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After a Long Absence, Lori Chalupny Eyes World Cup

Despire a series of concussions, Lori Chalupny never lost her love for the game or her desire to compete at the highest level. She stands to earn her 100th cap today against Ireland.
BY John D. Halloran Posted
May 10, 2015
10:55 AM

HAVING BEEN RULED OUT of national team contention in 2009 after a series of concussions, Lori Chalupny continued to plug away in the American professional leagues, but saw no international call-ups between 2009 and late 2014.

Last December, however, U.S. women's national team coach Jill Ellis gave Chalupny, 31, another shot with the team after she passed a series of examinations by concussion experts. And last month Chalupny completed her comeback when she was named to the 23-player U.S. roster for the 2015 World Cup.

“It's been a whirlwind couple of months," Chalupny told American Soccer Now. "Just getting back on the team was a huge accomplishment for me. It's been crazy. It's been camp after camp trying to catch up to the speed of play. It's been tough, but to finally make it and get that call was a pretty special moment.

"It's definitely up there with the highlights of my career because of all the hard work and emotions that have gone into it.”

There have been plenty of highlights along the way, and if the St. Louis native plays in today's Send-Off Series match against Ireland (2:30pm ET, Fox Sports 1) it will mark her 100th appearance for the national team.

 

Chalupny represented the U.S. at the 2007 World Cup and the 2008 Olympics and after her 2009 injury figured it was only a matter of time before she returned to the team. When that didn't happen, she was forced to make her peace with the fact she might never play again for the national team.

“I did. I really did" think my national team career was over, Chalupny said. “At a certain point, for the first couple months or year, I was hoping it would all get cleared up and I would get back on the team. But after a while, you drive yourself crazy. You just have to focus on the things you can control. I had to put it out of my mind a little bit. I just had to enjoy playing soccer and enjoy the teams I was playing on.” 

After missing out on the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics, where the Americans won gold, Chalupny began to think a return to the team might be possible.

“As time went on and I was getting up there a little bit in age, it started to come back in my mind and that's when I decided to reach out to U.S. Soccer,” Chalupny said.

The long break from the international game has altered her view on wearing the Stars and Stripes.

“It makes it more rewarding this time around," Chalupny said. "When you start at such a young age and you're going through the system of the U-16 national team, the U-21 national team, then the full national team, you lose sight of what's going on. To take a step back and see what it's like without [the national team] and then getting called back in put it all in perspective for me.

"It's been a much more rewarding experience this time around.”

Chalupny said her current team, the Chicago Red Stars, and head coach Rory Dames, are a big part of her recent success with the national team.

“I have nothing but respect for Rory and for the whole Chicago organization,” Chalupny said. “I've been there four seasons now and I've done more as a player in those four years than ever [before]. Having a coach that really believes in you and also an owner that cares about the game and cares about the players—it's been so much fun to play there. It's really helped me.”

One aspect that makes Chalupny’s return to the national team even more remarkable is that she survived the collapse of Women’s Professional Soccer, which folded following the 2011 season. At the time Chalupny faced the prospect of no top-tier professional league in the United States and was excluded from the training resources available to the national team players.

Despite the absence of a domestic league, Chalupny never considered retirement.

“I just knew that I wasn't done," she said. "There was a period of time we didn't know where we were going to play. The WPS folded and there was nothing for a couple of weeks. Everybody was scrambling to figure things out. That's when I ended up going to Chicago which turned out to be a great decision.

“What motivated me was that I wasn't done. I love soccer and I love playing. I felt like I still had some good years in me and I wanted to figure it out, whether that was going overseas or playing in [semi-pro] WPSL. I wanted to continue playing.”

She does acknowledge that making a living in soccer is difficult for women in the United States, particularly for those not in the national team pool. 

“That's gotten a lot of attention lately with the NWSL and the pay structure—you hear a lot about players retiring early. It's tough, it's really tough to make ends meet as a professional soccer player when you're not on the national team,” Chalupny said. “But I think that's kind of a neat experience for fans and everyone to see. We're not playing to make millions [of dollars], the people in the league are playing because they love soccer and because they want to grow the game. They want to be a part of something that could grow to be really special one day.

"Everybody knows that we're sacrificing now, but hopefully we can grow the league into something that's sustainable and hopefully one day people can really make a living doing it.”

The 2015 NWSL season is the league’s third—the same number of seasons both the WUSA and WPS operated for before folding. However, Chalupny, like many others, believes the NWSL has a bright future.

“It's much stronger and the owners and management have been very smart in their decision making," she said. "It's been a little more conservative as far as spending goes, but that's where we have to start. It seems like everything is going well.

“We hear a lot of talk about expansion for next season. We love to hear that. The fact that they're already talking about next season, a lot of the veteran players realize that's a huge thing. The fact that we're talking about year four at this point is huge. It makes everyone happy.”

Despite how well Chalupny has played in NWSL over the past few seasons, she initially struggled at the international level. Her first games back with the U.S. were in the International Tournament of Brazil, where Ellis slowly increased her minutes. Still, in seven caps since last December, Chalupny has only gone the distance once.

“It was a big jump going from NWSL to [the national] team,” Chalupny said. “The last couple of months have been catch up for me—having to put in a little extra work on fitness and strength training to catch up to these girls. They're training year round, 12 months of the year, and in the pro leagues you just have a six-month season. Basically, it's a part-time job and you don't put in the hours that you do with the national team. It's definitely a step up in terms of athleticism and fitness and strength.”

But even with the six-month offseason in NWSL, Chalupny said that she has had plenty of motivation to succeed.

“There's an inner drive,” Chalupny said. “You don't get to be a professional soccer player unless you've got that something inside of you that wants to compete and wants to win. It's also your teammates. In the six-month long off-season, you're thinking about your teammates and the fact that they're putting in the work and we want to win. That's what really motivates me in the off-season is knowing that my teammates are doing it.”

One other change the University of North Carolina alum has faced going between club and international soccer, is a positional change. For the Red Stars, Chalupny usually plays as a holding midfielder, but for the U.S. she normally plays left back. 

 “It's still soccer—you know the positions, you know the game," she said. "But it was a difficult transition getting back on the national team and playing in the left back spot that I haven't played in five years. You see the game a little differently back there. It's a different game as far of risk/reward and making sure you're taking care of the defensive side of the ball first.”

After everything she’s been through with her concussions, Chalupny also has some advice for her fellow players dealing with head injuries.

“In sports, we reward people for being tough. You have a bump or a bruise and you gut it out and that's 'tough' and we admire people for doing that. And that's great, but a head injury is just completely different,” Chalupny said. “We shouldn't look up to players for getting back in the game after getting their head hit. Being really cautious is the best advice I can give. If you sit out an extra week or two in the short-term, it's going to benefit you long-term.

"It's hard, but that's the key—to take that rest before you get back out there.”

John D. Halloran is an American Soccer Now columnist. Follow him on Twitter.

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