Julie Ertz

“I didn't want to go completely on my toes for our first kiss.”

“I model myself on Christie Rampone and look up to her. Obviously, achieving what she's achieved would be magnificent. I'd really like to meet her just once.”

“There were times when I tried to hide my muscles. When you're a young girl, you hear, 'You're really strong,' or, 'You have really toned arms.' In my head, it wasn't something that should be said about a girl. It should be more, 'You're pretty.'”

“The World Cup has been life-changing, for many reasons.”

“Sometimes I just have a chance to go forward, so of course I try to make the most of it.”

“I would love to see myself as versatile - I think that's important as a player - but I think, realistically, I feel like kind of how the team sees me is probably more set in stone as a center-back defender, which is totally fine.”

“Rampone and the other experienced players gave me plenty of support when I first came into the national team in 2013.”

“Everything happens for a reason, if you work hard for it.”

“Pilates and yoga, we always do those together. But I think it's a little bit easier for me, at 5-7, to be more flexible and to move a little better than him at 6-5.”

“I found people that were willing to push me. I was like, 'These are my goals. I need you to get me here.' I don't need any excuses. I won't make any excuses. I'm over making excuses.”

“We want the N.W.S.L. to grow. It is growing; it's continuously growing every year. We want it to be sustainable. It's separate in the sense that this is a U.S. Soccer thing, but the idea is to grow soccer in general, and we want to do that any way we can.”

“I think it's pretty crazy when I walk down in the airport and a 12-year-old boy comes up to me and says, 'Hey, I watched you at the World Cup. Great game! Great job!' I love that.”

“I would love to inspire our nation and continue the success of U.S. women's soccer.”

“To see fans cheering your name, that's shocking. I'm like, 'Wait, how do you know who I am?'”

“I loved being an attacker so much. I mean, it wasn't so much that I didn't think defending was fun or anything like that. It was just - growing up, that's kind of all I knew - was attack, attack, attack.”

“Zach takes care of his body so well, it's unbelievable. He's so meticulous, like OCD, in what he does.”

“I love everything about football. You can learn so much from it, from leadership qualities to discipline. This sport involves every kind of emotion.”

“It's important to be a soccer player in the sense of the whole vision - if you put me at forward, I can do it, or if you put me in midfield, I can do it.”