Football's female superstars have arrived in New Zealand.
For the first time ever, the United States women's team will play the Football Ferns in Wellington and Auckland in preparation for this year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
The four-time world champions boast an all-star roster filled with quality players and even celebrities, some of which were out and about taking in Aotearoa’s sights and sounds already.
Striker Alex Morgan joked Cyclone Hale had dampened the mood of the arrival a little bit though.
“I thought it was almost summer here and then it's like, well today is kind of beautiful,” she said.
Make no mistake though – this isn’t a holiday.
“We're here for one thing and that’s to get preparation in for the World Cup.”
Morgan takes that way of thinking to much of her life, having been a world and Olympic champion, a social media icon and advocate for equality in the women’s game.
“I think that everyone thinks we have this idea about ourselves like, ‘oh we are the best’ and this and that - of course we have high expectation but we're also players looking to grow and learn be the best version of ourselves.”
Morgan and her team mates have been pioneers in the growth of women's football with over 260 million watching them win the 2019 World Cup before they fought for equal pay with their male counterparts.
Captain Becky Sauerbrunn said it was an issue of pride, not pay.
“I think that women’s soccer in the US, we are proud of what we have done and we hope that we can help women’s soccer in general by bringing more eyes to it.”
They’ll certainly do that next week when they play the Football Ferns in Wellington on Wednesday at 4pm and Saturday in Auckland at the same time.
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