Salisbury Players Inspired By USA Women's World Cup Stars

Salisbury Players Inspired By USA Women’s World Cup Stars

It’s not everyday that you get to watch your heroes dominate in some of the biggest games of their lives, but for a few local players, that is happening.

Heather Group is a player at Salisbury University who waits for these games every year and uses the games to train.

“I watch all their videos all the time, they are definitely an inspiration, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, and their newest player Julie Johnston, their defender, they’re just all amazing,” Group said.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international association football competition challenged by the senior women’s national teams of the members of FIFA. The championship has been awarded every four years since 1991 when the inaugural tournament was held in China.

USA WOMEN’S TEAM (PHOTO: FIFA)

After USA beat China 1-0 on Friday in the quarter-finals, USA is advancing to play Germany Tuesday night in the semi-finals. With the top two teams in the world, working towards a victory, there should be some interesting television on at 7 o’clock.
This is the first time, in a very long time that the United States is entering a Women’s World Cup semifinal as the underdogs, with the No. 2 ranking. Not only are Germany ranked No. 1, they are also the reigning UEFA Euro champions and the leading scorers in this competition.The last time these two teams met was in 2013, and United States beat Germany in the Algarve Cup final, then drew with them, 3-3, in a friendly rematch a few months later.

Germany (Photo: FIFA)

Although the team is going in as an underdog, Josh Burdin, who has been an underdog quite a few times in his life, doesn’t see this as a problem.

“I think for them, or at least in my case when I dealt with being an underdog, it was just more motivation, and I think that’s what they are going to go into the game tonight with, a lot of motivation. ”

A few key USA players in this game are Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan. After Lloyd rewarded Jill Ellis with a game winning goal against China and Morgan finally hitting full fitness, Germany will have to bring their A game.

Michelle Conrad is a goalie and she just can’t believe how far these girls have come.

“You kind of look at these women that are accomplishing so much at such a young age and it kind of makes you like want to be better and want to just train as hard as you can and just want to play for yourself cause our season is coming up quick,” Conrad said.

The game will be held at Olympic Stadium Montreal, Quebec on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET and you can bet that these girls will be glued to their TV’s during that time.