Go behind the scenes with Team USA soccer star Alex Morgan as she prepares for her shoot as Katy Perry for the upcoming ESPN The Magazine music issue.

What was your initial thought on remaking this cover?

When I was brought the idea to recreate an album cover, I was excited about it right away. I’ve heard some of what the other covers are and it’s really cool. It’s such a a great idea. And look what I am dressed as — it’s a little ridiculous.

Take me through the selection process.

There were quite a few album covers but not too many female iconic covers — but I love Katy Perry. There were a couple of other choices but I just gravitated toward this one. The cover is cute and fun. It’s a great shoot — such a fun background and I never get to wear an outfit like this.

What do you like about Katy Perry?

I love how she is so fun; her music is cool for me to work out to, have fun with your girlfriends — so I love that part of it. And obviously I watched her movie. I will say, you gotta watch the movie.

Favorite Katy Perry song? 

“I Kissed a Girl.” My dad was listening to it back then. It’s like she came out of nowhere.

What do you think you have in common?

I don’t have a voice like her, I don’t really look like her — though I kinda do now. I would say there are a lot of differences. Our fans are the same age — a lot of young girls look up to me, and I do know her concerts are filled with young people, so that’s probably the similarity. Even though I’m a fan, she appeals to that young generation.

What was the transformation process like?

Hair and makeup took quite a while. I love the lips, I love the curls. This shoot was 75 percent getting ready, 25 percent shoot. The shot was one and done. It was perfecting every little detail the whole shoot: Sit this way, don’t move, raise your eyebrows, move this.

How is your eyebrow-raise game?

That’s something I was trying to perfect, the eyebrow raise. I’m trying really hard. Hopefully we got it.

What was your favorite part of the shoot?

Looking at the shot afterwards and comparing mine and seeing what we got. Look at these clothes — they’re exactly the same.

What role does music play in your life?

Music is so huge to soccer, to my life, to working out. I usually have headphones when I’m cleaning the house or making dinner. Whatever it is, there’s always music going; I’m always looking for new music — and it’s different types of music. When I’m hanging out at the house, that’s going to be different music than when I’m getting ready for the game. Music is a big part of my life, and I’m always open to new recommendations.

What gets you hyped? 

I feel like it’s a lot of pop music — Katy Perry, Rihanna. Music that you can get up and dance to, you know the words, it’s easy to sing along to, having fun — your adrenaline is starting to build. That sort of music. The head-banging music gives me a headache. Katy Perry is fun, Rihanna, old-school ’90s hip-hop. Salt-N-Pepa. I like listening to that. Get the nerves out before the games.

SOURCE: ESPN

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• Photoshoots & Portraits > 040

Jacksonville, Fla. is the site for the first U.S. WNT event of 2013 as the team begins its new cycle with some physical testing and the first on-field session under new head coach Tom Sermanni. We hear from Sermanni, veteran Abby Wambach, first-time call-up Crystal Dunn and defender Ali Krieger, who makes her return to the field after a year absence.

Alex attended the 78th Annual MTR Western Sports Star of the Year alongside Servando Carrasco on January 28 and photos have been added to the gallery. Enjoy!

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• Appearances > 2013 > January 28 | 78th Annual MTR Western Sports Star of the Year

AYSO is pleased to announce that U.S. Soccer star and AYSO alum Alex Morgan is the new face of AYSO’s Great Soccer Starts Here campaign!

Through her successful soccer career, Alex inspires countless young girls to join AYSO and chase their dreams. AYSO is proud to have her as one of our featured faces.

Alex joins fellow Great Soccer Starts Here stars Landon Donovan, Shannon Boxx, Carlos Bocanegra, Julie Foudy and more.

 

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CHICAGO (Jan. 22, 2013) – U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Tom Sermanni has named the 29 players for a training camp leading into the USA’s first two matches of 2013, on Feb. 9 in Jacksonville, Fla., and Feb. 13 in Nashville, Tenn. The USA will face Sermanni’s native country of Scotland in both games.

Sermanni, who was appointed the new head coach of the USA at the end of October, will be coaching in his first event with the U.S. team. He named 17 of the 18 players who helped the USA to the Olympic gold medal in London last summer, as well as numerous players with previous National Team experience and a handful of young talented players.

“I’m excited to get out on the field and work with the team for the first time,” said Sermanni. “For this particular part of the cycle, it’s important to look at the established players in the squad but also the up-and-coming players and the ones who we think have the potential to really fight for positions on the team. For me, this period is really about observation and evaluation of some players who I know very well, some I’ve seen play only a bit and some who I will be seeing in a competitive environment for the first time.”

Forwards Abby Wambach, the 2012 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year, and Alex Morgan, the 2012 U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year, are coming off a stellar year in which they combined for 55 goals, tying a 21-year-old U.S. record for most goals by two players in a calendar year.

The training camp also marks the return of defender Ali Krieger to the U.S. team for the first time since she suffered a serious knee injury during the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Canada just over a year ago. Krieger, one of the heroes of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team, played the past five years in Germany and has returned to the USA to play in the NWSL for the Washington Spirit.

Several players who have been battling to make WNT rosters over the past few years and who have recently been playing in Europe were called up for the start of 2013: midfielder Yael Averbuch, who is playing for FC Göteborg in Sweden; defender Whitney Engen, who signed with Liverpool FC in England; goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, who was playing for FCR Duisburg in Germany and has been allocated to the Washington Spirit; midfielder Keelin Winters who was playing for FCC Turbine Potsdam in Germany and has been allocated to the Chicago Red Stars; and forward Christen Press, the 2010 MAC Hermann Trophy winner at Stanford, who was second in scoring in Sweden’s First Division last season, scoring 17 league goals and 25 in all 2012 competitions for FC Göteborg. She recently transferred to Tyresö FF.

Press was an alternate on the 2012 Olympic Team along with midfielder Lori Lindsey and goalkeeper Jill Loyden, who were also called up for the camp.

Looking to the next generation, Sermanni named two of the stars of the U.S. team that won the 2012 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan last summer. Sermanni has given first full National Team call-ups to University of North Carolina defender Crystal Dunn, who played a dominating tournament at right back and assisted on the winning goal in the 1-0 World Cup Final victory against Germany, and to Santa Clara University defender Julie Johnston, the U.S. captain and winner of the Bronze Ball as the third-best player in the tournament, a rare achievement for a defender. Dunn recently won the MAC Hermann Trophy as the best player in college soccer. Dunn and Johnston are both 20 years old and have one year of college eligibility remaining.

Sermanni also called up 21-year-old midfielder Kristie Mewis, who was picked third overall in the NWSL College Draft by FC Kansas City. She has logged extensive training time with the U.S. team but has yet to earn a cap. She was the 2008 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year.

The youngest player called up is 17-year-old goalkeeper Jane Campbell, who was the starter for the USA at the 2012 Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan. Campbell, who allowed just one goal in three matches at the World Cup and shut out eventual champion France, becomes the youngest goalkeeper called into the full National Team since an 18-year-old Hope Solo participated in her first training camp in 1999. The 5-foot-9 Campbell will not turn 18 until Feb. 17. Campbell is the first high school-aged player to be called into the full U.S. Women’s National Team since forward Amy Rodriguez, who debuted at the Algarve Cup in Portugal in 2005. Midfielder Heather O’Reilly, who currently has 179 career caps, was called up at the age of 17 in 2002.

Additional Notes:

• From the 29-player training camp roster, Sermanni will name 18 players to suit up for each of the two matches against Scotland.
• The only 2012 Olympic Team member and 2012 Olympic Team alternate who were not named to the camp are defenders Amy LePeilbet and Meghan Klingenberg, respectively. LePeilbet has a lingering knee injury and Klingenberg is still recovering from shoulder surgery.
• Midfielder Tobin Heath, who recently signed with Paris Saint-Germain in France; midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who is playing for Olympique Lyonnais in France; goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, who still has commitments with her German club; and midfielder Christen Press, who is playing in Sweden, will not attend the entire training camp. All four should be available for selection for both matches.
• Goalkeeper Jane Campbell will attend training camp for only the first week leading up to the first match against Scotland on Feb. 9.
• Abby Wambach currently has 198 caps and defender Rachel Buehler has 98. Should both play in both games against Scotland, they would hit 200 and 100, respectively, in the match in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 13.
• Wambach, who has 152 career goals, is six goals away from tying Mia Hamm as the world’s all-time leading international scorer.
• This will be the first U.S. WNT event since the players were allocated to their NWSL clubs.
• The training camp will also take on added significance as U.S. head coach Tom Sermanni will be evaluating players to choose his roster for the 2013 Algarve Cup in Portugal that will run from March 6-13.
• Six players on the roster are uncapped: GK Jane Campbell, D Crystal Dunn, GK Ashlyn Harris, M Kristie Mewis, F Christen Press and M Keelin Winters.

U.S. Women’s National Team Training Camp Roster by Position
GOALKEEPERS (5): Nicole Barnhart (FC Kansas City), Jane Campbell (Concorde Fire South), Ashlyn Harris (Washington Spirit), Jill Loyden (Sky Blue FC), Hope Solo (Seattle Reign FC)
DEFENDERS (9): Rachel Buehler (Portland Thorns FC), Crystal Dunn (North Carolina), Whitney Engen (Liverpool FC), Julie Johnston (Santa Clara), Ali Krieger (Washington Spirit), Heather Mitts (Boston Breakers), Kelley O’Hara (Sky Blue FC), Christie Rampone (Sky Blue FC), Becky Sauerbrunn (FC Kansas City)
MIDFIELDERS (10): Yael Averbuch (Göteborg FC), Shannon Boxx (Chicago Red Stars), Lauren Cheney (FC Kansas City), Tobin Heath (Portland Thorns FC), Lori Lindsey (Washington Spirit), Carli Lloyd (Western NY Flash), Kristie Mewis (FC Kansas City), Heather O’Reilly (Boston Breakers), Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC), Keelin Winters (Chicago Red Stars)
FORWARDS (5): Sydney Leroux (Boston Breakers), Alex Morgan (Portland Thorns FC), Christen Press (Tyresö FF), Amy Rodriguez (Seattle Reign FC), Abby Wambach (Western NY Flash)

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Alex Morgan, one of the biggest stars of the U.S. Women’s National Team’s run to the World Cup finals and an Olympic gold medal, will be among the players in the new women’s professional soccer league that will launch this spring. But before she and the other players take the field, Morgan wants to ensure that the players have a strong collective bargaining presence.

Morgan, whose salary will be guaranteed by U.S. Soccer, the sport’s American governing federation, doesn’t have to worry about the money the league will pay her. Other women will, though, as concerns have arisen that some players will have to take second jobs to make ends meet. And those are the players Morgan is fighting to protect with the collective bargaining process, she told ESPN:

“We’re still looking to finalize our negotiations with U.S. Soccer, both the women’s national team contract and the [contract with the] league,” Morgan said of the details still to be worked out for the national team as a whole and the participation of those players, subsidized by U.S. Soccer, in the NWSL. “And we’re hoping that is going to be solved in a timely manner so we can focus all of our efforts on the league and getting it started in March.” [...]

“When I was drafted [in WPS], I wasn’t really sure what went on and what kind of salaries are given, what the quality of the team was — not only in terms of players, but coaching staff, training staff, training facility, that sort of stuff,” Morgan said. “Now being on this side of it, we really wanted to not only fight for us, but also those players not on the national team that didn’t really have a say. We had to be their voice. I think it’s finding that middle ground between sacrificing a little bit of what we want for the betterment of the league and for all of the players.“

Most of the focus on the new women’s league has been on how to achieve sustainability, and how to make it past the third season that doomed the previous two leagues. And as important as Morgan and other stars are to that success, people I’ve talked to who are familiar with the previous leagues have told me that sustainability ultimately relies on building an all-around brand separate from just the big names. So while Morgan and the stars may give the league some flash, the players you’ve never heard of will be as much a part of its backbone as anyone if it hopes to survive.

And if those players make up a significant part of the backbone, sustainability may also depend at least in part on making the league sustainable for them. Skimpy budgets and lower salaries may be an unfortunate reality in the league’s infancy, but achieving sustainability and giving women a professional place to play soccer won’t do much good in the long run if most of the players won’t make enough money to live.

Collective bargaining has played an important role in making sure that sports leagues benefit not just stars like Morgan but also the players on the end of the bench too. It’s encouraging, both for those women and for the overall future of the league, that a young star like Morgan already realizes that the league’s survival doesn’t just depend on her success, but also on the success of players who aren’t as gifted and well-known as she is.

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Two photos of Alex and Kelley at the FA Cup after the gold medal match back in August, has been added to the gallery. Enjoy!

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• Appearances > 2012 > August 11 | FA Cup

Here is a first look at the cover of Saving the Team, the kickoff title in a middle-grade series by Alex Morgan, member of the 2012 U.S. Women’s Olympic gold medal-winning soccer team, who joins the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns this spring. Due from Simon & Schuster in May, her novel launches The Kicks, a series about four soccer-playing girls that underscores the importance of believing in oneself and working as a team.

The proposal for the series arrived in the in-box of Kristin Ostby, editor at S&S Books for Young Readers, the day after Morgan scored the game-clinching goal in the August 6 semi-final faceoff against Canada. “Her presence was bigger than ever, and the pitch couldn’t have come at a better time,” Ostby says. “As a former soccer player and a real fan of the women’s national team, I was very excited to have this proposal cross my path. What really appeals to me about the series is that it embodies the idea that you can be a girl and be an athlete. For middle-school girls, sports are often as important as friends, school, and boys, and I very much liked the way Alex makes sports an important and integral part of her characters’ lives.”

As Bookshelf reported in August, Ostby signed Morgan for three novels in a deal brokered by Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment for world English and audio rights. Saving the Team has an announced first printing of 75,000 copies.

The author developed the idea for The Kicks with James Frey, founder of intellectual property company Full Fathom Five, whose soccer-playing daughter is a fan of Morgan. “I know that there are not many books or series, if any, that teach girls the importance of team sports at a young age,” Morgan says. “When I was first approached by James Frey about the idea, I was immediately interested.”

To write Saving the Team and devise the story arc for the series, Morgan drew on her own experiences as well as those of her friends. “It was easy for me to turn to my teammates for real-life experiences to help shape the story,” she says. “Everyone was open about her experiences as a girl and young teenager. We were all raised differently, and our outlook on life may differ greatly, but we all have one thing in common: our love for the game of soccer.”

Ostby believes that the newly revealed cover, designed by associate art director Krista Vossen, perfectly captures the gist of The Kicks. “It conveys the main characters’ athletic spirit, but a certain girliness as well, and shows that the two can go hand-in-hand,” Ostby says. “And Devon, the main character, looks quite a bit like Alex on the cover. She’s even wearing a pink headband, which is Alex’s trademark. In fact, wearing pink headbands on the soccer field has become a trend across the country, which is kind of neat to see.”
Morgan also believes the cover reflects the spirit of Saving the Team and its message, noting, “I love the cover because it encapsulates everything about the sport: teamwork, friendship, and happiness.”

She recognizes the significance of her role as a model for girls – as a soccer powerhouse and now an author. “The situation I am in right now is a unique one, and it is special knowing that so many young girls look up to my teammates and me,” she says. “I want to do whatever I can to help them succeed. There are so many athletes I looked up to while growing up, and that helped me to get to where I am today. It is now so important that I give back, that I encourage as many girls as I possibly can to believe in themselves, and to follow their dreams.”

She’s competed for World Cups, won gold in the Olympics, but in the Spring of 2013 Alex Morgan will face a brand new task: Being one of the faces of the brand new National Women’s Soccer League as a member of the Portland Thorns FC. Morgan joined the BFT on Thursday to talk about the new league and her impressions of the city of Portland.

To say Alex Morgan is popular outside the world of soccer would be an understatement– the 23 year-old has posed in the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated, walked the runway at New York’s Fashion Week and surpassed a million followers on Twitter.

Still, at her core Morgan is a soccer player; one that will be donning a number thirteen jersey when she suits up for the Portland Thorns this spring – at least she hopes that’s the number she’ll be wearing.

“Hopefully no one’s going to steal that from me,” Morgan joked.

When asked why she chose the number, Morgan explained that not only was she thirteen years-old when she first started playing youth club soccer, no one else wanted to wear the number.

“Everyone had the lower numbers, and I was like, ‘Hey, why not? I mean, it’s unlucky for everyone else but let’s try it out for me,’” said Morgan. “I stuck with it ever since, and now it’s my lucky number.”

Lucky indeed. Morgan has gone on to become one of women’s soccer’s biggest, youngest and most successful stars; as evidenced by the whirlwind tour she went on once the 2012 Summer Olympics – in which Morgan and the U.S. Women’s National Team won gold – concluded. Morgan talked about the multitude of events and opportunities available all across the United States, as well as all the high number of frequent flier miles she accumulated from all the travel. One of those opportunities came in the form of walking the aforementioned runway in New York’s Fashion Week. When asked to compare the pressure of walking on the runway to walking into London’s famed Wembley Stadium for a match, Morgan assured there was no comparison.

“I’ve played soccer my whole life, and I know [Wembley]’s the biggest stage I’ve ever been on, but at the same time I prepare myself for that every day,” said Morgan. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into, walking down the runway in heels, in a dress… that was definitely out of my comfort zone.”

When the conversation transitioned back into her comfort zone of soccer, Morgan was asked about her impressions of Portland. Despite only visiting the Rose City a handful of times, Morgan was quick to praise it as a great soccer city, as well stating how much she liked Jeld-Wen Field.

As the interview was nearing its end, Morgan emphasized how important it was for the fans to come out and support the Thorns in force, so as to help the NWSL to succeed where previous US women’s soccer pro leagues have failed. Ultimately, Morgan expressed her enthusiasm for the start of the new league.

“I’m excited, I hope everyone else is, and I really hope to see a great reception.”

To listen to the full interview, click HERE

Haute Hollywood and Olympic athletes came face to face over the weekend to join forces for Equinox Sports Club’s inaugural “Gold Meets Golden” event.

Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Jon Bon Jovi, Ryan Kavanaugh and Stacy Keibler hosted the brunch in order to welcome 25 Gold Medal Olympians to Los Angeles.

The athletic attendees included swimmers Missy Franklin, Natalie Coughlin, Nathan Adrian, Rebecca Soni and Tyler Clary, gymnasts Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman; figure skater Evan Lysacek; volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings; soccer player Alex Morgan; track & field’s Allyson Felix and Will Claye; paralympian sprinter April Holmes; and water polo’s Merrill Moses.

Rounding out the athletes were Olympic legends Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Lenny Krayzelburg, Greg Louganis, Al Joyner and John Naber

Scott Orlin (HFPA) and Charley Walters (CW3PR) and Olympian John Naber all gave speeches at the event, which was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble (Crest) as well as Natrol, MRI Performance, W Hotels, Fisker Automotive and Relativity Media.

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• Appearances > 2013 > January 12 | Gold Meets Golden