unimpressive group stage, their offensive struggles became a referendum on Wambach herself. The strategic focus on the wayward long balls forward and hopeful crosses into the box started to represent the Ellis system being stuck in the past. Former U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage recalled to the New York Times that she told Wambach "you would be a sub" if she was still in charge. Then came Wambach's self-described "shank" of a penalty kick during the Colombia game that only stirred the impatience further.

Yet since the changes to the starting XI and formation, the 35-year-old Wambach has been a new kind of leader. She has put zero visible heat on the much-maligned Ellis, saying Friday that "Our coaching staff was impeccable" in the Germany win. Even though Lloyd's cross in the second half of that game would have previously gone to Wambach, watching O'Hara score delighted the veteran leader.

"I couldn't be happier for Kelley O'Hara," Wambach said. "More than I was for myself."

And she even made a point to acknowledge the tectonics with U.S. Soccer – the ground shifting away from her. The fulcrum of this attack is no longer going to be Abby Wambach in the years ahead; it will be Morgan Brian, or Julie Johnston. "There's something that's happening here," Wambach said, "It's a new generation."

There still might be an enormous role for Wambach to play on Sunday. The Japan attack is withering and it often breaks teams down in the last few minutes of a game. That is when Wambach is most likely to take the field – perhaps back in a situation just like the one from 2011.

If the U.S. is down a goal – something that hasn't happened in this tournament – the team will need Wambach for her scoring touch and her emotional ballast. And it is possible that she will be called on for a penalty shootout. If there is a Brandi Chastain moment, it might fall to Wambach to own it.

"I want to be remembered as an authentic team player," Wambach said. "Whether I was the go-to player, whether I was the rookie, whether I was the kid who couldn't shut up and literally needed to be told to shut up many times by some coaches and teammates. Olympic champion. Would do anything for anybody, give the shirt off my own back for them. And of course, last but not least: a World Cup champion. That's what I want my legacy to be and we're a couple days away from seeing if that happens."

If it does happen, she'll be remembered for Sunday. And even if it doesn't happen, she'll be remembered for all the large and little ways she helped her teammates get to Sunday.

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