With her brace in the win over Alex Morgan and the Orlando Pride yesterday, Christen Press is now tied for third in National Women’s Soccer League history for career goals scored (32). That statistic is all the more impressive when you consider all of the NWSL time that Press has missed to due to international duty with the United States Women’s National Team.
She’s also the third leading all time scorer among currently active USWNT members, behind only Morgan and Carli Lloyd, who many consider to be the best overall current female soccer player in the world.
The Chicago Red Stars captain scored 12 goals for the Stars and Stripes last year, including a hat trick against Romania in November. The 27-year-old Palos Verdes, California native currently leads the league in both shots and shots on goal this season.
She’s helped lead the Red Stars to the top of the table, as they’re currently one point ahead of North Carolina (although NC currently has a game in hand on Chicago). The Red Stars are also undefeated at home this season. Press is achieving all this despite ankle problems too.
As Red Stars Coach Rory Dames pointed out after the victory yesterday, the high-scoring forward took a knock on a controversial play against Portland on April 29th and she’s “been in physical therapy three days a week since then because of how bad her ankle got blown up.”
Thus she’s still been producing despite not really being truly 100%.
However, she’s working hard to get there.
“I like p.t. a lot,” Christen Press said after the game.
“It’s nice to take care of your body and I’ve had problems with both of my ankles this season, I kinda can’t get then right because there’s just never time to take a break but I come out feeling better, to the next little tweak so we keep chugging along.”
Side note from the Red Stars 2-1 win yesterday-
Before the game, Press met the Orlando team Captain, Ali Krieger at midfield for the traditional hand-shaking between captains, only here it was actually a hug instead.
“Kriger and I are really good friends and we’ve played on the national team for a really long time so it’s always nice to see a familiar face, even when she’s the enemy,” Press said.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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