Ex-UCLA standout McCall Zerboni was one of the last cuts for the U.S. team that won the World Cup, but she's done plenty to boost the growth of women's soccer.
Zerboni dove headfirst into her club season with the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL. While the U.S. national team stars were across the Atlantic and making a run to a second straight World Cup title, Zerboni helped fill their void. Her team is 3-0-1 since the beginning of June. Her presence gave the league a much-needed recognizable face.
A seventh-round draft pick in the WPS, Zerboni played in Los Angeles and Atlanta before signing with the Western New York Flash in Buffalo for the 2011 season. She helped her team to a league title that year, then settled into an even busier offseason schedule. The feeling has become familiar in the U.S. women’s soccer community. The Women’s World Cup has captivated fans every four years over the last three decades, but cultivating permanent popularity in professional domestic leagues has been a struggle. Like a flower shunned from sunlight, the sport for a long time lived largely in the dark, fighting to fully flourish. The loss of the WPS — which wasn’t replaced by the NWSL until a full year later — drove many veterans from the game.
“You look around and you’re living out of your car and an apartment with no furniture. Those are the times that you say, ‘Is this really worth it? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?’ ” Zerboni said. “There’s been times where I felt like giving up, but there was always a flicker of a flame in my heart that told me to not give up, stay with it.”As her career has started to soar, Zerboni is seeing the NWSL grow too.
“There is an absolute reason that I’m here this summer with my club team,” she said. “There’s so many eyes on women’s soccer right now. And I think they’re really enjoying the product.”
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