Ali Krieger

“You never know when it's going to be your last time to step onto the field.”

“I usually have three fried eggs every morning. It always has to be three: two is just not enough, and three won't put me over edge.”

“The World Cup focus is football. Team U.S.A. is more than football.”

“I have learned the hard way that concussions are not fun.”

“As an athlete in my sport, you always want to go to an Olympics.”

“In general, taking soccer out of the picture, as an American living overseas, it's so cool, and I've grown so much. Now I can look at my life from a different perspective.”

“It doesn't matter: any weight, shape or form or however your body is, you want to be proud of it.”

“I have fallen a few times, and each time, I have gotten up and grown as a person and looked at things a little differently.”

“In college, girls would come up to me: 'I want your calves.' It just makes me laugh. I guess people pay a lot of money to have the types of bodies athletes have.”

“I drink coffee 30 minutes before I want to nap. I think that really helps.”

“I always get made fun of by my teammates for my huge calves, but I'm like, 'they make me strong and fast!'”

“Everyone makes fun of my calves. They are so big. I don't really even like them, I don't really want them as big as they are, but I have no choice.”

“I'm proud of my body, I'm proud of my sport, I'm proud of being a female athlete.”

“Germany is where I had to become a true professional. They play in big games when they are young. We could model some of our soccer system after what they do.”

“Personally, I always try to focus on the little things in my game. As a defender and attacking outside back, I continuously work on completing passes, not being too predictable going forward into the attack, good services into the box, good positioning and footwork.”

“You can control two things: your work ethic and your attitude about anything.”

“It's a part of my lifestyle to be healthy and eat healthy. I don't feel like I need to be like, 'You can't have this. You can't have that. You have to have this. You have to have that,' because then I feel like I will get inconsistent. I indulge when I want to, but try to be healthy every single day, too.”

“I have to win, even if I'm just playing ping pong.”

“I'm the type of player that doesn't like to play on full stomach.”

“I am super close with my brother. He is my ultimate role model. Growing up and having a family break apart, you know, when my parents divorced and things like that, it was a struggle, and all we had was each other at the time.”