Time marches on, and in its wake leaves moments for us to process, understand, accept, feel, cherish, anguish, and shed tears over — happy and sad. It’s rather unfair. It keeps marching, unfazed, while the rest of us try in vain to find its pause button. Every now and then, though, time barrels past a moment that becomes an anchor. It is impossible to move on without even time itself stopping to acknowledge what has happened. Waking up to the retirement of Christen Press is one such moment in the soccer world. Her career on and off the pitch is too valuable, too vibrant, and too influential for time to not be stopped time in its tracks.
Christen Press cannot be discussed without acknowledging all that she is, and all that she means. She’s both a product of American soccer (Stanford, USLW, WPS, NWSL, UWSNT), and a product of being failed by American soccer — repeatedly. She developed a game that reached rare heights of precision and execution, joy and elation, suspense and audacity. She was an icon of Black women’s soccer in this country. And, when she was ready — a lesson given without a word spoken, a Christen Press specialty — she became an outspoken gay icon as well.
As a result, Press means many things to many people. To the U.S. Soccer Federation she represents a force they could never contain. She represents and highlights their failures, and refusal to accept them without unprecedented legal pressure and force. To young Black stars from Trinity Rodman to Alyssa Thompson, she is a blueprint. During her rookie year Rodman noted that she wanted to emulate the skills of Tobin Heath and Christen Press, due to the joy and technical ability infusd in their individual games.
Thompson felt Press’ impact more deeply, skipping college to turn pro and landing alongside Press at Angel City. It was an online joke that Thompson was enrolled in the Christen Press School of Shooting, but you don’t have to squint at all to see the influence. Setting up defenders with chops and feints, using their bodies to hide the flight of curlers across the goalkeeper until it’s too late—it’s there. In fact, even Thompson’s move to Chelsea feels in part guided by lessons absorbed from Press: know your worth, never stop growing.
Press is one of those rare figures who have a mysterious and deep wisdom about them. It means that when she speaks people listen, but more to the point, when she doesn’t speak, people listen to that too. This made her a key figure on one of the best teams of all time: the 2019 USWNT.
The LFG documentary reveals Press as an emotional pillar behind the scenes. While Megan Rapinoe was the outward, pink-haired manifestation of the team’s defiance, with an iconic goal celebration whose performances ensured she had several moments to use it, Press was the grounding energy behind the team’s inner defiance. Her perfect understanding of timing and the needs of a moment weren’t always behind the scenes, when necessary they also extended to the pitch. In the team’s tense semifinal match with England, Press eased the pressure by finding the back of the net ten minutes in.
It’s rare that one career can give so much. On the pitch, we got to witness sheer brilliance time and again. Press’ crafty game drew audiences into every touch of the ball. Off the pitch she shed light on U.S. Soccer Federation, the NWSL and Chicago (then-Red) Stars’ enabling of Rory Dames. She was punished, but she was right. Dames even retaliated by sending her to Houston in a trade, back when a player’s “rights” were tradable assets in the league. Press informed her supposed new team that she would be playing overseas in Sweden instead. Upon her return, it happened again. This time being left unprotected by Utah Royals ahead of an expansion draft, Racing Louisville acquired her “rights” once again. Press then left for Europe, landing at Manchester United with Tobin Heath, and selling more of their shirts than Nike could keep up with.
Much of the progress U.S. Soccer and the NWSL has seen over the past few years doesn’t happen if Press was a degree less principled than she was forced to be. None of it should have been her job or responsibility, but she accepted it anyway, despite consequences to her own career. Press dared to have the audacity to believe that following the dream of playing soccer shouldn’t require participation in systems rigged to make her powerless. This “radical” belief often made her a pariah, but it’s also why time will carry her legacy forward as it begins to march again.
One of Press’ most classically prototypical Christen Press Goals was punctuated by Sebastian Salazar belting, “Christen Press! What have you done?” Now that she’s retiring, and we’re forced to look back on the entirety of her career, the question can also be used as the framework to asses her career. So if, one last time, we ask, Christen Press, what have you done? The truest answer is: More than we can ever thank her for.
