If the U.S. Women’s National Team has anything to say about it, we might have to change Mother’s Day to July 22. That day, when the USWNT steps onto the pitch for its first game of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the squad that’s favored to win the Australia and New Zealand–cohosted tournament could include as many as five moms—among them stars Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, and Crystal Dunn.
“It’s so incredible,” says USWNT defender Casey Krueger, who gave birth to her son, Caleb, last July, and returned to playing this March. “It shows how far support for women’s soccer has come.” The USWNT has featured players who have had children before—Joy Fawcett was the first, in 1994—but the accommodations for and visibility of moms have improved over the years. Take the case of Kate Markgraf: In 2009, when she was pregnant with twins, she was placed on bed rest and subsequently told she would not be called back up to the squad. She wasn’t able to reclaim her spot until she signed a professional contract and proved her fitness. Afterward, Markgraf, a National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee who since 2019 has been the USWNT general manager, helped enact what is known informally as the Markgraf Rule, which gives players who have been medically cleared after giving birth the opportunity to come back and compete for their spots.
“If you see it, you know it can be done,” Markgraf says, noting that the team’s current stars set a highly visible example (Morgan alone has 10 million Instagram followers) of what women can achieve athletically after having children. “When they bring the kids on the road and onto the field, they’re utilizing their platform and the power that they have.”
While today’s players do serve as role models, when asked about returning after having children, they tend to focus on their love of the game. “I just got to a point where I was really missing soccer and thought that I had more to give to the sport,” Krueger says. “And I thought about being with those teammates and their kids, and how much I wanted that.” Ertz, who had her son, Madden, last August, echoed those sentiments in April, during her first postpartum USWNT virtual press conference. “Obviously coming back from pregnancy changes things, but I feel good,” the star midfielder said. “And I love the sport differently than I did. I thought I loved it then, but taking a step away and kind of having a new perspective has given me kind of a new drive.”
