The Interview: Alex Morgan on Joining the San Diego Wave and How the NWSL Needs to Protect Its Players
Alex Morgan is 32 now, which is kind of hard for me to believe since I started covering her when she was 20. But she’s most definitely a leader on the USWNT and in the NWSL. This week she joined the expansion San Diego Wave and returned to her roots in Southern California. I caught up with her to talk about why she made the move, what she wants the NWSL to do to start protecting its players, and how she’s seeing the year ahead with the USWNT.
Grant Wahl:
Our guest now is Alex Morgan, the U.S women's national team star who just joined the San Diego Wave of the NWSL. Alex, congrats on the move and thanks for coming on the show!
Alex Morgan:
Yeah, thanks for having me, excited to be here in San Diego and with you.
Grant Wahl:
Yes, thank you, I appreciate that. So you're from Southern California originally. Your husband, Servando Carrasco, is from the San Diego area, San Diego obviously makes sense for you to be there. Could you lead me through how this move came together?
Alex Morgan:
Honestly, we always saw ourselves settling down here after soccer, raising our family here, making roots in this community, and with the opportunity arising of San Diego Wave, obviously it was really intriguing for me. I still wanted to wait and kind of see how ambitious the club was going to be, what the next steps they were going to do to, start gathering a team, seeing where the training facility, where the stadium was going to be, what kind of hiring they were going to have, and they've pretty much hit the nail on the head every single time with all of the questions that I had. And that kind of secured any real question marks I had about the club, and looking forward I'm just really excited because I know that this is a super ambitious club.
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Grant Wahl:
So here's what we know so far about the San Diego Wave. Jill Ellis is running the club, Casey Stoney is the coach, players so far include you, Abby Dahlkemper, Jodie Taylor, a few others. How good do you think this team can be in its first season?
Alex Morgan:
Honestly, I think we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world right now [Kailen Sheridan] performing at her peak. We have Abby, one of the best defenders in the world. We have, you've just checked a lot of the boxes. So obviously there was no playing it safe with this club. I think they really went and got the players that they were looking for. I'm very grateful to be one of those players, and I'm also looking forward to tomorrow [Thursday’s expansion draft] and seeing what other teammates we're going to have.
Grant Wahl:
What do you know about Casey Stoney as a coach, as a person?
Alex Morgan:
I know that when I spoke with Christen [Press] and Tobin [Heath] last year when we were all playing in the Women's Super League that they said that Manchester United and Casey were both very ambitious. I think that she took that club as a really young club from the women's side to a top four club in the Women's Super League in a very short period of time, had a lot of great signings. Being a defender, she really wants to make sure that she has her back line nailed down, and you could already see that with some of the signings here. So I think in general, there's still a lot I have to learn from Casey, in who she is as a coach and a person, but I love what she's brought forward thus far and obviously the club made a great decision in hiring her.
Grant Wahl:
You've played for quite a few clubs over the years. Do you think this is your last stop in club soccer?
Alex Morgan:
I see this as my final stop. I think that this is kind of for me a coming home and is something that I see a long-term move in a long-term partnership with this club, both on the soccer piece but also the business side. And so with that in mind, I do see myself not only being a player, but a supporter after my career as well with this club.
Grant Wahl:
Have you thought about what you might want to do post-playing career?
Alex Morgan:
I've thought here and there, yeah, I've been building that out a little bit, obviously with my content company Together and a couple other interesting things that I've started to venture into, but I also really want to focus on playing because it's still what I love to do every single day.
Grant Wahl:
So it's the end of the year right now, it's always a good time at the end of the year to look back at the year just past, you had a very public, very admirable role in supporting Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly when they told their story about coach Paul Riley's sexual abuse and coercion with them to The Athletic, but you also went on national TV with them to support them. What led to you deciding to take such a significant role with that support?
Alex Morgan:
Just really being Mana’s teammate and knowing what she went through and the abuse and the harassment that she endured and the steps that she took, which were the right steps, every single step along the way, was the right thing to do. And she was failed by coaches, by owners, by the league. And I thought this isn't right. If someone's trying to stand up for themselves and also at the consequence of possibly even losing their job at it, and they still can't get that person removed from their job because of the abuse of power that Paul Riley clearly had, then what else could she do? She cut her career short because of that.
And so I wanted to not only be a good friend and ally, but I also wanted to use the voice that I have and the platform I have to just give her the microphone. And honestly, when I initially was interviewed for the piece by Meg [Linehan], I didn't quite realize how big it could possibly be and that I would really be the only named person that wasn't firsthand harassed or abused by Paul, but it was really important for me to show solidarity with Mana and Sinead, and I think that a lot has changed, but still needs to change in the NWSL and in women's sports in general.
Grant Wahl:
That was my next question, just how do you feel right now about the NWSL and its teams’ ability moving forward to get things right and protect their players?
Alex Morgan:
Part of me is extremely optimistic, and part of me makes me want to just roll my eyes or shake my head with disappointment. I was really, really hopeful with the CBA negotiations and the updates that we've been given, and it seems like there's kind of been a stall after the season ended and after the NWSL championship was concluded. It's extremely important to get that done soon, because players need to sign contracts, teams need to know what sort of salary caps and limits and things that they're going to have. The league needs to continue to hire more people to have more brains in the room.
That's the reason they failed us. So many times you had Lisa [Baird, the former NWSL commissioner] and Lisa [Levine, the former NWSL general counsel] in the room, bouncing ideas off each other, getting emails from Mana and Sinead telling them this is not right, you have a man still abusing women, and this needs to change, and then just flat out ignoring those emails.
It's just really disgusting, but anyways, it's just two people in the room, it's just not enough. The league needs more people. There needs to be a better system in place to help these clubs succeed. The clubs can only do so much, the league needs to stand up and set a good standard, and I want to be proud of the league that I play in, that I have played in for the last nine years. And I feel like as much as we might be starting over, as long as we can start over the right way, I'll be happy.
Grant Wahl:
Just wanted to wind up with a question about the U.S women's national team. I know there are still things you want to achieve, you're a very goal oriented person whenever I've covered you. What are your goals for the U.S women's national team moving forward?
Alex Morgan:
Personally, or...
Grant Wahl:
Personally and the team.
Alex Morgan:
I mean, team, obviously we have World Cup qualifiers in the summer, so it's dominating that, it's having the best team to go to the World Cup and get a fifth star. For me personally, it's contributing to making sure that that happens. Not going to Australia in the November games was difficult, but it was also a needed rest for me, it was kind of a step back and a way for me to kind of reset, change my life from the East Coast to the West Coast, and looking forward I want to contribute in the best way possible, and that's both on and off the field.
I feel like it was a little rushed coming back from pregnancy and giving birth in terms of kind of being in with the team quickly after, but not really I feel like settling in my role as much as I wanted to. So I want to do everything I can to contribute to this team's success, and yeah, I really just look forward to this next year and the challenges that will arise.
Grant Wahl:
Lots to look forward to in 2022, Alex Morgan has just joined the San Diego Wave of the NWSL. Alex, congratulations and thanks for coming on the show.
Alex Morgan:
Thanks Grant.