Since 2019, and even before, if you called the U.S. women’s national team “Megan Rapinoe’s team” you would have had plenty of evidence to back up the claim on and off the field. Her performances and voice were often the loudest, the most brash and the most impactful. Whether it was dominating the 2019 World Cup or advocating for equal pay or trans rights, she was there.
But you could use that last sentence to describe another USWNT legend: Becky Sauerbrunn. If any player has left an indelible footprint on this program, it is Sauerbrunn in her role at center back, where she was the ultimate backstop for both club and country. She’s been referred to by various teammates as quiet and cerebral — Portland Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg called her “a constant stream of information” — yet her actions have spoken amid the calm. If Rapinoe was the person unafraid of the spotlight, Sauerbrunn was the one leading in the shadows.
However, the two were far from opposites. In her 2023 retirement press conference, Rapinoe, who had mostly been her usual jaunty self, began crying as she spoke about leaving behind Sauerbrunn.
“It is particularly difficult to even just talk about what Becky means to me,” Rapinoe said through tears. “As a person, as a player, we’ve been playing together since I think we were like 16 years old. You just go through so much.
“It’s hard to imagine not being Becky’s teammate. Whoever (was) captain, I was like, ‘Whatever, Becky’s my captain.’ Whether she wears the armband or not, whether I’m wearing it or not, even when I’m wearing it, I’m like ‘Becky’s captain.’ She’s just such an incredible leader, person, and I think just an amazing example for everyone.”
Megan Rapinoe spoke about how Becky Sauerbrunn was always her captain. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
The veteran defender is the only player to make more than 150 appearances in the NWSL and the USWNT, according to Opta. She’s a four-time NWSL Defender of the Year and three-time league champion. She’s also an Olympic gold medalist and World Cup winner. Many of her teammates have credited her with leading the team.
Still, Sauerbrunn has never commanded the headlines by nature of her more subdued position on the field in defense, but she has always known how and when to press her finger on the scales. You might not see or hear her in the moment, but looking back, you realize just how much pressure she exerted.
Sauerbrunn has never been too afraid to take a stand for the things she believes. In 2017, during the first Trump administration, she condemned Islamophobia and attempts to deny aid to refugees from Muslim-majority countries. That same year she joined Megan Rapinoe in kneeling during the U.S. anthem to protest anti-Black police brutality, as well as staying in the locker room during the anthem for an NWSL game. She was also an important part of the leadership group during the USWNT’s equal pay fight. Before their 2019 lawsuit, she joined four other players in a 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint over being paid less than then men. In 2022, she was one of the first players to sign the collective bargaining agreement that signified equal pay between the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams.
Becky Sauerbrunn was at the forefront of the USWNT’s fight for equal pay. (Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
In 2021 she joined a large group of female athletes asking the Supreme Court to protect abortion rights and wrote a 2023 op-ed for the Springfield News-Leader advocating to allow trans girls and women to play sports in her home state of Missouri.
Amid all of that, Sauerbrunn built an on-field career as one of the most respected center backs in the world. Her lack of flash was what made her so good. She saw the developing angles and shut down attacking options before they developed. Her ability to scan the field, read runs, and anticipate distribution was superb. She could time a last-ditch tackle just as well as anyone, but it was her ability to close down players, narrowing their angles of approach and funneling them where she wanted them to go, that was so effective.
For a player who was suddenly thrust into a 2011 World Cup game after starting defender Rachel Buehler got a red card, Sauerbrunn’s following decade of dominance at her position was astounding. She went from a player who admitted she couldn’t strike a long ball in college — as related to former teammate Sam Mewis on The Women’s Game podcast — to a player who engendered complete trust and reliability during the peak of her career. Four different USWNT head coaches came to rely on her through her 219 caps.
And it’s that very reliability that perhaps makes this retirement of the year — in an unprecedented year of transition among the USWNT — so jarring.
As much as we could all see it coming after Sauerbrunn’s last year on the field with the Thorns, there has always been a comfort to seeing her face on a backline. Sauerbrunn would probably be the first to say that comfort is death in sports, and that great teams should always be seeking uncomfortability in the pursuit of better. But for a fan, for someone who watches a game out of love, sometimes Sauerbrunn’s presence just felt like the ultimate security.
She is going out on her terms though, and that’s all any player can ask for. She called it “a soccer player ending” on The Women’s Game, getting to finish out a season with a playoff run and all the focus on the field. From where she began, playing professional soccer on high school fields with lines and getting dressed in trailers, to now with a thriving league and players’ union and equal pay for the national team, what else is there to do but look forward?
Sauerbrunn recently posted on her Instagram about joining a broadcast boot camp, and she’s already established a media presence through her work on Mewis’ podcast. Undoubtedly she’ll enter this new world with all the intelligence, integrity and dedication she showed in her career as a player, and we’ll all be richer for it.
(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
