23 Things We Only Just Learned about the USWNT

The Women’s World Cup is set to kick off in Edmonton, Canada, on June 6 and the USWNT has high expectations of bringing home the trophy and adding a third star above the U.S. crest. With Coach Jill Ellis naming her 23-player roster two weeks ago, U.S. Soccer has released their One Nation. One Team. 23 Stories video series highlighting each player as they did with the Men’s team last summer before their World Cup.

Personally, I thought I knew a lot about the team and the players but there were some interesting gems that caught me by surprise. Here’s 23 of them.

1. Alex Morgan had, among other pets, a rat and gerbil, which didn’t leave much of an impression on her.

2. Sydney Lereux’s first tattoo was of a flaming soccer ball on her back that she was allowed to get at age 14 after winning a bet with her mom.

3. Christie Rampone embraces her mom instincts when it comes to being captain of the USWNT.

4. Hope Solo didn’t always love playing goalkeeper.

5. Growing up Becky Sauerbrunn was a makeshift goalkeeper …

... with plywood shields and couch cushions, for her brothers playing roller hockey.

6. Kelley O’Hara wanted to live at home with mom and dad forever.

So innocent!

7. Whitney Engen’s parents constructed homemade obstacle courses for her and her brother.

Wondering aloud if they might want to adopt me.

8. Shannon Boxx plays at the top national level with lupus.

Pretty incredible if you ask me.

9. Amy Rodriguez’ son Ryan is the cutest.

10. Heather O’Reily’s gameface runs in the family.

11. Carli Lloyd thinks New Jersey has some of the best pizza and food.

Really, Carli? New Jersey?

12. Ali Krieger has a ton of heart and fight in her, but we already knew that.

Could not love her more.

13. Lauren Holiday had open-heart surgery when she was three years old.

14. Morgan Brian’s favorite show was, and still is, SpongeBob SquarePants.

15. Megan Rapinoe is a crawdad fishing expert.

Who knew?

16. Lori Chalupny credits being on the youth national team for pushing her out of her shell.

17. Tobin Heath is a homebody without a home.

I’ve got a couch in Texas, just saying.

18. Ashlyn Harris socked a bully with a fish. My kind of girl!

19. Julie Johnston finally had a competitive edge on her older sister when she grew taller than her.

20. Abby Whambach’s older sister Beth has bragging rights to a championship banner in their high school alma mater.

21. Alyssa Naeher has quite a memorable first soccer practice story.

22. Meghan Klingenberg performed a nun chucks routine to N’SYNC for her 5th grade talent show.

I think we need video evidence or it didn’t happen.

23. Christen Press found out the Women’s Professional Soccer league folded and that she was unemployed in an email.

This is probably similar to how Carrie Bradshaw felt getting broken up by with a post-it note.

23 stories, 23 reasons to love the USWNT! I believe!